Page 9 - Global Warming

Greenland's ice has completely melted before, raising sea levels: Study

Greenland's ice sheet vanished completely and its land was covered with vegetation at sometime within the last half a million years, raising sea levels by at least 1.5 metres globally, an international team of scientists has found. Previously believed to have been a "fortress of ice" with mostly unmelted ice, Greenland's ice sheet history is undergoing a major and worrisome rethinking in light of these findings, the scientists from the University of Vermont (UVM), US, and other institutes said. Published in the journal Science, the study also provided "strong and precise evidence that Greenland is more sensitive to climate change than previously understood - and at grave risk of irreversibly melting off." As recently as two years back, an accidental rediscovery of a Greenland ice core, initially dug from a depth of about 1,400 metres, was analysed to be a direct evidence of sediment just beneath the ice sheet being deposited by flowing water in an ice-free environment during a ...

July 2023 likely to be the warmest month on record, NASA scientist claims

He said it will be the hottest month in "hundreds, if not thousands, of years." The US space agency observed a spike in the temperature when the super El Nino event hit during the 2015-16 winter

Delhi may suffer losses of Rs 2.75 trn by 2050 due to climate change

Delhi is projected to suffer losses of Rs 2.75 trillion by 2050 due to the impacts of climate change, with changes in precipitation and temperature patterns posing significant threats to the lives of the most vulnerable populations. The warning comes from the city government's draft action plan on climate change. The plan, which is pending approval, highlights "heat waves/higher temperature and heavy precipitation events over fewer number of days" as major challenges that the city will confront in the upcoming years. India introduced its National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) in 2008, following which state governments were instructed to create their own action plans. The State Action Plan on Climate Change (SAPCC) must be aligned with the strategies laid out in the NAPCC. In January 2018, the central government directed the states to revise and strengthen their SAPCCs, taking into account the evolving national and international climate action, science and policy ...

Tokyo's heat smashes 150-year trend as extreme weather bakes globe

The hottest place in country was Kiryu, a city about two hours north of Tokyo, where the maximum temperature hit 39.7C over the weekend. Japan's all-time record is 41.1C

Last month was the hottest June ever recorded on Earth: NASA, NOAA

Last month was the hottest June on record going back 174 years, according to independent analysis by scientists including those from NASA and NOAA. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) also found that it is virtually certain (above 99 per cent) that 2023 will rank among the 10-warmest years on record and a 97 per cent chance it will rank among the top five. The El Nino climate pattern is one reason temperatures are so hot right now, NOAA said. The cyclic pattern causes hotter than normal water in the Pacific Ocean, and the extra heat alters weather around the world and raises global temperatures. June this year was the warmest globally at just over 0.5 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 average exceeding June 2019 the previous record by a substantial margin, according to European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service. Globally, June 2023 set a record for the warmest June in the 174-year NOAA record. The year-to-date (JanuaryJune) global surface tempera

Earth sizzled to global heat record in June, July: Meteorologists

An already warming Earth steamed to its hottest June on record, smashing the old global mark by nearly a quarter of a degree (0.13 degrees Celsius), with global oceans setting temperature records for the third straight month, the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday. June's 61.79 degrees (16.55 degrees Celsius) global average was 1.89 degrees (1.05 degrees Celsius) above the 20th Century average, the first time globally a summer month was more than a degree Celsius hotter than normal, according to NOAA. Other weather monitoring systems, such as NASA, Berkeley Earth and Europe's Copernicus, had already called last month the hottest June on record, but NOAA is the gold standard for record-keeping with data going back 174 years to 1850. The increase over the last June's record is a considerably big jump because usually global monthly records are so broad based they often jump by hundredths not quarters of a degree, said NOAA climate scientist Ahira ...

