By Hugo Norton

As the world reels from a series of freakish weather phenomena, a new report from the UN suggests climate change will carve the global agricultural community into two camps: winners and losers. What’s particularly troubling is that the “winners” are already thriving, while the losers are clustered in the developing world. If these forecasts come to pass, the world will be more unequal than ever — and billions of people will face potential starvation.

But there’s a ray of hope, and it comes from the myriad new technologies that are transforming the way we farm. These agricultural technologies could help to obviate the effects of climate change and ensure the planet’s population growth doesn’t lead to a global hunger epidemic.

Of course, there are still those who say we’ve nothing to fear, and that climate change is a myth. But those deniers, led by Donald Trump, are being confronted with an ever-growing mountain of evidence in the form of extreme weather patterns, like Hurricane Florence that hit the United States in September. From droughts in Australia to floods in Japan and southern India, the world is witnessing the catastrophic effects of global warming on practically a daily basis.

But beyond these headlines, scientists predict that rising temperatures will have disastrous consequences for the world’s farmers, particularly those in the “global south.” The new report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization finds that climate change will enhance the agricultural potential of countries in more temperate areas, but frazzle growing zones in more tropical climes. The biggest winners will be Russia and Canada, while Europe, the US and Australia will all see an upturn. West Africa, India and their surrounding regions will see their harvests slashed.

This echoes another recent UN report, which concluded that climate change is already driving up hunger levels by triggering droughts and flooding. In fact, scientists have found that of the 51 countries that suffered food emergencies in 2017, 34 experienced climatic shocks. Many of these countries are also battling political and economic crises, making them doubly vulnerable.

Global Economic Gap 
 
The inescapable conclusion is that climate change will make the global economic gap even wider. Despite concerted efforts to reduce this divide, income inequality has fallen only slightly, and some research even indicates that the gap is widening. Billions of dollars in aid have been channelled to Africa — an additional $45 billion will be sent by 2020 — but the US still produces five times the continent’s entire GDP, and that gap will only widen if UN forecasts are realized. Moreover, the developing world is facing a demographic crisis: Over the next 30 years, analysts expect the populations of Africa and Asia to grow 11 times faster than the rest of the world. These regions cannot afford to lose their most fertile land.

The international community certainly talks a good game on climate change. Practically the entire world has ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement, which pledges to keep global warming within 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels. Yet many countries are failing to match their words with actions, as demonstrated most recently by a survey that ranked more than three-quarters of EU member-states as “poor” for their post-Paris progress.

But as governments flounder, a raft of new technologies is enabling farmers to take matters into their own hands. These technologies allow growers to adapt to climatic conditions, target their use of pesticides more efficiently and improve their output with precision techniques. Most significantly, they facilitate information-sharing across borders, encouraging the spread of best practices and expertise. A prime example is an app built by the University of Queensland in Australia that enables beef farmers on the island of Vanuatu to see the performance of their cattle in real time. Such innovation can only lead to efficiency gains, which will be crucial to the developing world as climate change erodes its farmlands.

There are myriad examples of technologies that could have an equally positive impact, from the predictive seed placement tool developed by The Climate Corporation, which uses big data to recommend optimal seeding rates for a particular growing area, to the drones that cover a rice field with pesticide and fertilizer in just 15 minutes. Then there’s vertical farming, which promises to take agriculture away from the fields altogether. The practice involves growing crops in warehouses and shipping containers, turning every terrain on earth into a potential farm. Dubai, unsurprisingly, is an enthusiastic early adopter, and with analysts predicting the market will be worth around $10 billion by 2025, it’s clear this zeal is more than matched elsewhere.

Agtech

Indeed, many countries across Africa and Asia are passionately embracing agricultural technology to obviate the ever-increasing threat of floods and droughts. India’s burgeoning space agency is providing satellite images to map the production capacity of its fields; Japan is leading the way in drone research as it attempts to ease the burden on its ageing farming population. In Africa, a raft of start-ups is shooting up, from the Nigerian company that arms farmers with data to help them negotiate prices with unscrupulous merchants to the Kenyan enterprise that channels solar energy into irrigation kits.

Now it seems the world’s opinion leaders are taking notice. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is talking up the potential of new technologies to offset climate change in the developing world, while the UK government, the world’s second-biggest aid donor, is ploughing money into partnerships that it says will revolutionize agriculture in Africa. Yet the ominous question remains: Have we found the answer just in time, or too late?

The UN says we have only a few years to avoid catastrophic problems, which may not be enough to create a global AgTech revolution. But in a period that has seen more rapid technological change than any other in history, we mustn’t let our optimism be washed away. 
 
(Hugo Norton is an Africa Policy Analyst and Advisor)

(This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the <a href="https://www.fairobserver.com/more/environment/climate-change-news/agriculture-climate-change-global-inequality-tech-news-01921/">original article</a>)

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

By Hugo Norton As the world reels from a series of freakish weather phenomena, a new report from the UN suggests climate change will carve the global agricultural community into two camps: winners and losers.

By Hugo Norton As the world reels from a series of freakish weather phenomena, a new report from the UN suggests climate change will carve the global agricultural community into two camps: winners and losers. What’s particularly troubling is that the “winners” are already thriving, while the losers are clustered in the developing world. If these forecasts come to pass, the world will be more unequal than ever — and billions of people will face potential starvation. But there’s a ray of hope, and it comes from the myriad new technologies that are transforming the way we farm. These agricultural technologies could help to obviate the effects of climate change and ensure the planet’s population growth doesn’t lead to a global hunger epidemic. Of course, there are still those who say we’ve nothing to fear, and that climate change is a myth. But those deniers, led by Donald Trump, are being confronted with an ever-growing mountain of evidence in the form of extreme weather patterns, like Hurricane Florence that hit the United States in September. From droughts in Australia to floods in Japan and southern India, the world is witnessing the catastrophic effects of global warming on practically a daily basis. But beyond these headlines, scientists predict that rising temperatures will have disastrous consequences for the world’s farmers, particularly those in the “global south.” The new report from the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization finds that climate change will enhance the agricultural potential of countries in more temperate areas, but frazzle growing zones in more tropical climes. The biggest winners will be Russia and Canada, while Europe, the US and Australia will all see an upturn. West Africa, India and their surrounding regions will see their harvests slashed. This echoes another recent UN report, which concluded that climate change is already driving up hunger levels by triggering droughts and flooding. In fact, scientists have found that of the 51 countries that suffered food emergencies in 2017, 34 experienced climatic shocks. Many of these countries are also battling political and economic crises, making them doubly vulnerable. Global Economic Gap The inescapable conclusion is that climate change will make the global economic gap even wider. Despite concerted efforts to reduce this divide, income inequality has fallen only slightly, and some research even indicates that the gap is widening. Billions of dollars in aid have been channelled to Africa — an additional $45 billion will be sent by 2020 — but the US still produces five times the continent’s entire GDP, and that gap will only widen if UN forecasts are realized. Moreover, the developing world is facing a demographic crisis: Over the next 30 years, analysts expect the populations of Africa and Asia to grow 11 times faster than the rest of the world. These regions cannot afford to lose their most fertile land. The international community certainly talks a good game on climate change. Practically the entire world has ratified the 2015 Paris Agreement, which pledges to keep global warming within 2 degrees of pre-industrial levels. Yet many countries are failing to match their words with actions, as demonstrated most recently by a survey that ranked more than three-quarters of EU member-states as “poor” for their post-Paris progress. But as governments flounder, a raft of new technologies is enabling farmers to take matters into their own hands. These technologies allow growers to adapt to climatic conditions, target their use of pesticides more efficiently and improve their output with precision techniques. Most significantly, they facilitate information-sharing across borders, encouraging the spread of best practices and expertise. A prime example is an app built by the University of Queensland in Australia that enables beef farmers on the island of Vanuatu to see the performance of their cattle in real time. Such innovation can only lead to efficiency gains, which will be crucial to the developing world as climate change erodes its farmlands. There are myriad examples of technologies that could have an equally positive impact, from the predictive seed placement tool developed by The Climate Corporation, which uses big data to recommend optimal seeding rates for a particular growing area, to the drones that cover a rice field with pesticide and fertilizer in just 15 minutes. Then there’s vertical farming, which promises to take agriculture away from the fields altogether. The practice involves growing crops in warehouses and shipping containers, turning every terrain on earth into a potential farm. Dubai, unsurprisingly, is an enthusiastic early adopter, and with analysts predicting the market will be worth around $10 billion by 2025, it’s clear this zeal is more than matched elsewhere. Agtech Indeed, many countries across Africa and Asia are passionately embracing agricultural technology to obviate the ever-increasing threat of floods and droughts. India’s burgeoning space agency is providing satellite images to map the production capacity of its fields; Japan is leading the way in drone research as it attempts to ease the burden on its ageing farming population. In Africa, a raft of start-ups is shooting up, from the Nigerian company that arms farmers with data to help them negotiate prices with unscrupulous merchants to the Kenyan enterprise that channels solar energy into irrigation kits. Now it seems the world’s opinion leaders are taking notice. Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates is talking up the potential of new technologies to offset climate change in the developing world, while the UK government, the world’s second-biggest aid donor, is ploughing money into partnerships that it says will revolutionize agriculture in Africa. Yet the ominous question remains: Have we found the answer just in time, or too late? The UN says we have only a few years to avoid catastrophic problems, which may not be enough to create a global AgTech revolution. But in a period that has seen more rapid technological change than any other in history, we mustn’t let our optimism be washed away. (Hugo Norton is an Africa Policy Analyst and Advisor) (This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article) (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

 How new technologies can avert agricultural devastation

Floating schools in Bangladesh an example of how to tackle climate change

Mosammat Rekha's older cousins grew up unable to read and write, their tiny village so frequently cut off from the nearest school by floods that would rise suddenly in their remote corner of disaster-prone Bangladesh.

But seven-year-old Mosammat is learning her ABCs aboard a boat fitted with a classroom and play equipment that is helping children thrive even as climate change alters the world around them.

"We can attend classes even during the rainy season, when our homes are barely above water," the seven-year-old told AFP aboard the vessel in Chalan Beel, some 175 kilometres (around 110 miles) northwest of Dhaka.

Climate change is already taking its toll across Bangladesh, a densely populated and impoverished country the United Nations has identified as among the most vulnerable to a warming planet.

Millions in the low-lying nation are being forced to adapt to overflowing rivers, rising seas and increasingly extreme weather in a country frequented by destructive storms and cyclones.

Twenty million people there could be made "climate refugees" by the end of the century, a UN panel has warned, turfed out of their homes as rivers swallow towns and seas encroach on coastal communities.

In villages like Kalidaskhali on the banks of the Padma River, these forces are already reshaping lives by the hour.

As much as five metres (16 feet) of riverbank can disappear in a single day, consuming everything in its path, local government official Azizul Azam told AFP.

More than 9,000 people have been displaced by the Padma in just five years, as the main tributary of the Ganges encroaches further and further inland.

"Today my backyard is gone. I had a cowshed over there... now it is just water," said Rukaiya Khatun, watching helplessly as chunks of earth disappeared into the turbid water inching towards her home.

"The Padma has devoured everything."

River erosion -- though long a phenomenon in the delta nation -- is rapidly accelerating due to climate change, said Atiq Rahman, a member of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning UN climate panel.

