User: subbu Topic: Climate Change
Category: Impacts :: Storm
Last updated: May 18 2013 06:39 IST RSS 2.0
 
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UK's climate change adaptation team cut from 38 officials to just six 17.5.2013 Guardian: Environment
Former senior official John Ashton attacks government for 'spooking potential investors' in energy infrastructure The number of people employed by the government to work on the UK's response to the effects of climate change has been cut from 38 officials to just six, triggering accusations that David Cameron's promise to be the greenest government has been abandoned. The UK is facing a multi-billion pound bill over the next few years for the costs of adapting to the effects of climate change – including flooding , much fiercer storms, droughts, heatwaves and more extreme weather. The government's advisers, the Committee on Climate Change, have warned that the measures needed to prepare the UK's infrastructure will include defences for power stations, transport and communication networks, changes to how buildings are constructed, and new ways of trying to prevent flooding, such as an upgrade to the Thames Barrier. But the number of officials charged with dealing with the issue within the ...
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Arctic’s whistle-blower (Cached) 15.5.2013 Down to Earth

imageENVIRONMENTAL group Greenpeace has launched a website seeking to attract whistle-blowers from within oil companies to reveal risks with drilling in the Arctic. Greenpeace wants governments to ban oil and gas firms from the fragile Arctic environment. It urged employees of oil firms and sub-contractors to submit information to the website if they knew about risks that were in the public interest.

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Alaska's erosion accelerated by climate change 15.5.2013 Guardian: Environment

Warmer temperatures, heavy rain, flooding, sea-level rise and retreating sea ice are stealing the ground from beneath Alaskans' feet


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Move to safer ground is going too slowly 15.5.2013 Guardian: Environment

Tensions are running high in an Alaskan village immediately threatened by climate change


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Floods could 'overwhelm Thames Barrier by end of century' 14.5.2013 Guardian: Environment
Sea-level rises could send storm floods over the barrier if nothing is done to bolster the UK's flood defences Sea-level rises could send floods driven by storm surges over London's Thames Barrier regularly by the end of the century, if nothing is done to bolster the UK's flood defences, scientists warned on Tuesday. But around the world sea level rises from melting ice alone are likely to be "in the tens of centimetres" rather than several metres by 2100, as some outlying estimates had predicted, according to Ice2Sea , a project bringing together scientists from around Europe in order to improve predictions of sea level rises under climate change. The scientists also said there was only a one-in-20 chance that melting ice would contribute more than 84cm to sea level rises by 2100. Their work has helped to narrow down some of the vast differences in estimates of sea level rises. But their central estimate range is still large – that ice melting is likely to contribute between 3.5 to ...
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Newtok's residents race to stop village falling into sea 13.5.2013 Guardian: Environment

Newtok is losing ground to the sea at a dangerous rate. Unless its population can be relocated in time, an entire community will cease to exist and the villagers will become America's first climate refugees


