Tag: India

Study: A Million Years of Data Confirms: Monsoons Are Likely to Get Worse

New York Times: A Million Years of Data Confirms: Monsoons Are Likely to Get Worse. The annual summer monsoon in South Asia begins this month. A new study points to more destructive storms.

Global warming is likely to make India’s monsoon season wetter and more dangerous, new research suggests.

Scientists have known for years that climate change is disrupting monsoon season. Past research based on computer models has suggested that the global heating caused by greenhouse gases, and the increased moisture in the warmed atmosphere, will result in rainier summer monsoon seasons and unpredictable, extreme rainfall events.

The new paper, published Friday in the journal Science Advances, adds evidence for the theory by looking back over the past million years to give a sense of monsoons to come.

Study: Forests – 2 articles

Apple News: Where have our forests gone? 15-year-old Indian student Vanya Sayimane writes about how climate change has affected her home in the Western Ghats. I was born in the middle of dense forests in the Western Ghats, a chain of mountains that runs along the western coast of India. The lives of my community here are woven between the valleys, forests and mountains. The Western Ghats protect our people from floods and other natural calamities that affect coastal areas. I love the greenery and liveliness of Western Ghats. They are very special to me. But over the past few years, I’ve seen climate change threaten everything I love. The Western Ghats and the futures of the people who live there are now at stake due to flooding, drought, deforestation and the building of dams and nuclear power plants.

Phys.org: Why forests in the Andes are crucial to fighting climate change. Andean forests sequester a significant amount of carbon from the atmosphere. Trees and forests play a huge role in the carbon cycle, or the movement of carbon dioxide through the atmosphere. Thanks to activities like deforestation and the burning of fossil fuels, there is now 2.5 times the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere than there was before industrialization. Without forests, says Francisco Cuesta, an ecologist at La Universidad de las Américas in Ecuador, we would be dealing with even more CO2. A study out this month in the journal Nature Communications, authored by a team of 28 scientists including Cuesta, looks at how the carbon cycling process is playing out in the tropical and subtropical forests of the Andes. 

The Daily Climate, April 15, 2021

Articles include: 2050 Goals are inadequate; champagne & climate change; 100% clean power; renewable energy powers decarbonization; electric vehicles by 2035; Interior Department and Manchin; Epic Drought; Indian monsoon season; ticks moving into the Arctic; East African oil pipeline; American research station abandoned; food web in the Great Lakes.

Study: Coal-Fired Power Took a Beating During the Pandemic

New York Times: Coal-Fired Power Took a Beating During the Pandemic, Study Finds. A broad move away from coal power was an important factor in pushing down global greenhouse gas emissions, researchers said, and could help accelerate a shift toward renewable energy.

The share of energy generated from coal has dropped more sharply during the coronavirus pandemic than that of any other power source, according to a new report on Monday that looked at coal demand in some of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

The shift away from coal power had a significant impact on global emissions of planet-warming carbon dioxide, the researchers said, and could lead to an acceleration of the global shift toward renewable energy.

The report, led by the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research in Germany and published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change, analyzed emissions and electricity demand in the United States, Europe and India.

Himalayan glacier disaster highlights climate change risks

AP News: Himalayan glacier disaster highlights climate change risks.

hen Ravi Chopra saw the devastating deluge of water and debris crash downstream from a Himalayan glacier on Sunday, his first thought was that this was exactly the scenario that his team had warned the Indian government of in 2014.

At least 31 people have died, 165 people are missing and many are feared to have died. The deluge first smashed into a small dam, gathering more energy as it grew heavier from the debris it collected along the way. Then, it smashed into a larger, under-construction dam and gathered even more energy.

Indian Farmers beat water scarcity with innovation

DW: Indian farmers beat water scarcity with innovation. After losing crops to severe drought for years, farmers in Maharashtra are seeing high yields through imaginative cultivation methods. They told DW that taking control is better than protesting government policy.

Krishna Narode, 26, from Gangapur village in India’s western Maharashtra state, is visibly excited as he surveys his four-acre farm where he cultivates an array of crops and fruits, including papaya, sugar cane, wheat and ginger.