A warming planet has made monsoon rainfall more unpredictable across Bangladesh and melted Himalayan glaciers to the north, turbocharging the waterways that criss-cross the country.

Many have struggled to adapt as the river has turned, in the words of one villager, "wild and furious".

Full steam ahead&nbsp;

But elsewhere, local ingenuity is finding ways around the turbulent and unpredictable forces of nature.

Students at BRAC University in Dhaka last month unveiled a model for a floating bamboo home, one that could survive a flood or be easily relocated elsewhere in case of inundation.

In Chalan Beel, floating schools chug along rivers and lakes swollen by floods, bringing education to students long denied a chance to learn in one of Bangladesh's poorest locations.

"Now, they have year-round education," said Mohammad Rezwan, head of the Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha charity that runs the pioneering project.&nbsp;

Today they run more than 20 "floating schools" in the Chalan Beel area. Other charities have replicated the idea in different parts of Bangladesh, where the world's largest river delta empties into the Bay of Bengal.&nbsp;

Smaller models are equipped with desks, libraries and blackboards while more elaborate, twin-storey designs also boast slippery slides, monkey bars and swing sets for playtime.

Children even learn to use laptop computers, all powered by banks of solar panels atop the boats.

At night, once school is over, adults come aboard to learn new techniques for farming in an extreme climate.

Rezwan said farmers were being taught how to plant flood-resistant crops in floating seed beds, a possible lifeline for rural communities who can lose a year's harvest when the waters suddenly rise.

Bangladesh has invested more than $400 million into a new special agency for adaptation projects, including flood embankments, floating farm technology and mobile water-purification stations.

"It shows how seriously we are taking this," said Mukhlesur Rahman Sarker, deputy chief of the government's Bangladesh Climate Change Trust, of the new fund.

Simple local innovations have changed lives in a generation in Chalan Beel.&nbsp;

Mosammat Jharna, a mother of two, spent her youth hemmed in on all sides by water as unpredictable storm surges and fast-rising floods made walking to the nearest school impossible.

She now beams at the floating school anchored near her home -- a symbol of hope for her children, no matter how the landscape changes in the future.

"My dream of educating my children, including my daughter, has come true," she told AFP. "I don't want to see them end up illiterate like me."

Mosammat Rekha's older cousins grew up unable to read and write, their tiny village so frequently cut off from the nearest school by floods that would rise suddenly in their remote corner of disaster-prone Bangladesh.

Mosammat Rekha's older cousins grew up unable to read and write, their tiny village so frequently cut off from the nearest school by floods that would rise suddenly in their remote corner of disaster-prone Bangladesh. But seven-year-old Mosammat is learning her ABCs aboard a boat fitted with a classroom and play equipment that is helping children thrive even as climate change alters the world around them. "We can attend classes even during the rainy season, when our homes are barely above water," the seven-year-old told AFP aboard the vessel in Chalan Beel, some 175 kilometres (around 110 miles) northwest of Dhaka. Climate change is already taking its toll across Bangladesh, a densely populated and impoverished country the United Nations has identified as among the most vulnerable to a warming planet. Millions in the low-lying nation are being forced to adapt to overflowing rivers, rising seas and increasingly extreme weather in a country frequented by destructive storms and cyclones. Twenty million people there could be made "climate refugees" by the end of the century, a UN panel has warned, turfed out of their homes as rivers swallow towns and seas encroach on coastal communities. In villages like Kalidaskhali on the banks of the Padma River, these forces are already reshaping lives by the hour. As much as five metres (16 feet) of riverbank can disappear in a single day, consuming everything in its path, local government official Azizul Azam told AFP. More than 9,000 people have been displaced by the Padma in just five years, as the main tributary of the Ganges encroaches further and further inland. "Today my backyard is gone. I had a cowshed over there... now it is just water," said Rukaiya Khatun, watching helplessly as chunks of earth disappeared into the turbid water inching towards her home. "The Padma has devoured everything." River erosion -- though long a phenomenon in the delta nation -- is rapidly accelerating due to climate change, said Atiq Rahman, a member of a Nobel Peace Prize-winning UN climate panel. A warming planet has made monsoon rainfall more unpredictable across Bangladesh and melted Himalayan glaciers to the north, turbocharging the waterways that criss-cross the country. Many have struggled to adapt as the river has turned, in the words of one villager, "wild and furious". Full steam ahead But elsewhere, local ingenuity is finding ways around the turbulent and unpredictable forces of nature. Students at BRAC University in Dhaka last month unveiled a model for a floating bamboo home, one that could survive a flood or be easily relocated elsewhere in case of inundation. In Chalan Beel, floating schools chug along rivers and lakes swollen by floods, bringing education to students long denied a chance to learn in one of Bangladesh's poorest locations. "Now, they have year-round education," said Mohammad Rezwan, head of the Shidhulai Swanirvar Sangstha charity that runs the pioneering project. Today they run more than 20 "floating schools" in the Chalan Beel area. Other charities have replicated the idea in different parts of Bangladesh, where the world's largest river delta empties into the Bay of Bengal. Smaller models are equipped with desks, libraries and blackboards while more elaborate, twin-storey designs also boast slippery slides, monkey bars and swing sets for playtime. Children even learn to use laptop computers, all powered by banks of solar panels atop the boats. At night, once school is over, adults come aboard to learn new techniques for farming in an extreme climate. Rezwan said farmers were being taught how to plant flood-resistant crops in floating seed beds, a possible lifeline for rural communities who can lose a year's harvest when the waters suddenly rise. Bangladesh has invested more than $400 million into a new special agency for adaptation projects, including flood embankments, floating farm technology and mobile water-purification stations. "It shows how seriously we are taking this," said Mukhlesur Rahman Sarker, deputy chief of the government's Bangladesh Climate Change Trust, of the new fund. Simple local innovations have changed lives in a generation in Chalan Beel. Mosammat Jharna, a mother of two, spent her youth hemmed in on all sides by water as unpredictable storm surges and fast-rising floods made walking to the nearest school impossible. She now beams at the floating school anchored near her home -- a symbol of hope for her children, no matter how the landscape changes in the future. "My dream of educating my children, including my daughter, has come true," she told AFP. "I don't want to see them end up illiterate like me."

Bangladesh kids turn the tide on climate change aboard floating schools

Diplomats gathering in South Korea Monday will find themselves in the awkward position of vetting and validating a major UN scientific report that underscores the failure of their governments to take stronger action on climate.

The UN special report on global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels began as a request from the 195 nations that inked the Paris Agreement in 2015.

That landmark pact called for capping the rise in global temperature to "well-below" 2C, and invited countries to submit voluntary national plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

To the surprise of many -- especially scientists, who had based nearly a decade of research on the assumption that 2C was the politically acceptable guardrail for a climate-safe world -- the treaty also called for a good-faith effort to cap warming at the lower threshold.

At the same time, countries asked the UN's climate science authority, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to detail what a 1.5C world would look like, and how hard it might be to prevent a further rise in temperature.

Three years and many drafts later, the answer has come in the form of a 400-page report -- grounded in an assessment of 6,000 peer-reviewed studies -- that delivers a stark, double-barrelled message: 1.5C is enough to unleash climate mayhem, and the pathways to avoiding an even hotter world require a swift and complete transformation not just of the global economy, but of society too.

With only one degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has seen a climate-enhanced crescendo of deadly heatwaves, wild fires and floods, along with superstorms swollen by rising seas.

- Line-by-line vetting - 
"I don't know how you can possibly read this and find it anything other than wildly alarming," said Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, referring to the draft Summary for Policy Makers.

Government representatives -- often the same ones in the trenches at UN climate negotiations -- will spend the entire week going through the 22-page executive summary, line-by-line.

With scientists at their elbow, they will check it against the underlying report and, if the past is any guide, attempt to blunt conclusions deemed inconvenient by their governments. &nbsp;&nbsp;

"Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have threatened to be obstructionist," said one of the report's authors.&nbsp;

China is said to have reservations on the chapters outlining policy options, concerned that some of the measures outlined may be too ambitious.

But the joker in the pack is the United States, several delates and observers noted.

"This is the first report coming up for approval since the Trump administration took office," said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University, and an IPCC author on a another report-in-progress.&nbsp;

"That's a real wild card."

US a 'wild card'

There are few clues as to what the United States might say or do in Incheon, which has left a lot of people nervous.

"The US could, as they have in the past, support the science," said one contributing author.&nbsp;

"Or they could become obstructionist -- maybe Fox News will decide to shine a spotlight on the meeting."

A State Department spokesperson confirmed to AFP that veteran climate diplomat Trigg Talley will head the US delegation, a development one veteran IPCC author described as "reassuring."

"Never in the history of the IPCC has there been a report that is so politically charged," said Henri Waisman, a senior researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, and one of the report's 86 authors.

Governments looking for a straightforward answer to the question of whether the 1.5C target can be reached are likely to be disappointed, he added.

"The report isn't going to simply say 'yes' or 'no'," he told AFP.

"Our goal was to put as much information as possible into the hands of policy makers so they can step up to their responsibilities."

Many scientists say the goal is feasible on paper, but would require political will and economic transformations that are not on the near-term horizon.

"In my view, 1.5C stabilisation is extremely difficult if not impossible at this point, while 2C stabilisation is an uphill challenge but doable," Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, told AFP.

Diplomats gathering in South Korea Monday will find themselves in the awkward position of vetting and validating a major UN scientific report that underscores the failure of their governments to take stronger action on climate.

Diplomats gathering in South Korea Monday will find themselves in the awkward position of vetting and validating a major UN scientific report that underscores the failure of their governments to take stronger action on climate. The UN special report on global warming of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels began as a request from the 195 nations that inked the Paris Agreement in 2015. That landmark pact called for capping the rise in global temperature to "well-below" 2C, and invited countries to submit voluntary national plans for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. To the surprise of many -- especially scientists, who had based nearly a decade of research on the assumption that 2C was the politically acceptable guardrail for a climate-safe world -- the treaty also called for a good-faith effort to cap warming at the lower threshold. At the same time, countries asked the UN's climate science authority, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), to detail what a 1.5C world would look like, and how hard it might be to prevent a further rise in temperature. Three years and many drafts later, the answer has come in the form of a 400-page report -- grounded in an assessment of 6,000 peer-reviewed studies -- that delivers a stark, double-barrelled message: 1.5C is enough to unleash climate mayhem, and the pathways to avoiding an even hotter world require a swift and complete transformation not just of the global economy, but of society too. With only one degree Celsius of warming so far, the world has seen a climate-enhanced crescendo of deadly heatwaves, wild fires and floods, along with superstorms swollen by rising seas. - Line-by-line vetting - "I don't know how you can possibly read this and find it anything other than wildly alarming," said Peter Frumhoff, director of science and policy at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a Washington-based research and advocacy group, referring to the draft Summary for Policy Makers. Government representatives -- often the same ones in the trenches at UN climate negotiations -- will spend the entire week going through the 22-page executive summary, line-by-line. With scientists at their elbow, they will check it against the underlying report and, if the past is any guide, attempt to blunt conclusions deemed inconvenient by their governments. "Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, have threatened to be obstructionist," said one of the report's authors. China is said to have reservations on the chapters outlining policy options, concerned that some of the measures outlined may be too ambitious. But the joker in the pack is the United States, several delates and observers noted. "This is the first report coming up for approval since the Trump administration took office," said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University, and an IPCC author on a another report-in-progress. "That's a real wild card." US a 'wild card' There are few clues as to what the United States might say or do in Incheon, which has left a lot of people nervous. "The US could, as they have in the past, support the science," said one contributing author. "Or they could become obstructionist -- maybe Fox News will decide to shine a spotlight on the meeting." A State Department spokesperson confirmed to AFP that veteran climate diplomat Trigg Talley will head the US delegation, a development one veteran IPCC author described as "reassuring." "Never in the history of the IPCC has there been a report that is so politically charged," said Henri Waisman, a senior researcher at the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, and one of the report's 86 authors. Governments looking for a straightforward answer to the question of whether the 1.5C target can be reached are likely to be disappointed, he added. "The report isn't going to simply say 'yes' or 'no'," he told AFP. "Our goal was to put as much information as possible into the hands of policy makers so they can step up to their responsibilities." Many scientists say the goal is feasible on paper, but would require political will and economic transformations that are not on the near-term horizon. "In my view, 1.5C stabilisation is extremely difficult if not impossible at this point, while 2C stabilisation is an uphill challenge but doable," Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University, told AFP.

