China’s Relentless Hydro-hegemony Causes Anxiety Across Asia
Deccanherald: Asia is the world’s most water-stressed continent, a situation compounded by China’s hydro-supremacy in the region. Beijing’s recent decision to build a slew of giant new dams on rivers...
View ArticleHimalayan Rivers: Time For Transboundary Management
East Asia Forum: If one were on the lookout for the region with the most meagre potential for cooperative management of its transboundary river basins, South Asia would be a strong contender. Merely to...
View ArticleCase Studies On Flash Flood Risk Management In The Himalayas
ICIMOD: The Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) is a mountain system of extremes with great influence over the Asian continent. The system stretches 3,500 km over eight countries, from Afghanistan in the west...
View ArticlePakistan’s Climate Change Policy
Tribune: A report commissioned by the government in conjunction with the World Wildlife Fund found last year that Pakistan was among the 10 countries likely to be most badly hit by global climate...
View ArticleIn Tibet, Change Comes To The Once-Pristine Roof Of The World
360 Yale: Renowned biologist George Schaller has been traveling to the Tibetan Plateau for nearly three decades, studying its unique wildlife. But with climate change and overgrazing taking a toll on...
View ArticleClimate Conversations – Is Acceptance Of Climate Change Adaptation
Climate Conversations – Is acceptance of climate change adaptation an admission that mitigation has failed? The question of whether accepting and acting on climate change adaptation amounts to an...
View ArticlePhilippine Cities Tackle Climate Change
IRIN: When asked what resilience means, the head of city planning for the Philippines’ second largest city, Davao, said that for Filipinos it means how high floodwater reaches before they agree to be...
View ArticleSand Dams’ Bank Water For Dry Season In Semi-Arid Kenya
Alertnet: Barely a month after heavy rains pounded Kenya, many seasonal rivers in the country’s semi-arid east are already drying up, and residents are preparing for the months-long dry season. But...
View ArticleBhutan’s Picture Of Gross National Happiness Blurs
IRN: Bhutan fires the imagination of an ideal mountain country with many snow-clad peaks, where people go about their daily chores in serenity, dressed in their national dress, wearing a smile and with...
View ArticleUpdated Water Wheels Power India’s Rural Mountain Economy
Alertnet: Wooden water wheels have long captured energy from mountain streams. New versions work even better, helping provide a local, sustainable source of energy to Indian villages high in the...
View ArticleWater Asia’s New Battleground
Winner of the Asia Society’s Bernard Schwartz 2012 Book Award The battles of yesterday were fought over land. Those of today are over energy. But the battles of tomorrow may be over water. Nowhere is...
View ArticleOne River, Two Countries, Too Many Dams
The Hindu: Chinese reticence about projects on its stretch of the Brahmaputra do not assuage Indian fears about diversion of the river’s waters. By raising the Brahmaputra dams construction issue...
View ArticleStatus Of Glaciers In Hindu Kush Himalayan Region
BioOne: The Hindu Kush–Himalayan (HKH) region encompasses a mountainous area of more than 4,192,000 km2 in the countries of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India, Myanmar, Nepal, and Pakistan....
View ArticleIn Sign of Warming, 1,600 Years of Ice in Andes Melted in 25 Years
NYTimes: Glacial ice in the Peruvian Andes that took at least 1,600 years to form has melted in just 25 years, scientists reported Thursday, the latest indication that the recent spike in global...
View ArticleRising Sea Levels Threat: Says RK Pachauri
First Post: Rising sea levels due to climate change are threatening the survival of big cities located near coastal areas like Kolkata, Shanghai and Dhaka, said Dr RK Pachauri, chairperson of the...
View ArticleWP Looks At “Water Wars” in India- But Forgets Climate Change!
The Washington Post has updated the story to include climate as a reason for variability in water supplies. While the original did not discuss climate change, the addition of this in the fourth...
View ArticleWorld Bank Funds Flood Project In NE India
Telegraph India: World Bank, which is funding a $150-million project on integrated flood and erosion management in the Northeast, has called for a multi-sector approach towards management of water...