Ground beneath us is heating up, civil infra not designed for it: Study

The ground beneath us is heating up, giving rise to the phenomenon of "underground climate change" and our civil infrastructure was not designed for it, scientists say. The continuous heat diffusion from buildings and underground transportation, seen in many urban areas around the world, causes the ground to warm at an alarming rate, found to be 0.1 to 2.5 degrees Celsius per decade by researchers. The heating up of ground leads to its deformation that includes both expansion and contraction, causing building foundations and the surrounding ground to move excessively and sometimes develop cracks, thereby impacting structures' long-term performance and durability. "The ground is deforming as a result of temperature variations, and no existing civil structure or infrastructure is designed to withstand these variations," said Northwestern University's Alessandro Rotta Loria, an assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, and who led the US-based study published in the .

India's green hydrogen push and challenges, everything you need to know

Although first production is expected only in 2026, India has been negotiating bilateral agreements with the European Union, Japan and other countries to start exporting the fuel

Third hottest day as Wednesday's temperature matches record set Tuesday

Earth's average temperature remained at a record high Wednesday, after two days in which the planet reached unofficial records. It's the latest marker in a series of climate-change-driven extremes. The average global temperature was 17.18 Celsius (62.9 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the University of Maine's Climate Reanalyzer, a tool that uses satellite data and computer simulations to measure the world's condition. That matched a record set Tuesday of 17.18 Celsius (62.9 Fahrenheit), and came after a previous record of 17.01 Celsius (62.6 degrees Fahrenheit) was set Monday. Scientists have warned for months that 2023 could see record heat as human-caused climate change, driven largely by the burning of fossil fuels like coal, natural gas and oil, warmed the atmosphere. They also noted that La Nina, the natural cooling of the ocean that had acted as a counter to that warming, was giving way to El Nino, the reverse phenomenon marked by warming oceans. The North Atlantic has seen .

Tuesday broke Monday's global record for hottest day ever: Report

The entire planet sweltered for the two unofficial hottest days in human recordkeeping Monday and Tuesday, according to University of Maine scientists at the Climate Reanalyzer project. For two straight days, the global average temperature spiked into uncharted territory. After scientists talked about Monday's dramatic heat, Tuesday soared 0.17 degrees Celsius (0.31 degrees Fahrenheit) even hotter, which is a huge temperature jump in terms of global averages and records. The same University of Maine climate calculator based on satellite data and computer simulations forecasts a similar temperature for Wednesday that would be in record territory, with an Antarctica average that is a whopping 4.5 degrees Celsius (8.1 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the 1979-2000 average. High temperature records were surpassed July 3 and 4 in Quebec and northwestern Canada and Peru. Cities across the US from Medford, Oregon to Tampa, Florida have been hovering at all-time highs, said Zack Taylor, a

Monday was the hottest day ever as global temperatures rise, shows data

The average worldwide temperature was 17C (63F), just above the previous record of 16.9C reached in August 2016, according to data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction

Himalayan glaciers may lose 75% of their ice by 2100, shows new study

The Hindu Kush Himalayan region is seeing a shrinking permafrost that can trigger more landslides, the study said

Need for systematic approach to food crisis as climate change looms: Report

There is a need to develop systematic and long-term approaches to food crisis response as climate change threatens to make 72 million more people undernourished by 2050, said a global report launched here on Monday. The "Global Food Policy Report (GFPR)" released by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) called for a proactive approach to developing social protection systems that are highly adaptive, flexible, and inclusive, and can be quickly expanded when crises strike. There is a need to develop more systematic and long-term approaches to food crisis response that will be sustainable and help build greater resilience to similar and new shocks in the future, said the GFPR report. This approach should focus on three key areas: crisis prediction and preparation; building resilience before and during crises; and making crisis response supportive and inclusive of women, forced migrants, and other vulnerable groups, the GFPR authors said. According to the "Global Rep