UN report spotlights government inaction on climate

Gender equality and climate change were at the heart of the speech by New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.

On gender equality, Ardern said, "We still have a gender pay gap, an over-representation of women in low paid work and domestic violence." "And I for one will never celebrate the gains we have made for women domestically while internationally other women and girls experience a lack of the most basic of opportunities and dignity. Me Too must become We Too. We are all in this together."

Ardern also said climate change is "the single, biggest threat to the security in the Pacific" and listed her nations efforts to combat the effects of rising sea levels.

Gender equality and climate change were at the heart of the speech by New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday.

Gender equality and climate change were at the heart of the speech by New Zealand's Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to the United Nations General Assembly on Thursday. On gender equality, Ardern said, "We still have a gender pay gap, an over-representation of women in low paid work and domestic violence." "And I for one will never celebrate the gains we have made for women domestically while internationally other women and girls experience a lack of the most basic of opportunities and dignity. Me Too must become We Too. We are all in this together." Ardern also said climate change is "the single, biggest threat to the security in the Pacific" and listed her nations efforts to combat the effects of rising sea levels.

Watch: 'Me Too must become We Too' says New Zealand PM Ardern at UN

Weather extremes caused by climate change could raise the risk of food shortage globally, a study that looked at data from 122 countries suggests.

Researchers led by the University of Exeter in the UK examined how climate change could affect the vulnerability of different countries to food insecurity - when people lack access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food.

The study, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, looked at 122 developing and least-developed countries, mostly in Asia, Africa and South America.

"Climate change is expected to lead to more extremes of both heavy rainfall and drought, with different effects in different parts of the world," said Richard Betts, a professor at the University of Exeter.

"Such weather extremes can increase vulnerability to food insecurity," said Betts.

"Some change is already unavoidable, but if global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, this vulnerability is projected to remain smaller than at 2 degrees Celsius in approximately 76 per cent of developing countries," he said.

Warming is expected to lead to wetter conditions on average - with floods putting food production at risk - but agriculture could also be harmed by more frequent and prolonged droughts in some areas, researchers said.

Wetter conditions are expected to have the biggest impact in South and East Asia, with the most extreme projections suggesting the flow of the River Ganges could more than double at 2 degrees Celsius global warming, they said.

The areas worst affected by droughts are expected to be southern Africa and South America - where flows in the Amazon are projected to decline by up to 25 per cent, according to the researchers.

They examined projected changes in weather extremes and their implications for freshwater availability and vulnerability to food insecurity.

The study, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, looked at 122 developing and least-developed countries, mostly in Asia, Africa and South America

Weather extremes caused by climate change could raise the risk of food shortage globally, a study that looked at data from 122 countries suggests. Researchers led by the University of Exeter in the UK examined how climate change could affect the vulnerability of different countries to food insecurity - when people lack access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. The study, published in the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, looked at 122 developing and least-developed countries, mostly in Asia, Africa and South America. "Climate change is expected to lead to more extremes of both heavy rainfall and drought, with different effects in different parts of the world," said Richard Betts, a professor at the University of Exeter. "Such weather extremes can increase vulnerability to food insecurity," said Betts. "Some change is already unavoidable, but if global warming is limited to 1.5 degrees Celsius, this vulnerability is projected to remain smaller than at 2 degrees Celsius in approximately 76 per cent of developing countries," he said. Warming is expected to lead to wetter conditions on average - with floods putting food production at risk - but agriculture could also be harmed by more frequent and prolonged droughts in some areas, researchers said. Wetter conditions are expected to have the biggest impact in South and East Asia, with the most extreme projections suggesting the flow of the River Ganges could more than double at 2 degrees Celsius global warming, they said. The areas worst affected by droughts are expected to be southern Africa and South America - where flows in the Amazon are projected to decline by up to 25 per cent, according to the researchers. They examined projected changes in weather extremes and their implications for freshwater availability and vulnerability to food insecurity.

Climate change could raise food shortage globally: Study

A perennial waterfall in Goa, revered by locals and visitors for its religious significance and natural beauty, has dried up, with the villagers blaming it on the reckless mining activity.

The locals claim that for the first time in decades they have seen the waterfall, located in Harvalem village near the Pandava caves in North Goa district, about 50 km from here, going dry even as the summer is yet to set in.

A temple dedicated to Lord Shiva stands nearby, and the place is considered religiously significant as people from far and wide bring the ashes of their deceased near and dear ones for immersing in the water.

"The mines which are located upstream this waterfall have gone so deep that they have actually disturbed the water table," claims Sangesh Kundaikar, vice president of the Rudreshwar temple at Harvalem.

"The waterfall has a history spanning nearly 500 years. The people claim the waterfall has never gone dry to such an extent," Kundaikar said.

The mine owners are responsible for this situation, he alleged.

"The rivulets which feed the waterfall have thinned down. For the first time we have seen that the waterfall has dried completely in March itself," he said.

A dozen mining leases located upstream the waterfall in Sonshi village, located about 5 km from Harvalem, used to divert the water for mining purposes and later pump it back into the rivulet.

But, the stoppage of mining activity last month, following a Supreme Court order, has forced the mine owners to abandon their leases.

The state government earlier issued a circular asking the mine owners to continue pumping water from the pits owing to safety issues (so that it does not cause flooding in nearby villages). But, some mine owners have refused to dewater the pits.

"A majority of the mines have stopped dewatering due to which there is no water flow in the rivulet, leaving it dry," said Haresh Melwani, a mine owner and member of the Goa Mining Association.

"Some of the mines upstream this waterfall have gone below the water table due to which there is an imbalance," he claimed.

State Mines and Geology department director Prasanna Acharya was not available for comments on the issue.

However, a senior officer from the department said the North Goa district collector has called a meeting of all mine owners in the next few days to discuss the matter.&nbsp

The locals claim that for the first time in decades they have seen the waterfall going dry

A perennial waterfall in Goa, revered by locals and visitors for its religious significance and natural beauty, has dried up, with the villagers blaming it on the reckless mining activity. The locals claim that for the first time in decades they have seen the waterfall, located in Harvalem village near the Pandava caves in North Goa district, about 50 km from here, going dry even as the summer is yet to set in. A temple dedicated to Lord Shiva stands nearby, and the place is considered religiously significant as people from far and wide bring the ashes of their deceased near and dear ones for immersing in the water. "The mines which are located upstream this waterfall have gone so deep that they have actually disturbed the water table," claims Sangesh Kundaikar, vice president of the Rudreshwar temple at Harvalem. "The waterfall has a history spanning nearly 500 years. The people claim the waterfall has never gone dry to such an extent," Kundaikar said. The mine owners are responsible for this situation, he alleged. "The rivulets which feed the waterfall have thinned down. For the first time we have seen that the waterfall has dried completely in March itself," he said. A dozen mining leases located upstream the waterfall in Sonshi village, located about 5 km from Harvalem, used to divert the water for mining purposes and later pump it back into the rivulet. But, the stoppage of mining activity last month, following a Supreme Court order, has forced the mine owners to abandon their leases. The state government earlier issued a circular asking the mine owners to continue pumping water from the pits owing to safety issues (so that it does not cause flooding in nearby villages). But, some mine owners have refused to dewater the pits. "A majority of the mines have stopped dewatering due to which there is no water flow in the rivulet, leaving it dry," said Haresh Melwani, a mine owner and member of the Goa Mining Association. "Some of the mines upstream this waterfall have gone below the water table due to which there is an imbalance," he claimed. State Mines and Geology department director Prasanna Acharya was not available for comments on the issue. However, a senior officer from the department said the North Goa district collector has called a meeting of all mine owners in the next few days to discuss the matter.

Nearly 500-year-old waterfall goes dry in Goa, locals fussed

Varsha Rajkhowa, 26, won the Miss Scuba International beauty pageant in Malaysia in November 2016. Miss Scuba International is a beauty pageant with a slight twist – the contestants all have to be scuba divers.&nbsp;

There were a total of 16 contestants from countries including the US, UK, and the Netherlands, and it was the first time an Indian was competing but Varsha won.&nbsp;

Varsha could now, arguably and with a little hyperbole, be called “chief spokesperson of the world's oceans”.&nbsp;

But, she had told WION when we first met her, the people are not listening to her.&nbsp;

“I tell them not to litter and they say, 'You're a marine environmentalist. Why do you care about littering on land?'&nbsp;

“But all that plastic... it ends up in the ocean,” says Varsha.&nbsp;

“Do you know the five ocean gyres are full of plastic?”&nbsp;

The five ocean gyres are the world's major ocean currents.&nbsp;

The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now becoming visible from space.&nbsp;

That “patch” is a gargantuan floating collection of litter in the North Pacific Ocean, most of it having made its way from the land to the sea.&nbsp;

Estimates of the “patch's” size range from 700,000 square kilometres to 15,000,000 square kilometres – that's 8% of the Pacific Ocean or, according to some media reports, up to "twice the size of the continental United States".&nbsp;

There is also an Indian Ocean Garbage Patch.&nbsp;

This plastic – and global warming, and tourism – is beginning to affect the world's oceans beyond repair.&nbsp;

The plastic breaks down into micro-plastics which are then ingested by fish. We eat the fish, along with the plastic in them.&nbsp;

That might be causing cancer in humans.&nbsp;

The toxins released by the breakdown of the plastic are also hurting marine life.&nbsp;

 
Global warming in India 
Varsha says a good place in India to see the effects of global warming is the Andamans.&nbsp;

The most obvious effect of the warming is coral bleaching, or the dying of coral reefs. They go from being vividly colourful to white overnight.&nbsp;

Caused by a sudden rise in water temperature, entire sections of coral reef in the Andamans have been known to bleach overnight.&nbsp;

 
Giving up the crown 
Varsha gave up her crown (all good things must come to an end, and you only get to be queen for a year) in November last year.&nbsp;

What was that like? "Emotional," says Varsha. Any separation anxiety? "Yes," says Varsha, "you get used to the crown. To being a queen."