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Climate change 'will make hundreds of millions homeless' 12.5.2013 The Guardian -- World Latest
Carbon dioxide levels indicate rise in temperatures that could lead agriculture to fail on entire continents It is increasingly likely that hundreds of millions of people will be displaced from their homelands in the near future as a result of global warming. That is the stark warning of economist and climate change expert Lord Stern following the news last week that concentrations of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere had reached a level of 400 parts per million (ppm). Massive movements of people are likely to occur over the rest of the century because global temperatures are likely to rise to by up to 5C because carbon dioxide levels have risen unabated for 50 years, said Stern, who is head of the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change. "When temperatures rise to that level, we will have disrupted weather patterns and spreading deserts," he said. "Hundreds of millions of people will be forced to leave their homelands because their crops and animals will have died. The trouble will ...
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Kerala coast vulnerable to tsunami inundation 9.5.2013 Hindu: Home
The entire stretch of the Kerala coast could be vulnerable to inundation caused by tsunami waves originating from different sources, a numerical modelling study of tsunami propagation in the South...
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Safe drinking water disappearing fast in Bangladesh 7.5.2013 Guardian: Environment
Extreme weather increases salinity of water in coastal areas while excessive demand in Dhaka leaves dwindling supply The availability of safe drinking water, particularly in Bangladesh's hard to reach areas, is expected to worsen as the country experiences the effects of climate change, experts say. According to a study by the World Bank's water and sanitation programme (pdf), about 28 million Bangladeshis, or just over 20% of the population, are living in harsh conditions in the "hard-to-reach areas" that make up a quarter of the country's landmass. The study found that char – land that emerges from riverbeds as a result of the deposit of sediments – is among the most inaccessible, along with hilly areas, coastal regions and haors – bowl-shaped wetland areas in north-east Bangladesh. "People living in hard-to-reach areas are often vulnerable to natural calamities like flooding, riverbank erosion and siltation," said Rokeya Ahmed, a water and sanitation specialist at the World Bank. ...
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Safe storage of water? Go underground. 6.5.2013 Deccan Herald - Supplements
Wise usage Experts are stressing the importance of building reservoirs below the ground. This will solve many of the difficulties associated with above-ground water shortage. Proponents say that the technology will only become more relevant with climate change. When cities store water for future use, they often use large lakes created by damming rivers. Now, experts are urging cities to build reservoirs below the ground, where the water cannot evaporate and many of the difficulties associated with above-ground water storage are avoided. "It just makes so much more sense," said Jim Lester, president of the Houston Advanced Research Center, a nonprofit research group. Among other advantages, he said, underground reservoirs are less expensive to build than their above-ground counterparts. Australia and the United States have increasingly embraced underground reservoir technology. Among European countries, Belgium and the Netherlands developed systems of storing water in sand dunes decades ago. The ...
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That sinking feeling 6.5.2013 Deccan Herald - Supplements
That sinking feeling
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Countries to build new UN-backed global climate accord (Cached) 4.5.2013 New Kerala: India News
New York, May 4 : Delegates from more than 160 countries have agreed on a set of climate change policy measures as part of an ongoing United Nations-led effort to create a new, universal climate accord by 2015 to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) from pre- industrial levels.
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2012 was the 9th warmest year on record: WMO (Cached) 3.5.2013 Zee News : Science and Technology
UN’s weather agency has released its annual report, in which 2012 has been declared as the ninth-warmest year since record-keeping began in 1850.
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Learning Geography lessons through stories 2.5.2013 deccanherald.com
Learning Geography lessons through stories
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General Motors urges Obama and Congress to unite on climate change 2.5.2013 Guardian: Environment
Auto giant adds signature to Climate Declaration, which calls on government to pass climate laws that would help economy General Motors called on Barack Obama and Congress to work together on climate change on Wednesday, saying the effort would be good for business. GM, which makes the plug-in Chevy Volt, was the first of the big three car makers to sign on to a new push from the business world for greater action on global warming from Washington, the Climate Declaration . "We want to be a change agent in the auto industry," Mike Robinson, GM vice-president of sustainability and global regulatory affairs, said in a statement. The declaration, now endorsed by 40 companies, was launched in Washington last month with the aim of capitalising on public concern about climate change after Hurricane Sandy and Obama's re-election in the hope of pushing a climate law through Congress. More than half of Americans now blame climate change for the extreme weather of recent years, acccording to a ...
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How hurricane Sandy created 11bn gallons of sewage overflow - graphic 1.5.2013 The Guardian -- World Latest

Explore where sewage overflows happened in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy, what caused them, and how treated each overflow was


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Hurricane Sandy dumped 11bn gallons of raw sewage in eastern US waterways 30.4.2013 Guardian: Science
Scientists say waste-treatment plants must follow subways and power stations in being protected against climate change Hurricane Sandy dumped about 11bn gallons of raw and untreated sewage into waterways from Washington DC to Connecticut, the science journalism group Climate Central said on Tuesday. That's or enough human waste to cover New York's Central Park in 41ft of sewage, or fill 17,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools, scientists told a conference call with reporters. The group, which drew on data from the Environmental Protection Agency, state protection agencies and water treatment plants, said most of the outflow during the storm, which hit the eastern US in October last year , was caused by storm surges, which overwhelmed sewage treatment plants. But power shutdowns – and heavy rain in Washington DC – also played a part. A third of the sewage was untreated. The scientists said the report exposed yet another risk factor to America's crumbling infrastructure, due to climate change. ...
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Celebrating wanderlust 30.4.2013 Hindu: Cities
Should it be Peru, Jaffna or the Northern Lights? Bangaloreans are heading to new destinations this summer, observes Asha Chowdary
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"Delay will certainly lead to a 4 degree Celcius warmer world" (Cached) 30.4.2013 New Kerala: India News
Bonn, Apr 30 : Inaugurating its first negotiation session, as the new chair of the group of the Least Developed Countries (LDCs), Prakash Mathema from Nepal, urged Parties to show leadership to achieve real and substantial progress on the negotiation of a 2015 treaty and to close the mitigation gap before 2020.
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Adapt faster to changing climate, Europe warned 29.4.2013 Guardian: Science
Cities around Europe may have to erect flood defences similar to the Thames Barrier as tidal surges become more likely Cities around Europe may have to erect flood barriers similar to the Thames Barrier that protects London from sea surges, as climate change takes hold and leads to the danger of much more destructive storms, floods, heavy rainfall and higher sea levels, Europe's environmental watchdog has warned. The effects of climate change will be so far-reaching across the continent that vineyards may have to plant new grape varieties, farmers may have to cultivate new crops and water suppliers look to technology such as desalination in order to cope with the probable effects of more extreme weather. Buildings and infrastructure such as transport, energy and communication networks will also have to be changed. The warnings come in a report from the European Environment Agency, called Adaptation in Europe . The research found that half of the 32 member countries of the EEA still lack ...
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