Climate change could lead to huge water shortages in southern India’s fertile Godavari river basin, a new study based on computer simulations shows. The study by scientists from India and Norway, started in February 2009, is part of several compiled into a book, ‘Water and Climate Change: an integrated approach to adaptation challenges’, released last month (1 February). 

It is the lesser known of the two framework conventions that emerged at the Rio Earth Summit of 1992; it also deals with a concept more difficult to comprehend. But the Convention on Biological Diversity is the international agreement that protects life on earth, and thereby, should be the base for all environmental discussions.

 

Biodiversity not adequately understood 

Under the Kyoto Protocol, the US was expected to lower its greenhouse gas emissions by more than 6% below the 1990 levels. Instead the world’s largest emitter’s emissions of climate-changing carbon dioxide increased by 14% between 1990 and 2010, according a draft report of the US government.

The Sunderbans, world heritage mangrove forests in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal, is becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change and government policies must take into account present and future climate impact to counter the scenario, said a recently released study.

 

Climate change affects world famous mangrove forests in eastern India: study 

Low-lying islands and coastlines around the world face a “perfect storm” of warming atmosphere and rising seas  If, as scientists predict, the oceans rise 1m or more before 2100 (United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change waters will inundate significant areas of low-lying islands and coastlines, causing widespread damage to public and private property, roads, communications, power installations, sewage facilities and airports. 

The Sunderbans, a world heritage site, is becoming increasingly vulnerable to climate change and government policies must take into account present and future climate impact to counter the scenario, says a study on the mangrove forests that straddle the Indian state of West Bengal as well as Bangladesh.

How will climate change affect the Indian monsoon in the coming years and decades? Given the crucial importance of the annual rains for the country’s food and water needs, scientists from 10 institutions in India and the UK have mounted the most comprehensive research exercise yet to answer that question.

New research findings confirm that impact of climate change is unfolding at a pace that is much quicker than predicted by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

With the Mobile World Congress 2012 underway at Barcelona where top telecom corporate leaders from emerging markets are addressing a tech gathering, environment organization Greenpeace on Tuesday released the briefing paper on International Green Telecom Leadership.

 

Vodafone scores high on climate leadership 

Melting sea ice in the Arctic may be causing the snowier winters the northern hemisphere has experienced in the last two seasons, US and Chinese researchers reported on Monday.

Melting Arctic causes snowier winters: Study