Did she cry? "Yes, but with a smile." Did she cry when she had won? "Oh yes," says Varsha. "Especially because they announced the winner's name as India, not Varsha Rajkhowa."&nbsp;

 
So, what now?&nbsp; 
"My work as an ocean ambassador starts now," says Varsha, adding that her responsibilities have increased. She means that in the year she was reigning queen, she got to travel and tour with the Miss Scuba International organisation, but that she now has to talk about the world's oceans, their conservation, and scuba diving (remember what the award is called) and safe diving practices — all on her own.&nbsp;

"I'm working with the people I can," says Varsha, "schools and colleges, spreading awareness." She says that she was recently in the Konkan region, where she talked about plastic, the damage it can do, and how to limit it.&nbsp;

Varsha also did an awareness programme recently with the Climate Reality Project, a non-profit working on education and advocacy related to climate change..&nbsp;

What about the public? Are they listening?&nbsp;

“They will listen,” Varsha had told WION after winning her crown. “You tell people that we will be left with no oceans by 2030 if we are not careful – and if there are no oceans, there will be no earth – and they will listen.”&nbsp;

Are they listening now?&nbsp;

"They are,' says Varsha. "They even do what you ask them to for a day or two. But there isn't very much follow-up." &nbsp;

Varsha Rajkhowa, 26, won the Miss Scuba International beauty pageant in Malaysia. She could now, arguably and with a little hyperbole, be called 'chief spokesperson of the world's oceans'

Varsha Rajkhowa, 26, won the Miss Scuba International beauty pageant in Malaysia in November 2016. Miss Scuba International is a beauty pageant with a slight twist – the contestants all have to be scuba divers. There were a total of 16 contestants from countries including the US, UK, and the Netherlands, and it was the first time an Indian was competing but Varsha won. Varsha could now, arguably and with a little hyperbole, be called “chief spokesperson of the world's oceans”. But, she had told WION when we first met her, the people are not listening to her. “I tell them not to litter and they say, 'You're a marine environmentalist. Why do you care about littering on land?' “But all that plastic... it ends up in the ocean,” says Varsha. “Do you know the five ocean gyres are full of plastic?” The five ocean gyres are the world's major ocean currents. The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is now becoming visible from space. That “patch” is a gargantuan floating collection of litter in the North Pacific Ocean, most of it having made its way from the land to the sea. Estimates of the “patch's” size range from 700,000 square kilometres to 15,000,000 square kilometres – that's 8% of the Pacific Ocean or, according to some media reports, up to "twice the size of the continental United States". There is also an Indian Ocean Garbage Patch. This plastic – and global warming, and tourism – is beginning to affect the world's oceans beyond repair. The plastic breaks down into micro-plastics which are then ingested by fish. We eat the fish, along with the plastic in them. That might be causing cancer in humans. The toxins released by the breakdown of the plastic are also hurting marine life. Global warming in India Varsha says a good place in India to see the effects of global warming is the Andamans. The most obvious effect of the warming is coral bleaching, or the dying of coral reefs. They go from being vividly colourful to white overnight. Caused by a sudden rise in water temperature, entire sections of coral reef in the Andamans have been known to bleach overnight. Giving up the crown Varsha gave up her crown (all good things must come to an end, and you only get to be queen for a year) in November last year. What was that like? "Emotional," says Varsha. Any separation anxiety? "Yes," says Varsha, "you get used to the crown. To being a queen." Did she cry? "Yes, but with a smile." Did she cry when she had won? "Oh yes," says Varsha. "Especially because they announced the winner's name as India, not Varsha Rajkhowa." So, what now? "My work as an ocean ambassador starts now," says Varsha, adding that her responsibilities have increased. She means that in the year she was reigning queen, she got to travel and tour with the Miss Scuba International organisation, but that she now has to talk about the world's oceans, their conservation, and scuba diving (remember what the award is called) and safe diving practices — all on her own. "I'm working with the people I can," says Varsha, "schools and colleges, spreading awareness." She says that she was recently in the Konkan region, where she talked about plastic, the damage it can do, and how to limit it. Varsha also did an awareness programme recently with the Climate Reality Project, a non-profit working on education and advocacy related to climate change.. What about the public? Are they listening? “They will listen,” Varsha had told WION after winning her crown. “You tell people that we will be left with no oceans by 2030 if we are not careful – and if there are no oceans, there will be no earth – and they will listen.” Are they listening now? "They are,' says Varsha. "They even do what you ask them to for a day or two. But there isn't very much follow-up."

The Indian beauty queen that no one has heard of

By Mike Muller*

Each year UNESCO releases a World Water Assessment Report, a document that explores potential solutions to the globe’s water problems. The 2018 report will focus on nature based solutions.

The authors suggest that this approach will

address contemporary water management challenges across all sectors, and particularly regarding water for agriculture, sustainable cities, disaster risk reduction and improving water quality.

It would see the use of “ecosystem services” from the natural environment to provide water supplies and water purification. For example, some of the proposals in the report, with which I have been engaging since 2015, include relying on wetlands to store and purify water rather than building dams and treatment plants.

Although they are attractive, these nature-based solutions are not the ‘green bullet’ that will solve the world’s water problems. They can work in some places, but on the whole they face serious limitations. These include the fact that they often require lots of land and compete with farming and housing for space.

On top of this nature-based solutions may actually be harmful. They can reduce the amount of water available for human use and contribute to climate change. They may even fail during extreme droughts or floods.

Lastly, they simply cannot respond to the pace at which developing countries are growing and the water requirements and challenges that come with this. This means that nature-based approaches will do little to meet the African continent’s needs.

Lessons from Cape Town

Cape Town’s ongoing water crisis illustrates the problems. The South African city has tried “green” water management options these have not averted the current crisis.

Take the “Working for Water” programme. Established as a national Public Works Programme in 1995 its aim was to make more water available by cutting alien trees, which are said to consume a great deal of water. Hundreds of millions of rand have been spent around Cape Town as part of this programme. It’s created tens of thousands of short-term public works jobs – but provided no relief from the drought.

Another solution that is being implemented is to reuse some of the wastewater the city currently dumps into the sea. This has to be carefully purified. One way to do this would be to use natural purification in large sewage treatment ponds. But land is scarce and there is not nearly enough open space available. Instead, conventional mechanical treatment infrastructure will be needed.

Value in some contexts

This is not to say that nature-based solutions have no value – in the right context.

For instance, it makes sense to recharge the groundwater on which many communities depend if there is an opportunity to do so. This approach is being proposed in the report in place of new dams. In the US some states that have large “aquifers” do this regularly. They effectively manage underground storage in aquifers as a dam, pumping water in when they have surplus and extracting it again when they need it.

In Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, the local aquifer whose springs attracted German colonial settlers is now being used to provide additional storage to help the city to survive during its frequent droughts.

But, as the Windhoek case shows, even supposedly natural solutions need an infrastructure of pumps, pipelines, recharge wells and reservoirs. They also require large areas of the city to remain undeveloped so that the underground water is not polluted by people living above it.

So these “natural” methods remain an attractive option for smaller towns the challenge for larger cities is often their extensive land requirements.

Proponents of nature-based approaches also often fail to recognise their down-sides. Sustainable urban drainage, for instance, uses grassy areas and permeable pavements to slow the flow of storm water and allow it to soak into the soil. While some may recharge groundwater, much is lost to evaporation and so reduces the flow of water into rivers and dams.

In South Africa, only around 8% of rainfall actually reaches rivers and dams. Reducing that flow will actually reduce the amount of water available for use and increase water scarcity.

Similarly, while proponents of nature-based solutions make much of the ability of wetlands to store water and release a small and steady flow after a flood, they also lose large quantities of water through evaporation. 94% of the Okavango River, southern Africa’s third largest, is lost to evaporation in this way from Botswana’s Okavango swamps, as is half of the flow of the White Nile from the Sudd swamps of Southern Sudan.

Wetlands also aggravate the problems of climate change and accelerate global warming. They are the largest single emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas which is driving global warming. More methane is generated by wetlands than from all human sources – and this is expected to increase as the earth warms.

Large challenges

The real problem is that the nature-based approaches originated in the context of Europe and North America. These regions have already built many of the infrastructure systems they need, from dams and pipe networks to wastewater treatment works. They do not have Africa’s huge infrastructure deficit.

Rich country populations are static. With their basic needs now met, they seek to improve the quality of their environment. But developing countries face a completely different kind of challenge. As an example, by 2050 sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population is expected to increase by 720 million people while Europe’s will grow by just 36 million.

So, while some nature-based approaches may be relevant, the reality is that they will make only a small contribution to the large challenges that the developing world must address.&nbsp

*Mike Muller is a visiting adjunct Professor at University of the Witwatersrand

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

The nature-based solutions are not the ‘green bullet’ that will solve the world’s water problems. They can work in some places, but on the whole, they face serious limitations

By Mike Muller* Each year UNESCO releases a World Water Assessment Report, a document that explores potential solutions to the globe’s water problems. The 2018 report will focus on nature based solutions. The authors suggest that this approach will address contemporary water management challenges across all sectors, and particularly regarding water for agriculture, sustainable cities, disaster risk reduction and improving water quality. It would see the use of “ecosystem services” from the natural environment to provide water supplies and water purification. For example, some of the proposals in the report, with which I have been engaging since 2015, include relying on wetlands to store and purify water rather than building dams and treatment plants. Although they are attractive, these nature-based solutions are not the ‘green bullet’ that will solve the world’s water problems. They can work in some places, but on the whole they face serious limitations. These include the fact that they often require lots of land and compete with farming and housing for space. On top of this nature-based solutions may actually be harmful. They can reduce the amount of water available for human use and contribute to climate change. They may even fail during extreme droughts or floods. Lastly, they simply cannot respond to the pace at which developing countries are growing and the water requirements and challenges that come with this. This means that nature-based approaches will do little to meet the African continent’s needs. Lessons from Cape Town Cape Town’s ongoing water crisis illustrates the problems. The South African city has tried “green” water management options these have not averted the current crisis. Take the “Working for Water” programme. Established as a national Public Works Programme in 1995 its aim was to make more water available by cutting alien trees, which are said to consume a great deal of water. Hundreds of millions of rand have been spent around Cape Town as part of this programme. It’s created tens of thousands of short-term public works jobs – but provided no relief from the drought. Another solution that is being implemented is to reuse some of the wastewater the city currently dumps into the sea. This has to be carefully purified. One way to do this would be to use natural purification in large sewage treatment ponds. But land is scarce and there is not nearly enough open space available. Instead, conventional mechanical treatment infrastructure will be needed. Value in some contexts This is not to say that nature-based solutions have no value – in the right context. For instance, it makes sense to recharge the groundwater on which many communities depend if there is an opportunity to do so. This approach is being proposed in the report in place of new dams. In the US some states that have large “aquifers” do this regularly. They effectively manage underground storage in aquifers as a dam, pumping water in when they have surplus and extracting it again when they need it. In Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, the local aquifer whose springs attracted German colonial settlers is now being used to provide additional storage to help the city to survive during its frequent droughts. But, as the Windhoek case shows, even supposedly natural solutions need an infrastructure of pumps, pipelines, recharge wells and reservoirs. They also require large areas of the city to remain undeveloped so that the underground water is not polluted by people living above it. So these “natural” methods remain an attractive option for smaller towns the challenge for larger cities is often their extensive land requirements. Proponents of nature-based approaches also often fail to recognise their down-sides. Sustainable urban drainage, for instance, uses grassy areas and permeable pavements to slow the flow of storm water and allow it to soak into the soil. While some may recharge groundwater, much is lost to evaporation and so reduces the flow of water into rivers and dams. In South Africa, only around 8% of rainfall actually reaches rivers and dams. Reducing that flow will actually reduce the amount of water available for use and increase water scarcity. Similarly, while proponents of nature-based solutions make much of the ability of wetlands to store water and release a small and steady flow after a flood, they also lose large quantities of water through evaporation. 94% of the Okavango River, southern Africa’s third largest, is lost to evaporation in this way from Botswana’s Okavango swamps, as is half of the flow of the White Nile from the Sudd swamps of Southern Sudan. Wetlands also aggravate the problems of climate change and accelerate global warming. They are the largest single emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas which is driving global warming. More methane is generated by wetlands than from all human sources – and this is expected to increase as the earth warms. Large challenges The real problem is that the nature-based approaches originated in the context of Europe and North America. These regions have already built many of the infrastructure systems they need, from dams and pipe networks to wastewater treatment works. They do not have Africa’s huge infrastructure deficit. Rich country populations are static. With their basic needs now met, they seek to improve the quality of their environment. But developing countries face a completely different kind of challenge. As an example, by 2050 sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population is expected to increase by 720 million people while Europe’s will grow by just 36 million. So, while some nature-based approaches may be relevant, the reality is that they will make only a small contribution to the large challenges that the developing world must address. *Mike Muller is a visiting adjunct Professor at University of the Witwatersrand (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Why UNESCO's 'natural solutions' to water problems won't work in Africa

India is the most vulnerable country to climate change, followed by Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh, a ranking by HSBC showed on Monday.

