News Daily: Plants and animals are shrinking because of warmer temperatures and lack of water, researchers said on Monday, warning it could have profound implications for food production in years ahead.

Climate change spawns the incredible shrinking ant

 

The Indian government has repeatedly talked of the need for ‘sustainable development’, in which environmental and human development concerns are integrated. Does the draft 12th Plan Approach Paper move India closer to this goal? Certainly, one’s hopes are raised when one reads its title, ‘Faster, more inclusive, sustainable growth’.

Is the 12th Plan Sustainable?

 

It was uncharacteristic of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, known to sit on pressing issues in the hope the problems would vanish, to tell an anti-nuclear delegation from Tamil Nadu on their face that he will not order stoppage of work at the Koodankulam Nuclear Project being set up by Russia, pending convincing the agitating people of the area about the safety of the VVER-1000 MWe reactors.

Time to scrap Koodankulam and start focusing on renewable energy

 

Chandrapur, Maharashtra:  India is in the midst of a massive power crisis with shortage of coal being cited as one of the key reasons. From today onwards, NDTV will provide a series of ground reports from across the country giving a glimpse of how power projects have come to a standstill due to lack of coal and other feedstock. The first place we start is in Chandrapur in Maharashtra.

Acute coal shortage creating power crisis across India

 

PUNE: Switzerland ambassador Philippe Welti said here on Tuesday that the Swiss embassy in India was committed to promoting partnership projects that seek to address common worries and challenges of global scale, like climate change.

Swiss ambassador bats for climate change adaptation

 

From the mighty polar bear to the tiny house sparrow, many of Earth’s species appear to be shrinking in size, a new study reports and its authors think that’s probably due to global warming. But other experts say that conclusion goes too far, blaming global warming for what may be natural
changes.

The new research was published online Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change. It’s based on a review of other studies and found that 38 of 85 animal and plant species showed a documented reduction in size over decades, including a type of Scottish sheep that is 5 % smaller than in 1985. Those studies looked at species over different time periods and in varying numbers.

‘Global warming causing shrinking ecosystem’

 

Current Science: The role of anthropogenic activities on climate change has emerged as a much debated issue globally. Although the climate has always been changing, and species and ecosystems have responded to these changes, it is the rapidly increasing rate of climate change which has been
of concern to the global community of late1. The Copenhagen climate change summit, held in December 2009, amply demonstrated the fact that climate change is one of the major challenges being faced by the international community2. Studies on climate change have indicated that global average temperature has shown an increase of approximately 1.4°F since the early 20th century3.

 A rapid inventory of indicators of climate change in the middle Himalaya

Bits of Science: If we can’t bring actual emissions down to within the IPCC projections range – than why don’t we bend the spectrum upwards. It’s easier.

Does that sound terribly fatalistic? We’re not saying it is happening, but we wouldn’t be surprised to find out, at the planned release of IPCC AR5 in 2013. After all, there will be geoengineering in it as well – another clear way to say hello to reality.

New IPCC report, raised emissions scenarios?

 

Tehelka: As Greenpeace completes 10 years in India, it chalks up its successes and faces some flak. Kunal Majumder looks at both sides of the story.

WHEN GREENPEACE India listed 33 successful campaigns to celebrate its first decade in the country, the Copenhagen meet on climate change held two years ago was missing from that list. That’s because Minister of State for Rural Development Agatha Sangma was refused permission by the Prime Minister’s Office to be present on one of Greenpeace’s six ships, Arctic Sunrise, for an alternative summit. Reason? There is no precedent for Indian ministers to attend events of ‘foreign’ NGOs.

Thus the government struck where it hurt the most. Since its inception in 2001, Greenpeace India has been struggling to get rid of the ‘foreigner’ tag — it prefers the word ‘international’. It doubled efforts to ‘Indianise’ itself — releasing press notes in Hindi, with a Hindi logo. So where does it stand now?

Changing the climate of apathy

 

NAGPUR: A recent notification by the ministry of environment and forests (MOEF) has left the industry, especially the coal sector, worried. Under the current order if an applicant is not able to get the clearance for using forest land, which has to be obtained from the state government within a year’s time, then the project’s environmental clearance (EC) will also stand cancelled.

Coal sector worried over recent MOEF guidelines