In a few months, it will be time for harvesting and Narode knows that his efforts will pay dividends as he has relied on natural farming practices.

“I hope to earn at least 600,000 Indian rupees (€6,765, $8,190) this year from my harvest. In 2016, I earned such a small sum that I wanted to give up. But thanks to new farming methods we have learnt, it is helping our community,” Narode told DW.

Study: As the world’s deltas sink, rising seas are far from the only culprit.

Yale Environment 360: As World’s Deltas Sink, Rising Seas Are Far from Only Culprit. Although climate change is often blamed for coastal inundation in places like the Bay of Bengal, other factors such as dam building and urbanization play an important role. Scientists say that more sustainable development policies can help blunt the

No change has been more important than sediment supply. Often described as the world’s largest sediment dispersal system, the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta saw sediment load halved from 1960 to 2008, from 1 billion to 500 million tons annually, according to a 2018 study. The decline is projected to continue, falling to 79 million to 92 million tons a year by 2100, the study said. This steep reduction in sediment further opens the way for rising seas. A study last year, analyzing satellite imaging data, found that the Sundarbans lost 137 square kilometers — 53 square miles ­— of mangrove forest from 1984 to 2018, much of it on the southernmost edge. There was some accretion, as well — 62 square kilometers (24 miles), although some of this was transient or seasonal. impacts of rising seas.

Study: Half of India’s population vulnerable to extreme climate events

New Indian Express discusses Half of India’s population vulnerable to extreme climate events: Study. The study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) said that the frequency, intensity, and unpredictability of these extreme events have also risen in recent decades. [No link provided.]

Over 75 per cent of Indian districts, which are home to over 638 million people, are hotspots of extreme climate events such as cyclones, floods, droughts, heat, and cold waves, according to a study released on Thursday.

The study by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW) said that the frequency, intensity, and unpredictability of these extreme events have also risen in recent decades. While India witnessed 250 extreme climate events between 1970 and 2005, it recorded 310 extreme weather events post 2005 alone.

The study also found a shift in the pattern of extreme climate events such as flood-prone areas becoming drought-prone and vice-versa in over 40 per cent of Indian districts.

Multiple articles on coal

Gizmodo discusses How Coal’s Doing During the Pandemic. Big Oil has hogged the spotlight of fossil fuels in decline since the coronavirus pandemic began. Which, sure, it’s news that some of the richest companies on Earth have floundered once everyone decided to stay home. But we’re big believers in equal opportunity here at Earther so let’s take a look at what’s going on with the largest coal company in the US: Peabody Energy. It reported quarterly earnings on Wednesday and dear lord are they bad. The company ate a record loss of $1.54 billion and wrote down the value of its largest mine by $1.42 billion. Those are very large numbers that do not bode well for Peabody’s future success.

The Guardian discusses how India plans to fell ancient forest to create 40 new coalfields. Narendra Modi’s dream of a ‘self-reliant India’ comes at a terrible price for its indigenous population. Over the past decade, Umeshwar Singh Amra has witnessed his homeland descend into a battleground. The war being waged in Hasdeo Arand, a rich and biodiverse Indian forest, has pitted indigenous people, ancient trees, elephants and sloths against the might of bulldozers, trucks and hydraulic jacks, fighting with a single purpose: the extraction of coal. Yet under a new “self-reliant India” plan by the prime minister, Narendra Modi, to boost the economy post-Covid-19 and reduce costly imports, 40 new coalfields in some of India’s most ecologically sensitive forests are to be opened up for commercial mining.

The Hill discusses why 2019 coal production hit lowest level since 1978. Last year, coal production fell to the lowest level since 1978, according to data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) on Tuesday.

Mongabay discusses how business risk and COVID-19 are pushing Asian financiers away from coal.

The Tyee discusses an Alberta Coal Grab: What Is the Sound of One Group Lobbying? Ask the Coal Association, the only group listened to before Kenney dropped barriers to open-pit mining on the Rockies’ eastern slope.