The bank assessed 67 developed, emerging and frontier markets on vulnerability to the physical impacts of climate change, sensitivity to extreme weather events, exposure to energy transition risks and ability to respond to climate change.

The 67 nations represent almost a third of the world&rsquo;s nation-states, 80 percent of the global population and 94 percent of the global gross domestic product.

Final scores were averaged in each area for the countries in order to reach the overall ranking. Some countries were highly vulnerable in some areas but less so in others.

Of the four nations assessed to be most vulnerable, India has said climate change could cut agricultural incomes, particularly unirrigated areas that would be hit hardest by rising temperatures and declines in rainfall.

Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines are susceptible to extreme weather events, such as storms and flooding.

Pakistan was ranked among nations least well-equipped to respond to climate risks.&nbsp;

South and Southeast Asian countries accounted for half of the 10 most vulnerable countries. Oman, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Mexico, Kenya and South Africa are also in this group.

The five countries least vulnerable to climate change risk are Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and New Zealand. In its last ranking in 2016, HSBC only assessed G20 countries for vulnerability to climate risk.

Pakistan was ranked among nations least well-equipped to respond to climate risks

India is the most vulnerable country to climate change, followed by Pakistan, the Philippines and Bangladesh, a ranking by HSBC showed on Monday. The bank assessed 67 developed, emerging and frontier markets on vulnerability to the physical impacts of climate change, sensitivity to extreme weather events, exposure to energy transition risks and ability to respond to climate change. The 67 nations represent almost a third of the world’s nation-states, 80 percent of the global population and 94 percent of the global gross domestic product. Final scores were averaged in each area for the countries in order to reach the overall ranking. Some countries were highly vulnerable in some areas but less so in others. Of the four nations assessed to be most vulnerable, India has said climate change could cut agricultural incomes, particularly unirrigated areas that would be hit hardest by rising temperatures and declines in rainfall. Pakistan, Bangladesh and the Philippines are susceptible to extreme weather events, such as storms and flooding. Pakistan was ranked among nations least well-equipped to respond to climate risks. South and Southeast Asian countries accounted for half of the 10 most vulnerable countries. Oman, Sri Lanka, Colombia, Mexico, Kenya and South Africa are also in this group. The five countries least vulnerable to climate change risk are Finland, Sweden, Norway, Estonia and New Zealand. In its last ranking in 2016, HSBC only assessed G20 countries for vulnerability to climate risk.

India most vulnerable country to climate change: Report

By Mike Muller*

Each year UNESCO releases a World Water Assessment Report, a document that explores potential solutions to the globe&rsquo;s water problems. The 2018 report will focus on nature based solutions.

The authors suggest that this approach will

address contemporary water management challenges across all sectors, and particularly regarding water for agriculture, sustainable cities, disaster risk reduction and improving water quality.

It would see the use of &ldquo;ecosystem services&rdquo; from the natural environment to provide water supplies and water purification. For example, some of the proposals in the report, with which I have been engaging since 2015, include relying on wetlands to store and purify water rather than building dams and treatment plants.

Although they are attractive, these nature based solutions are not the &lsquo;green bullet&rsquo; that will solve the world&rsquo;s water problems. They can work in some places, but on the whole they face serious limitations. These include the fact that they often require lots of land and compete with farming and housing for space.

On top of this nature based solutions may actually be harmful. They can reduce the amount of water available for human use and contribute to climate change. They may even fail during extreme droughts or floods.

Lastly, they simply cannot respond to the pace at which developing countries are growing and the water requirements and challenges that come with this. This means that nature-based approaches will do little to meet the African continent&rsquo;s needs.

Lessons from Cape Town

Cape Town&rsquo;s ongoing water crisis illustrates the problems. The South African city has tried &ldquo;green&rdquo; water management options; these have not averted the current crisis.

Take the &ldquo;Working for Water&rdquo; programme. Established as a national Public Works Programme in 1995 its aim was to make more water available by cutting alien trees, which are said to consume a great deal of water. Hundreds of millions of rand have been spent around Cape Town as part of this programme. It&rsquo;s created tens of thousands of short term public works jobs &ndash; but provided no relief from the drought.

Another solution that is being implemented is to reuse some of the wastewater the city currently dumps into the sea. This has to be carefully purified. One way to do this would be to use natural purification in large sewage treatment ponds. But land is scarce and there is not nearly enough open space available. Instead, conventional mechanical treatment infrastructure will be needed.

Value in some contexts

This is not to say that nature based solutions have no value &ndash; in the right context.

For instance, it makes sense to recharge the groundwater on which many communities depend if there is an opportunity to do so. This approach is being proposed in the report in place of new dams. In the US some states that have large &ldquo;aquifers&rdquo; do this regularly. They effectively manage underground storage in aquifers as a dam, pumping water in when they have surplus and extracting it again when they need it.

In Windhoek, Namibia&rsquo;s capital, the local aquifer whose springs attracted German colonial settlers is now being used to provide additional storage to help the city to survive during its frequent droughts.

But, as the Windhoek case shows, even supposedly natural solutions need an infrastructure of pumps, pipelines, recharge wells and reservoirs. They also require large areas of the city to remain undeveloped so that the underground water is not polluted by people living above it.

So these &ldquo;natural&rdquo; methods remain an attractive option for smaller towns; the challenge for larger cities is often their extensive land requirements.

Proponents of nature-based approaches also often fail to recognise their down-sides. Sustainable urban drainage, for instance, uses grassy areas and permeable pavements to slow the flow of storm water and allow it to soak into the soil. While some may recharge groundwater, much is lost to evaporation and so reduces the flow of water into rivers and dams.

In South Africa, only around 8% of rainfall actually reaches rivers and dams. Reducing that flow will actually reduce the amount of water available for use and increase water scarcity.

Similarly, while proponents of nature based solutions make much of the ability of wetlands to store water and release a small and steady flow after a flood, they also lose large quantities of water through evaporation. 94% of the Okavango River, southern Africa&rsquo;s third largest, is lost to evaporation in this way from Botswana&rsquo;s Okavango swamps, as is half of the flow of the White Nile from the Sudd swamps of Southern Sudan.

Wetlands also aggravate the problems of climate change and accelerate global warming. They are the largest single emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas which is driving global warming. More methane is generated by wetlands than from all human sources &ndash; and this is expected to increase as the earth warms.

Large challenges

The real problem is that the nature based approaches originated in the context of Europe and North America. These regions have already built many of the infrastructure systems they need, from dams and pipe networks to wastewater treatment works. They do not have Africa&rsquo;s huge infrastructure deficit.

Rich country populations are static. With their basic needs now met, they seek to improve the quality of their environment. But developing countries face a completely different kind of challenge. As an example, by 2050 sub-Saharan Africa&rsquo;s urban population is expected to increase by 720 million people while Europe&rsquo;s will grow by just 36 million.

So, while some nature-based approaches may be relevant, the reality is that they will make only a small contribution to the large challenges that the developing world must address.&nbsp;

*Mike Muller is a visiting adjunct Professor at University of the Witwatersrand

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

The nature based solutions are not the ‘green bullet’ that will solve the world’s water problems. They can work in some places, but on the whole they face serious limitations.

By Mike Muller* Each year UNESCO releases a World Water Assessment Report, a document that explores potential solutions to the globe’s water problems. The 2018 report will focus on nature based solutions. The authors suggest that this approach will address contemporary water management challenges across all sectors, and particularly regarding water for agriculture, sustainable cities, disaster risk reduction and improving water quality. It would see the use of “ecosystem services” from the natural environment to provide water supplies and water purification. For example, some of the proposals in the report, with which I have been engaging since 2015, include relying on wetlands to store and purify water rather than building dams and treatment plants. Although they are attractive, these nature based solutions are not the ‘green bullet’ that will solve the world’s water problems. They can work in some places, but on the whole they face serious limitations. These include the fact that they often require lots of land and compete with farming and housing for space. On top of this nature based solutions may actually be harmful. They can reduce the amount of water available for human use and contribute to climate change. They may even fail during extreme droughts or floods. Lastly, they simply cannot respond to the pace at which developing countries are growing and the water requirements and challenges that come with this. This means that nature-based approaches will do little to meet the African continent’s needs. Lessons from Cape Town Cape Town’s ongoing water crisis illustrates the problems. The South African city has tried “green” water management options; these have not averted the current crisis. Take the “Working for Water” programme. Established as a national Public Works Programme in 1995 its aim was to make more water available by cutting alien trees, which are said to consume a great deal of water. Hundreds of millions of rand have been spent around Cape Town as part of this programme. It’s created tens of thousands of short term public works jobs – but provided no relief from the drought. Another solution that is being implemented is to reuse some of the wastewater the city currently dumps into the sea. This has to be carefully purified. One way to do this would be to use natural purification in large sewage treatment ponds. But land is scarce and there is not nearly enough open space available. Instead, conventional mechanical treatment infrastructure will be needed. Value in some contexts This is not to say that nature based solutions have no value – in the right context. For instance, it makes sense to recharge the groundwater on which many communities depend if there is an opportunity to do so. This approach is being proposed in the report in place of new dams. In the US some states that have large “aquifers” do this regularly. They effectively manage underground storage in aquifers as a dam, pumping water in when they have surplus and extracting it again when they need it. In Windhoek, Namibia’s capital, the local aquifer whose springs attracted German colonial settlers is now being used to provide additional storage to help the city to survive during its frequent droughts. But, as the Windhoek case shows, even supposedly natural solutions need an infrastructure of pumps, pipelines, recharge wells and reservoirs. They also require large areas of the city to remain undeveloped so that the underground water is not polluted by people living above it. So these “natural” methods remain an attractive option for smaller towns; the challenge for larger cities is often their extensive land requirements. Proponents of nature-based approaches also often fail to recognise their down-sides. Sustainable urban drainage, for instance, uses grassy areas and permeable pavements to slow the flow of storm water and allow it to soak into the soil. While some may recharge groundwater, much is lost to evaporation and so reduces the flow of water into rivers and dams. In South Africa, only around 8% of rainfall actually reaches rivers and dams. Reducing that flow will actually reduce the amount of water available for use and increase water scarcity. Similarly, while proponents of nature based solutions make much of the ability of wetlands to store water and release a small and steady flow after a flood, they also lose large quantities of water through evaporation. 94% of the Okavango River, southern Africa’s third largest, is lost to evaporation in this way from Botswana’s Okavango swamps, as is half of the flow of the White Nile from the Sudd swamps of Southern Sudan. Wetlands also aggravate the problems of climate change and accelerate global warming. They are the largest single emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas which is driving global warming. More methane is generated by wetlands than from all human sources – and this is expected to increase as the earth warms. Large challenges The real problem is that the nature based approaches originated in the context of Europe and North America. These regions have already built many of the infrastructure systems they need, from dams and pipe networks to wastewater treatment works. They do not have Africa’s huge infrastructure deficit. Rich country populations are static. With their basic needs now met, they seek to improve the quality of their environment. But developing countries face a completely different kind of challenge. As an example, by 2050 sub-Saharan Africa’s urban population is expected to increase by 720 million people while Europe’s will grow by just 36 million. So, while some nature-based approaches may be relevant, the reality is that they will make only a small contribution to the large challenges that the developing world must address. *Mike Muller is a visiting adjunct Professor at University of the Witwatersrand (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Global warming could place 25 to 50 per cent of species in the Amazon, Madagascar and other biodiverse areas at risk of localised extinction within decades, a report said Wednesday.