View ArticleIdentifying Low Risk Climate Change Adaptation
weAdapt: Inherent in every adaptation measure are risks, costs and benefits. A challenge for decision-makers is how to choose adaptations that reduce risks from climate change impacts and provide...
View ArticleAnother Climate Change Warning, Written In The Shells Of Crabs
We’ve all heard about rising sea levels and the possibility of more frequent, stronger storms. But oyster death? The Post’s Darryl Fears on Monday highlighted one of the many consequences of carbon...
View Article28,000 Rivers Disappeared In China: What Happened?
The Atlantic: Government officials say it’s been caused by statistical inaccuracies and climate change. But is that the whole story? As recently as 20 years ago, there were an estimated 50,000 rivers...
View ArticleRains And Floods Due To Global Warming-Indian Minister
PIB: There is no clear cause and effect established between global warming and excessive rains and floods. Monsoon rainfall varies on different spatial and temporal scales. Extreme rainfall events that...
View Article..Accurate Technology To Identify Threats From Sea-Level Rise
Science Daily: A team of researchers led by Associate Professor Edward L. Webb of the National University of Singapore (NUS) is calling for the global adoption of a method to identify areas that are...
View ArticleReviving The River
An amendment to the old treaty between the US and Mexico promises to bring back life to the dry Colorado delta. ‘Minute 319’, apart from sending water down the river and restoring the native habitat,...
View ArticleIs There Hope For Hydropower As The Climate Changes?
Hydropower is by far the most established form of renewable energy. Though not without environmental impact, either in terms of the local environment or, in the case of large dams, in terms of carbon...
View ArticleAs Climate Change Threatens, Water Cooperation Becomes Vital
World Bank: On World Water Day 2013: 85% of the world’s population lives on the driest half of the land, 783 million people do not have access to clean water, and 2.5 billion do not have access to...
View ArticlePriority CCD Actions For Pakistan
CDKN: Pakistan is one of the lowest emitters of greenhouse gases (GHG) in the world: it accounts for just 0.8% of total global emissions, and ranks 135th in terms of per capita emissions....
View ArticleTibet Glaciers Melting Due To South Asian Pollution : China
ToI: About 90 per cent of glaciers in Tibet called the Third Pole region, are shrinking because of black carbon pollution “transferred from South Asia” to the Tibetan Plateau, a Chinese scientist has...
View ArticleThe Himalayas-Once Moaning, Now Groaning
Hill post: The Himalayas are being pounded again. Timber was stolen first; medicinal and aromatic herbs next. Now power projects are stealing water, life line for 30 million mountain folks and 3...
View ArticleThe Ganges Water Machine
CGIAR: Almost 40 years ago, Revelle and Lakshminarayana (1975) coined the term “Ganges Water Machine” trying to find a solution to the fundamental problem of land and water development in the Ganges,...
View ArticleClimate Disasters Displace Millions Of People Worldwide
Guardian: More than 32 million people fled their homes last year because of disasters such as floods, storms and earthquakes – 98% of displacement related to climate change. Asia and west and central...
View ArticleEarly Warning Technology Protects Nepali Villagers From Sudden Floods
TR Foundation: For years, Deepa Newar and her neighbours lived with the fear that their livelihoods – and even their lives – might be swept away without warning. Newar and her fellow residents of...
View ArticleMount Everest’s Glaciers Shrinking At Increasing Rate, Say Researchers
Guardian: Glaciers on or around Everest have shrunk 13% in 50 years with the snow line 180 metres higher than it was 50 years ago. Global warming is melting snow and ice on the world’s highest mountain...
View ArticleWashed Out By The Currents
The Hindu: The expensive geo-textile tube project to arrest embankment erosion in Brahmaputra’s Majuli is feared to do little to stop the river’s strong corrosive powers From a distance it looks like a...
