How Much Do We Know About Climate Change?
In and Outside the Classroom
Training programme on Urban Wetlands Management
September 25–28, 2018
Deluge and response
The floods in Mumbai and Texas show that both India and the US are underdeveloped in disaster response and preparednessBy: Vijeta Rattani CLIMATE CHANGE is increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events around the world, sparing no country. Research from the Washington-based National Climate Assessment establishes a direct link between a warmer climate and heavier downpours: hotter air can hold more moisture, meaning there’s more water available “for storms to wring out of the atmosphere”. Read more
On World Environment Day, CSE releases analysis of how India has warmed over the years - from 1901 till 2017
First animated climate spiral showing the warming of India Annual mean temperature in India has increased by 1.2 degrees C since the beginning of the 20th century. 2016 was second warmest year on record with temperature of 1.26 degrees C higher than Winters (Jan-Feb) of 2017 was hottest in recorded history with temperature of 2.95 degrees higher than the baseline.
The new extreme reality of floods
Floods are destroying vast parts of the country because of how we have mismanaged our floodplains
CSE PRESS NOTE: Chennai in crisis
Unregulated urbanisation and climate change-induced extreme weather are the reasons behind the crisis in Chennai: CSE
Speakers (Day 2)
Excreta Matters Newsletter
Himalayan blunders
The floods in the Himalayas have been ferocious and deadly. Fears are that the final body count could run into several thousands. There is no clear estimate of the number of villages wiped out, property destroyed, roads washed away and hydropower projects damaged in the mountain state of Uttarakhand. The mountains are bleeding and its people have been left battered, bruised and dead.
A tale of two cities
I travelled to two different cities in two different states last week—Indore and Guwahati. I came back with images identified by common distinctions: piles of garbage and glitzy new shopping malls. Is this our vision of urban development? There is no question that cities are imploding; growth is happening faster than we ever imagined. Construction is booming and expansion is gobbling agricultural land.
Weather dice is loaded
During my weekly conversation with my sister I told her about the unusual searing heat this June, the problems of power cuts and how we are coping in India. She, in turn, told me that in Washington DC, where she lives, there was a terrible storm that damaged her roof and uprooted trees in her garden. They were fortunate that they still had electricity, because most houses in the city were in the dark. She also said it was unbearably hot because the region was in the grip of an unprecedented heat wave.
Six sins that make drought invincible
It’s drought time again. Nothing new in this announcement. Each year, first we have crippling droughts between December and June, and then devastating floods in the next few months. It’s a cycle of despair, which is more or less predictable. But this is not an inevitable cycle of nature we must live with. These droughts and floods are man-made, caused by deliberate neglect and designed failure of the way we manage water and land. What we must note with concern is that these “natural” disasters are growing in intensity and ferocity.
Down To Earth Cover Story: Future shock
As the world continues to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the global temperatures could rise by 3°C by mid-century, says a soon-to-be-released report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Read more
Down To Earth Cover Story: Future shock
As the world continues to pump greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the global temperatures could rise by 3°C by mid-century, says a soon-to-be-released report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Read more
A monsoon warning
As I write this my city Delhi is drowning. It started raining early this morning and within a few hours the city has come to a standstill. The television is showing scenes of traffic snarled up for hours, roads waterlogged and people and vehicles sunk deep in water and muck. The meteorological department records that some 60 mm of rain has fallen in just about 6 hours; 90 mm in 24 hours; and with this the city has made up for its deficit of rainfall this season. In other words, in just about 24 hours Delhi and its surrounding areas got half as much rain as they would in the entire month of September. Delhi, like all growing cities of India, is mindless about drainage. Storm water drains are either clogged or do not exist. Our lakes and ponds have been eaten away by real estate. Land is what the city values, not water. So when it rains more than it should the city drowns.
Warming behind floods
By Vibha Varshney