The lower projection is based on a mercury rise of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels -- the warming ceiling the world&#39;s nations agreed on in 2015.&nbsp;

The highest is for out-of-control warming of 4.5 C.

&quot;Global biodiversity will suffer terribly over the next century unless we do everything we can,&quot; said conservation group WWF, which commissioned the analysis published in science journal Climatic Change.

&quot;We must keep average global temperatures down to the absolute minimum.&quot;

The report focused on 33 so-called &quot;Priority Places&quot; which host some of the world&#39;s richest and most unusual terrestrial species, including iconic, endangered, or endemic plants and animals.

They include southern Chile, the eastern Himalayas, South Africa&#39;s unique Fynbos ecoregion, Borneo, Sumatra, the Namibian desert, West Africa, southwest Australia, coastal east Africa, and southern Africa&#39;s Miombo Woodlands, home to African wild dogs.

The team looked at the impact of climate change on nearly 80,000 terrestrial plant, mammal, bird, amphibian, and reptile species.

At warming of 4.5 C, based on a &quot;business-as-usual&quot; scenario of no emissions cuts, the Amazon could risk the local extinction of 69 per cent of its plant species.&nbsp;

The Miombo Woodlands risks losing 90 per cent of its amphibians, 86 per cent of birds, and 80 per cent of mammals, according to the report.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries made voluntary pledges to curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and natural gas.

New normal

But even if those pledges are met, scientists predict warming over 3 C, a recipe for disastrous climate change-triggered sea level rises, superstorms, floods, and droughts.

Warming of 3.2 C would place about 37 per cent of species in Priority Places at risk of local extinction, said a WWF statement.

&quot;Even with the emissions cuts pledged under the Paris Agreement, temperatures that were extreme in the past are set to be the new normal in all Priority Places,&quot; it added -- in some as early as 2030.

Limiting warming to 2 C would enable many species to continue inhabiting the areas they currently occupy, according to the report.

And if animals can move freely -- not constrained by roads, fences, or human settlements -- the proportion of species at extinction risk at warming of 2 C drops from 25 to 20 per cent.

The report comes ahead of a major meeting of the IPBES inter-governmental panel in Medellin, Colombia, where scientists and governments will release five assessments of the state of biodiversity.

Extinction is not simply about the disappearance of species, said the WWF, &quot;but about profound changes to ecosystems that provide vital services to hundreds of millions of people.&quot;

Job- and revenue-generating tourism would suffer greatly if species disappear, and as-yet-undiscovered medicines from plants forever lost.

&quot;Put simply, we have to stop burning fossil fuels,&quot; said the WWF.

The lower projection is based on a mercury rise of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels -- the warming ceiling the world's nations agreed on in 2015

Global warming could place 25 to 50 per cent of species in the Amazon, Madagascar and other biodiverse areas at risk of localised extinction within decades, a report said Wednesday. The lower projection is based on a mercury rise of two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-Industrial Revolution levels -- the warming ceiling the world's nations agreed on in 2015. The highest is for out-of-control warming of 4.5 C. "Global biodiversity will suffer terribly over the next century unless we do everything we can," said conservation group WWF, which commissioned the analysis published in science journal Climatic Change. "We must keep average global temperatures down to the absolute minimum." The report focused on 33 so-called "Priority Places" which host some of the world's richest and most unusual terrestrial species, including iconic, endangered, or endemic plants and animals. They include southern Chile, the eastern Himalayas, South Africa's unique Fynbos ecoregion, Borneo, Sumatra, the Namibian desert, West Africa, southwest Australia, coastal east Africa, and southern Africa's Miombo Woodlands, home to African wild dogs. The team looked at the impact of climate change on nearly 80,000 terrestrial plant, mammal, bird, amphibian, and reptile species. At warming of 4.5 C, based on a "business-as-usual" scenario of no emissions cuts, the Amazon could risk the local extinction of 69 per cent of its plant species. The Miombo Woodlands risks losing 90 per cent of its amphibians, 86 per cent of birds, and 80 per cent of mammals, according to the report. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, countries made voluntary pledges to curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from burning coal, oil and natural gas. New normal But even if those pledges are met, scientists predict warming over 3 C, a recipe for disastrous climate change-triggered sea level rises, superstorms, floods, and droughts. Warming of 3.2 C would place about 37 per cent of species in Priority Places at risk of local extinction, said a WWF statement. "Even with the emissions cuts pledged under the Paris Agreement, temperatures that were extreme in the past are set to be the new normal in all Priority Places," it added -- in some as early as 2030. Limiting warming to 2 C would enable many species to continue inhabiting the areas they currently occupy, according to the report. And if animals can move freely -- not constrained by roads, fences, or human settlements -- the proportion of species at extinction risk at warming of 2 C drops from 25 to 20 per cent. The report comes ahead of a major meeting of the IPBES inter-governmental panel in Medellin, Colombia, where scientists and governments will release five assessments of the state of biodiversity. Extinction is not simply about the disappearance of species, said the WWF, "but about profound changes to ecosystems that provide vital services to hundreds of millions of people." Job- and revenue-generating tourism would suffer greatly if species disappear, and as-yet-undiscovered medicines from plants forever lost. "Put simply, we have to stop burning fossil fuels," said the WWF.

Warming could threaten half of species in 33 key areas: Report

French President Emmanuel Macron today emphasised on the need for more pacts on the environment at the global level that could empower people in having a say in battling climate change.

He also stressed on higher investments by the governments to deal with climate change.

Referring to the Paris Framework Agreement on Climate Change, Macron said despite the US decision to leave the pact, many countries have decided to stick by it.

&quot;We want to step up that (the fight against climate change) with new agreements at the UN by 2020, which will give new rights to people...People can go against a company or a government, saying you are not complying with your own commitment,&quot; Macron said.

The French leader was speaking at an interaction with students at a Town Hall here.

Responding to a question on the French government&#39;s stand on artificial intelligence (AI), Macron said it was necessary to invest heavily in the field to create an alternative as it currently dominated by the US and China.

Elaborating on the issue, he said in the US, the AI fight is led by private players---Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and others.

&quot;It is totally privately driven and privately held, which according to me is a big mistake because it deals with privacy...In a certain way with the choice of the society because it will impact your day-to-day life, your intimacy and so on. And these guys will decide for you,&quot; Marcon said.

On the other hand, it is fully controlled by the state in China, he said.

&quot;In China, it is 100 per cent state-driven, government-driven. You have the private leaders but all the data is controlled and monitored by the government, which is, for me not a society I decided to live in,&quot; Macron said.

&quot;So, for Europe, it is necessary to create another model and research in this field is a critical element,&quot; he said.

This, he said, will not only create a single digital market but also help build its own regulations in the arena.

Responding to a question on qualities of a good leader, Macron said a leader is one who has an inclusive approach vis-a-vis gender and religion.

&quot;I think one of the main mistakes of a leader would try to create a sort of domination of your side...Of your people and the others because it is never sustainable and because large parts of violence in our current world is due to frustrations of the minorities, frustrations of dominated people&quot;.

In a nearly hour-long interaction, Macron was asked questions ranging from lighter queries like handling mud-slinging in public life to a more serious one related to climate change and security of women.

Dressed in white shirt, black trousers with a black tie, Macron obliged students seeking selfies with him.

The French leader was speaking at an interaction with students at a Town Hall here

French President Emmanuel Macron today emphasised on the need for more pacts on the environment at the global level that could empower people in having a say in battling climate change. He also stressed on higher investments by the governments to deal with climate change. Referring to the Paris Framework Agreement on Climate Change, Macron said despite the US decision to leave the pact, many countries have decided to stick by it. "We want to step up that (the fight against climate change) with new agreements at the UN by 2020, which will give new rights to people...People can go against a company or a government, saying you are not complying with your own commitment," Macron said. The French leader was speaking at an interaction with students at a Town Hall here. Responding to a question on the French government's stand on artificial intelligence (AI), Macron said it was necessary to invest heavily in the field to create an alternative as it currently dominated by the US and China. Elaborating on the issue, he said in the US, the AI fight is led by private players---Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple and others. "It is totally privately driven and privately held, which according to me is a big mistake because it deals with privacy...In a certain way with the choice of the society because it will impact your day-to-day life, your intimacy and so on. And these guys will decide for you," Marcon said. On the other hand, it is fully controlled by the state in China, he said. "In China, it is 100 per cent state-driven, government-driven. You have the private leaders but all the data is controlled and monitored by the government, which is, for me not a society I decided to live in," Macron said. "So, for Europe, it is necessary to create another model and research in this field is a critical element," he said. This, he said, will not only create a single digital market but also help build its own regulations in the arena. Responding to a question on qualities of a good leader, Macron said a leader is one who has an inclusive approach vis-a-vis gender and religion. "I think one of the main mistakes of a leader would try to create a sort of domination of your side...Of your people and the others because it is never sustainable and because large parts of violence in our current world is due to frustrations of the minorities, frustrations of dominated people". In a nearly hour-long interaction, Macron was asked questions ranging from lighter queries like handling mud-slinging in public life to a more serious one related to climate change and security of women. Dressed in white shirt, black trousers with a black tie, Macron obliged students seeking selfies with him.

More pacts needed to fight climate change: Emmanuel Macron

Not for the first time in recent years, Europe has descended into a deep freeze while the Arctic experiences record high temperatures, leaving scientists to ponder the role global warming may play in turning winter weather upside down.

The reversal has been dramatic.

A Siberian cold front has spread sub-zero temperatures across Europe, carpeting southern cities and palm-lined Mediterranean beaches with snow.

On Sunday, meanwhile, air temperatures at the North Pole -- which won&#39;t see the Sun until March -- rose above freezing.