View ArticleMicrosoft’s Interactive Everest Site Mapping On Climate Change
The Verge: Microsoft is teaming up with GlacierWorks to launch Everest: Rivers of Ice, an interactive website that lets you explore the areas around the world’s tallest mountain. Built entirely in...
View ArticleMount Everest Region Glaciers Retreating As Climate Warms
Even the world’s tallest mountain – first conquered by man 60 years ago today – cannot escape climate change. A recent study led by a graduate student at the University of Milan in Italy reveals...
View ArticleNASA’s AirSWOT Program To Measure Planet’s Water Resources
Huffingtonpost: NASA’s AirSWOT Program To Measure Planet’s Water Resources, Ocean’s Impact On Climate Change. When you think about NASA, water probably isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. But...
View ArticleDisaster In Uttarakhand, India: Huge Death Toll
NDMA Drill Had Exposed Gaps in State’s Disaster Management Plan Uttarakhand government took no step to address shortcomings in three years. A mock drill organised by the National Disaster Management...
View ArticleUndefined Role of Regional And National Agencies In Reducing Disasters
Climate Himalaya: The Himalayan region consists of extremely fragile ecosystem, and source to 10 major Asian river systems, on which over 1.3 billion people rely for sustenance, water, livelihoods and...
View ArticleUttarakhand Disaster: National Green Tribunal Issues Notice To State Govt
The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a show-cause notice to the Uttarakhand government, Union environment ministry, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) and Indian Meteorological...
View ArticleUttarakhand: Warning Bells On Deaf Ears
HT: The Himalayas are sick and will die unless there is massive forestation and a moratorium of at least ten years on tree felling. And if they die, the country will surely die in a chain of natural...
View ArticleQ+A: The Impact Of The Deadly Floods In India’s Himalayas
TR: Devastating floods have killed hundreds of people in India’s Himalayan region of Uttarakhand and left tens of thousands in need of aid and rehabilitation. The disaster, which was triggered by heavy...
View ArticleWhat They Said: India’s Monsoon Disaster
WSJ: A roundup of what the Indian media said after flash floods and landslides killed at least 800 people in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand last month. After flash floods and landslides...
View ArticleDisaster Relief: Avoid Old Mindset And Jargons
Climate Himalaya: In this article it is argued that Disaster Management practice in India need to change the old mindset of disaster relief, to include quick planning and actions, using verifiable...
View ArticleIndian Floods Highlight Dangers Of Rushed Development
SciDevnet: The large-scale devastation and deaths caused by landslides and floods in the northern Himalayan state of Uttarakhand have highlighted gaps in India’s disaster preparedness, as well as a...
View ArticlePolluted Ganges River Threatens People’s Livelihoods
The Ganges is India’s holiest river, considered a source of spiritual purification for devout Hindus. But today the river is among the world’s most polluted, struggling under the pressures of modern...
View ArticleChina’s Largest Desert Freshwater Lake Shrinking Faster Than Ever
The Guardian: The rate at which China’s largest desert freshwater lake is shrinking has accelerated dramatically in the past four years, figures show. Hongjiannao Lake, several hundred kilometres to...
View ArticleThe Disappearing Rivers of Bangladesh
Sci Dev Net: Bangladesh is a land of rivers, but changing climate has caused a third of the country’s more than 300 large rivers to disappear. The rivers are drying out as a result of barriers built...
View ArticleSouth Asia Slow to Act on Water Threats
Climate News Network: Even before this year’s delayed and inadequate monsoon recently brought some relief to the Indian sub-continent, researchers discovered widespread concern by local experts that...
View ArticleDams Versus Rivers – the Global Battle
International Rivers has launched ‘The State of the World’s Rivers’, an interactive online database that illustrates the role that dams have played in impoverishing the health of the world’s river...
View ArticleClimate Confounds China’s Efforts to Ease Water Stress
China, the world’s most populous nation, faces one of the planet’s most intractable water crises. And scientists say Beijing’s strategy for resolving the problem is simply making it worse. A team of...
View Article