Projections indicate Swiss approve climate bill amid melting glaciers

A majority of Swiss citizens on Sunday voted in favour of a bill aimed at introducing new climate measures to sharply curb the rich Alpine nation's greenhouse gas emissions, projections indicated. Projections by the GFS Bern Institute based on near-complete counting and released by public broadcaster SRF showed that 58.3% of voters were in favour of the bill. The margin of error was plus or minus 2 percentage points, SRF reported. Exact results are expected later in the day. The referendum was sparked by a campaign by scientists and environmentalists to save Switzerland's iconic glaciers, which are melting away at an alarming rate. Campaigners initially proposed even more ambitious measures but later backed a government plan that requires Switzerland to achieve net zero emissions by 2050. It also sets aside more than 3 billion Swiss francs ($3.357 billion) to help wean companies and homeowners off fossil fuels. The nationalist Swiss People's Party, which demanded the popular vot

Road to COP28: Bonn climate talks end without resolving finance differences

The two-week mid-year UN climate talks held in Germany's Bonn ended on Thursday without a resolution to the dispute between developed and developing countries over finance. The developed nations emphasised the urgent need for mitigation measures, while the developing countries demanded adequate financial support to reduce emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change. These mid-year talks set the stage for political discussions at the annual Conference of Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change later in the year. Due to a stalemate on the issues of finance for mitigation, the governments could agree on the meeting's agenda only on the second-to-last day (Wednesday) of the conference. The developed countries wanted that the "Mitigation Work Programme", which calls for urgently scaling up emission reduction efforts in this crucial decade to fight climate change, be included in the agenda. The developing countries, however, strongly opposed this

Have taken significant strides in combating climate change: PM Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said his government has made significant strides in combating climate change, achieving sustainable development goals and preserving India's rich biodiversity. The prime minister's remarks on Twitter came with the hashtag "9YearsOfSustainableGrowth". "In line with our traditions and ethos, we have focused on #9YearsOfSustainableGrowth. We have taken significant strides in combating climate change, achieving sustainable development goals and preserving India's rich biodiversity," Modi tweeted. His remarks came at a time the ruling BJP has been organising various programmes across the country as part of a mega public outreach to mark nine years of the Modi government. He also shared write-ups on his government's achievements in propelling LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment).

Top 5 GHG emitting nations responsible for 40% food supply emission in 2019

Food consumption in the five highest greenhouse gas (GHG) emitting countries, including India, was responsible for more than 40 per cent of global food supply chain emission in 2019, according to a study. The research, published in the journal Nature Food, found that action to protect the planet against the impact of climate change will fall short unless emissions are reduced from the global food system, which now makes up a third of man-made GHG emissions. The largest emission increase within food supply chains is triggered by beef and dairy consumption in rapidly developing countries, such as China and India, while emissions per head in developed countries with a high percentage of animal-based food declined, the researchers said. The team noted that the growth of the global population and rising demand for emission-intensive food are likely to boost emissions further. "A global shift in diets, including reducing excessive intake of red meat and improving shares of plant-based ..

Here's how climate change is fueling wildfires in the US and Canada

The fires sending smoke across North America are part of a global trend toward more frequent and more destructive blazes, says Thomas Smith of the London School of Economics

World's biggest cos made no progress on limiting global warming since 2018

The vast majority of worlds biggest companies have done almost nothing in past five years to cut their planet-heating pollution enough to avoid catastrophic climate change, according to a media report

Equity, CBDR must be central to discussion on transition pathways: India

The principles of equity and common but differentiated responsibilities (CBDR) must be central to discussions on plans for fair and equitable transition to low-carbon economies, India has said at the ongoing Bonn climate talks. At COP27 in Egypt's Sharm el Sheikh, parties to the Paris Agreement had introduced a 'Just Transition Work Programme' to ensure the development of low-carbon pathways that include socio-economic dimensions aligned with nationally defined development priorities. At an informal discussion on the 'Just Transition Work Programme' at Bonn on Tuesday and Wednesday, India said discussions around just transition pathways must not focus only on mitigation but also take into consideration the challenges in adaptation and the means of implementation. "This is why we believe that linkages of just transitions should not just be with the mitigation work programme but must also foreground discussions on aspects of adaptation and means of implementation we concur with other