&quot;In relative terms, that&#39;s a 30 C (54 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature anomaly,&quot; Robert Rohde, lead scientist at Berkeley Earth in Washington, tweeted.

At the Longyearbyen weather station on the Island of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean, temperatures were 10 C above average over the last 30 days, according to Zack Labe, a climate modeller at the University of California Irvine.

At the same time, sea ice is covering the smallest area in the dead of winter since records began more than half a century ago.

In one region, around Svalbard, the area covered by sea ice -- 205,727 square kilometres -- on Monday was less than half the average for the period 1981-2010, the Norway Ice Service reported.

&quot;Positive temperatures near the North Pole in winter are thought to have occurred during four winters between 1980 and 2010,&quot; Robert Graham, a climate scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, told AFP.

They have now occurred in four out of the last five winters.&quot;

This acceleration, experts said, circumstantially points to climate change, which has -- over the same period -- warmed the Arctic region twice as fast as the global average.

Transform the planet 
Another clue may be the Arctic thaw/European deep freeze pairing.&nbsp;

&quot;The surge of mild weather at the North Pole and the cold front in Europe are directly linked,&quot; Etienne Kapikian, a scientist at Meteo France, the national weather service, told AFP.

&quot;Just how hot is the Arctic now?&quot; tweeted Peter Gleick, president emeritus of the Pacific Institute and a member of the US National Academy of Science.

&quot;Hotter than ever measured in winter. Human-caused climate change is beginning to radically transform our planet.&quot;

Gleick&#39;s larger assertion is no longer seriously contested, but the link between the &quot;warm Arctic, cold continent&quot; phenomenon and global warming has yet to be proven, other scientists say.

If the connection with global warming remains speculative, the mechanics of what scientists call &quot;sudden stratospheric warming&quot; -- the weird winter weather&#39;s immediate cause -- is well understood.

Strong winds in the stratosphere circulate west-to-east over the Arctic some 30 kilometres above Earth&#39;s surface. This is the polar vortex.

The jet stream, meanwhile, races in the same direction at bullet-train speed 10 kilometres overhead at the upper boundary of the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere.

Sometimes the vortex dramatically warms and weakens, with winds slowing down and even reversing, explained Marlene Kretschmer, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.&nbsp;

A cooling tendency 
&quot;When this happens, it can affect the jet stream where our weather is made,&quot; she told AFP. &quot;That is exactly what has happened now.&quot;

Freezing Arctic air that is normally &quot;locked&quot; in the polar vortex breaks out, creating the Siberian cold front that has blanketed Europe.&nbsp;

Sudden stratospheric warming occurs, on average, every other year, so it is not a rare phenomenon.&nbsp;

But over the last two decades, the vortex&#39;s breakdowns have become deeper and more persistent.

&quot;Overall, the global warming trend is clear,&quot; said Kretschmer. Earth&#39;s average surface temperature has gone up by one degree Celsius since the mid-19th century -- enough to unleash deadly drought, heatwaves, and storms engorged by rising seas.

&quot;But if you just look at winter temperatures since 1990, you see a cooling tendency in winter over northern Eurasia.&quot;

Still, the question remains: What drives changes in the intensity and duration of sudden stratospheric warming?

One theory holds that newly ice-free ocean surface -- which absorbs the Sun&#39;s rays rather than bouncing them back into space like snow -- releases warmth into the air that eventually disrupts the stratosphere.&nbsp;

&quot;It is hard to say that any one event is linked to global warming,&quot; said Kretschmer.

&quot;But there are a lot of studies now suggesting this pattern -- warm Arctic, cold continent -- could be linked to climate change.&quot;

&quot;This much is certain -- there is overwhelming evidence that changes in the Arctic will affect our weather,&quot; she added.

Parts of Europe are at the moment colder than the Arctic

Not for the first time in recent years, Europe has descended into a deep freeze while the Arctic experiences record high temperatures, leaving scientists to ponder the role global warming may play in turning winter weather upside down. The reversal has been dramatic. A Siberian cold front has spread sub-zero temperatures across Europe, carpeting southern cities and palm-lined Mediterranean beaches with snow. On Sunday, meanwhile, air temperatures at the North Pole -- which won't see the Sun until March -- rose above freezing. "In relative terms, that's a 30 C (54 degrees Fahrenheit) temperature anomaly," Robert Rohde, lead scientist at Berkeley Earth in Washington, tweeted. At the Longyearbyen weather station on the Island of Svalbard in the Arctic Ocean, temperatures were 10 C above average over the last 30 days, according to Zack Labe, a climate modeller at the University of California Irvine. At the same time, sea ice is covering the smallest area in the dead of winter since records began more than half a century ago. In one region, around Svalbard, the area covered by sea ice -- 205,727 square kilometres -- on Monday was less than half the average for the period 1981-2010, the Norway Ice Service reported. "Positive temperatures near the North Pole in winter are thought to have occurred during four winters between 1980 and 2010," Robert Graham, a climate scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute, told AFP. They have now occurred in four out of the last five winters." This acceleration, experts said, circumstantially points to climate change, which has -- over the same period -- warmed the Arctic region twice as fast as the global average. Transform the planet Another clue may be the Arctic thaw/European deep freeze pairing. "The surge of mild weather at the North Pole and the cold front in Europe are directly linked," Etienne Kapikian, a scientist at Meteo France, the national weather service, told AFP. "Just how hot is the Arctic now?" tweeted Peter Gleick, president emeritus of the Pacific Institute and a member of the US National Academy of Science. "Hotter than ever measured in winter. Human-caused climate change is beginning to radically transform our planet." Gleick's larger assertion is no longer seriously contested, but the link between the "warm Arctic, cold continent" phenomenon and global warming has yet to be proven, other scientists say. If the connection with global warming remains speculative, the mechanics of what scientists call "sudden stratospheric warming" -- the weird winter weather's immediate cause -- is well understood. Strong winds in the stratosphere circulate west-to-east over the Arctic some 30 kilometres above Earth's surface. This is the polar vortex. The jet stream, meanwhile, races in the same direction at bullet-train speed 10 kilometres overhead at the upper boundary of the troposphere, the lowest layer of the atmosphere. Sometimes the vortex dramatically warms and weakens, with winds slowing down and even reversing, explained Marlene Kretschmer, a climate scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. A cooling tendency "When this happens, it can affect the jet stream where our weather is made," she told AFP. "That is exactly what has happened now." Freezing Arctic air that is normally "locked" in the polar vortex breaks out, creating the Siberian cold front that has blanketed Europe. Sudden stratospheric warming occurs, on average, every other year, so it is not a rare phenomenon. But over the last two decades, the vortex's breakdowns have become deeper and more persistent. "Overall, the global warming trend is clear," said Kretschmer. Earth's average surface temperature has gone up by one degree Celsius since the mid-19th century -- enough to unleash deadly drought, heatwaves, and storms engorged by rising seas. "But if you just look at winter temperatures since 1990, you see a cooling tendency in winter over northern Eurasia." Still, the question remains: What drives changes in the intensity and duration of sudden stratospheric warming? One theory holds that newly ice-free ocean surface -- which absorbs the Sun's rays rather than bouncing them back into space like snow -- releases warmth into the air that eventually disrupts the stratosphere. "It is hard to say that any one event is linked to global warming," said Kretschmer. "But there are a lot of studies now suggesting this pattern -- warm Arctic, cold continent -- could be linked to climate change." "This much is certain -- there is overwhelming evidence that changes in the Arctic will affect our weather," she added.

Europe is icy cold, the North Pole is balmy: Global warming turns world upside down

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark on Saturday highlighted the major challenges confronting the world today.&nbsp;

In an exclusive interview with WION, Helen praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the challenges which were earlier ignored by prominent leaders.&nbsp;

Helen said that climate change is one of the biggest challenges the world currently needs to address.&nbsp;

When asked did PM Modi&#39;s maiden speech at the World Economic Forum at Davos ticked all the right boxex there, Helen said, &nbsp;

&quot;Its been pleasing for me to see Prime Minister Modi really emphasise climate change as a huge challenge and I believe that when he visited president Macron in France, he said India will do better than what it pledged in Paris. So this is good. We need all leaders making such statement.&quot;

Helen, who is the first woman to head the United Nations Development programme, said that inequality is another issue which is rising at a rapid pace.&nbsp;

She stressed that it needs to be addressed with the same importance as climate change.

On being asked about the never-ending conflict in Afghanistan, Helen said that dialogue is the only process to end such things.&nbsp;

&quot;You cannot win these kinds of wars. No one can win them. There have been over the years, behind the scenes,&nbsp;negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghanistan government. That needs to continue at least of what you could get.&quot;&nbsp;

&quot;But at the moment there aren&#39;t any possible developments,&quot; she added. 
&nbsp;

Helen said that climate change is one of the biggest challenges

Former Prime Minister of New Zealand Helen Clark on Saturday highlighted the major challenges confronting the world today. In an exclusive interview with WION, Helen praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for raising the challenges which were earlier ignored by prominent leaders. Helen said that climate change is one of the biggest challenges the world currently needs to address. When asked did PM Modi's maiden speech at the World Economic Forum at Davos ticked all the right boxex there, Helen said, "Its been pleasing for me to see Prime Minister Modi really emphasise climate change as a huge challenge and I believe that when he visited president Macron in France, he said India will do better than what it pledged in Paris. So this is good. We need all leaders making such statement." Helen, who is the first woman to head the United Nations Development programme, said that inequality is another issue which is rising at a rapid pace. She stressed that it needs to be addressed with the same importance as climate change. On being asked about the never-ending conflict in Afghanistan, Helen said that dialogue is the only process to end such things. "You cannot win these kinds of wars. No one can win them. There have been over the years, behind the scenes, negotiations between the Taliban and the Afghanistan government. That needs to continue at least of what you could get." "But at the moment there aren't any possible developments," she added.

Helen Clark hails PM Modi's speech at Davos, says he 'ticked major boxes'

By Manoj Dora*

Climate change could hurt farmers&rsquo; income by up to 20-25% in the medium term, according to the Indian government&rsquo;s latest annual economic survey. Extreme weather events, temperature rise, and lower rainfall all threaten to derail the Indian government&rsquo;s agenda of doubling farmers&rsquo; income across the country.

There are ways to counter this, however. New technology and better farm management can be deployed to improve irrigation systems. And, to ensure long-term impact, it is also important that the Indian government invests in agricultural research.

Agriculture is central to the Indian economy. It accounts for 50% of the country&rsquo;s employment and 18% of its GDP. And in India, about 80% of farmers are smallholders &ndash; which is generally considered to mean they have two hectares or less of land. The main crops are wheat, maize, rice, millets, pulses, sugarcane, and oil-seeds.

Indian farmers must contend with a number of risks, including adverse weather, competition from larger landowners or food corporations and price surges. Small farmers are a vulnerable population where social, market and economic pressures are huge, often leading to considerable distress. India is home to nearly 25% of the world&rsquo;s hungry population and has an alarming rate of farmer suicide (around 60,000 cases in the past three decades).

So the effects of fluctuations in weather, temperature, and rainfall on agricultural productivity will have a significant impact on the wider population.

Climate change

Extensive meteorological data in the recent government report shows that average temperatures are rising across the country and annual rainfall is declining. It also shows a rise in the number of days with extremely high temperatures and a corresponding decline in the number of days with low temperatures.

Extreme temperature shocks, when a district is significantly hotter than usual, results in a 4.7% decline in agricultural yields. Similarly, when it rains significantly less than usual there is a 12.8% decline.

Areas lacking in irrigation are worst affected by these extreme weather conditions. A temperature shock in an area that is not irrigated reduces yields by 7.6%. Similarly, the effects of extreme rainfall shocks are 14.7% higher in areas without irrigation &ndash; much larger than the effects these shocks have in irrigated districts.

Lower yields mean lower incomes for farmers. The report estimated that extreme temperature shocks will reduce farmers&rsquo; incomes by 4.3% and extreme rainfall shocks will reduce incomes by 13.7%. In a year where temperatures are 1℃ higher, farmers&rsquo; incomes would fall by 6.2% in unirrigated districts. Similarly, in a year when rainfall levels were 100mm less than average, farmers&rsquo; incomes would fall by 15%.

Temperatures in India are likely to rise by 3 to 4℃ by the end of the 21st century. It follows that in the absence of any adaptation by farmers, farm incomes will be lower by 20 to 25% on average in the coming years, especially in the unirrigated areas.

There are five important ways to mitigate against this that the Indian government could start investing in now.

Smart irrigation

There is a significant need for an appropriate irrigation system considering rising water scarcity and depleting groundwater resources. Less than 50% of agriculture in India is irrigated.

States such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand are still extremely vulnerable to climate change due to poor irrigation. Smart irrigation systems such as drip, sprinklers and efficient water management should be made a priority and allocated across the country where needed.

Reduce post-harvest loss

Post-harvest loss of major agricultural production is estimated at US$13 billion. About 16% of fruits and vegetables, valued at US$6 billion were lost in the year 2015. Only 2.2% of fruits and vegetables, the most perishable of agricultural produces, are sorted and packed for consumption in India, increasing the chances of wastage as it gets sent abroad. In contrast, the US (65%) and China (23%) are far ahead of India in processing their own crops.

Small landholders lose out the most from this. It is not economically viable for most of them to transport their produce for centralised large-scale processing &ndash; and they lack local processing and preservation technologies. This results in a lot of wastage. This is then compounded by inadequate transport infrastructure &ndash; produce gets damaged on the journey because of bad roads, gets contaminated from repeated loading and unloaded, as well as lack of refrigeration.

Small farms also suffer from their reliance on middlemen to sell their product. As a result, they are sometimes compelled to sell it at less than the cost of producing it.&nbsp;

So there is an overwhelming need to develop technologies for local processing, smart packaging, and transport facilities which do not disadvantage small farmers.

Data driven supply-chain management

India must start using data to continuously improve the efficiency of its agricultural supply chains. New technologies such as sensors, GPS, and satellite imaging can help collect meaningful data to make India&rsquo;s agriculture system more resilient.

This enables different sections of the supply chain to monitor environmental and other conditions. It can be used to adapt how crops are produced, stored and distributed to reduce waste.

Farmer-centric crop insurance

To compensate for the uncertainty caused by climate change, an effective crop insurance programme is required to protect farmers from bad yields. Many already pay into insurance programmes but they provide little protection. The system needs overhauling so that small farmer is protected by low premium and long-term insurance cover, instead of being designed, as it seems to be at the moment, purely for the profit of insurance companies.

Evidence-based research

Agricultural research will be vital in increasing yields but also in increasing resilience to all the problems that could come with climate change &ndash; including extreme heat and precipitation, pests and crop disease. The research will be especially important for crops such as pulses and soybean, which are crucial crops and highly vulnerable to weather and climate change.

These measures will improve crop and water management practices. They are tailored to small farmers and to the fragmented, small-scale agricultural landscape &ndash; to directly improve efficiency, boost productivity and minimize the environmental impact on farming.&nbsp;

* Manoj Dora is a Senior Lecturer in Operations &amp; Supply Chain Management, Brunel University London.

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Climate change could hurt Indian farmers' income by up to 20-25% in the medium term.

By Manoj Dora* Climate change could hurt farmers’ income by up to 20-25% in the medium term, according to the Indian government’s latest annual economic survey. Extreme weather events, temperature rise, and lower rainfall all threaten to derail the Indian government’s agenda of doubling farmers’ income across the country. There are ways to counter this, however. New technology and better farm management can be deployed to improve irrigation systems. And, to ensure long-term impact, it is also important that the Indian government invests in agricultural research. Agriculture is central to the Indian economy. It accounts for 50% of the country’s employment and 18% of its GDP. And in India, about 80% of farmers are smallholders – which is generally considered to mean they have two hectares or less of land. The main crops are wheat, maize, rice, millets, pulses, sugarcane, and oil-seeds. Indian farmers must contend with a number of risks, including adverse weather, competition from larger landowners or food corporations and price surges. Small farmers are a vulnerable population where social, market and economic pressures are huge, often leading to considerable distress. India is home to nearly 25% of the world’s hungry population and has an alarming rate of farmer suicide (around 60,000 cases in the past three decades). So the effects of fluctuations in weather, temperature, and rainfall on agricultural productivity will have a significant impact on the wider population. Climate change Extensive meteorological data in the recent government report shows that average temperatures are rising across the country and annual rainfall is declining. It also shows a rise in the number of days with extremely high temperatures and a corresponding decline in the number of days with low temperatures. Extreme temperature shocks, when a district is significantly hotter than usual, results in a 4.7% decline in agricultural yields. Similarly, when it rains significantly less than usual there is a 12.8% decline. Areas lacking in irrigation are worst affected by these extreme weather conditions. A temperature shock in an area that is not irrigated reduces yields by 7.6%. Similarly, the effects of extreme rainfall shocks are 14.7% higher in areas without irrigation – much larger than the effects these shocks have in irrigated districts. Lower yields mean lower incomes for farmers. The report estimated that extreme temperature shocks will reduce farmers’ incomes by 4.3% and extreme rainfall shocks will reduce incomes by 13.7%. In a year where temperatures are 1℃ higher, farmers’ incomes would fall by 6.2% in unirrigated districts. Similarly, in a year when rainfall levels were 100mm less than average, farmers’ incomes would fall by 15%. Temperatures in India are likely to rise by 3 to 4℃ by the end of the 21st century. It follows that in the absence of any adaptation by farmers, farm incomes will be lower by 20 to 25% on average in the coming years, especially in the unirrigated areas. There are five important ways to mitigate against this that the Indian government could start investing in now. Smart irrigation There is a significant need for an appropriate irrigation system considering rising water scarcity and depleting groundwater resources. Less than 50% of agriculture in India is irrigated. States such as Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, and Jharkhand are still extremely vulnerable to climate change due to poor irrigation. Smart irrigation systems such as drip, sprinklers and efficient water management should be made a priority and allocated across the country where needed. Reduce post-harvest loss Post-harvest loss of major agricultural production is estimated at US$13 billion. About 16% of fruits and vegetables, valued at US$6 billion were lost in the year 2015. Only 2.2% of fruits and vegetables, the most perishable of agricultural produces, are sorted and packed for consumption in India, increasing the chances of wastage as it gets sent abroad. In contrast, the US (65%) and China (23%) are far ahead of India in processing their own crops. Small landholders lose out the most from this. It is not economically viable for most of them to transport their produce for centralised large-scale processing – and they lack local processing and preservation technologies. This results in a lot of wastage. This is then compounded by inadequate transport infrastructure – produce gets damaged on the journey because of bad roads, gets contaminated from repeated loading and unloaded, as well as lack of refrigeration. Small farms also suffer from their reliance on middlemen to sell their product. As a result, they are sometimes compelled to sell it at less than the cost of producing it. So there is an overwhelming need to develop technologies for local processing, smart packaging, and transport facilities which do not disadvantage small farmers. Data driven supply-chain management India must start using data to continuously improve the efficiency of its agricultural supply chains. New technologies such as sensors, GPS, and satellite imaging can help collect meaningful data to make India’s agriculture system more resilient. This enables different sections of the supply chain to monitor environmental and other conditions. It can be used to adapt how crops are produced, stored and distributed to reduce waste. Farmer-centric crop insurance To compensate for the uncertainty caused by climate change, an effective crop insurance programme is required to protect farmers from bad yields. Many already pay into insurance programmes but they provide little protection. The system needs overhauling so that small farmer is protected by low premium and long-term insurance cover, instead of being designed, as it seems to be at the moment, purely for the profit of insurance companies. Evidence-based research Agricultural research will be vital in increasing yields but also in increasing resilience to all the problems that could come with climate change – including extreme heat and precipitation, pests and crop disease. The research will be especially important for crops such as pulses and soybean, which are crucial crops and highly vulnerable to weather and climate change. These measures will improve crop and water management practices. They are tailored to small farmers and to the fragmented, small-scale agricultural landscape – to directly improve efficiency, boost productivity and minimize the environmental impact on farming. * Manoj Dora is a Senior Lecturer in Operations & Supply Chain Management, Brunel University London. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Indian farmers can counter the threat of climate change

There was no doubt that America would regress on multiple issues when it elected Donald Trump as its 45th president. While opinion is divided on his intellectual capacity and mental stability, the president himself opines that he is a&nbsp;stable genius.&nbsp;Yet with every action and tweet of his, he does his best to belie the opinion that he is stable, let alone a genius.

The most damaging of Trump&rsquo;s egregious actions is the appointment of Scott Pruitt as the head of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Prior to assuming the leadership role as its 14th administrator, Pruitt had&nbsp;sued&nbsp;the EPA 14 times as Oklahoma&rsquo;s attorney general. Time and again, Pruitt has refused to acknowledge the scientific consensus that human activity is a primary contributor to climate change. As attorney general, he had taken the&nbsp;position&nbsp;of a &ldquo;leading advocate against the EPA&rsquo;s activist agenda.&rdquo; It is a travesty of justice that Pruitt is now heading the EPA.

Pruitt wasted no time in changing the agency soon as he assumed the helm. The phrase &ldquo;the United States plays a leadership role in working with the other nations to protect the global environment&rdquo; was removed from EPA&rsquo;s updated&nbsp;mission&nbsp;statement. This categorically announced to the world that America no longer intends to be a leader on climate change. The Trump administration unequivocally announced a plan to&nbsp;pull out&nbsp;of the historic Paris Climate Agreement,&nbsp;signed&nbsp;by all but two countries &mdash; Syria and Nicaragua (both of which have since committed to the accord.)

A comparison of the current EPA&nbsp;website&nbsp;with the one that&nbsp;existed&nbsp;before Pruitt&rsquo;s administration took over shows how unabashed the administration is in its parochial view of America&rsquo;s short-term well-being over humanity&rsquo;s long-term survival. Gone from the EPA are the stated priorities in&nbsp;seven&nbsp;areas to address the environmental challenges facing the world.

The first year under Pruitt&rsquo;s leadership has seen unprecedented number of environmental regulations rolled back. A recent&nbsp;New York Times&nbsp;article mentions 67 regulations that have been reversed or are in the process of being rolled back. The list includes a freeze on coal leases in public lands; anti-dumping rule for coal companies; offshore drilling ban in the Atlantic and Arctic; decisions on Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines; endangered species listings; a hunting ban on wolves and grizzly bears in Alaska; and protections for whales and sea turtles. The breakdown of these regulatory rollbacks across the board by the&nbsp;Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit watchdog advocating effective enforcement of environment laws, makes for a depressing and terrifying read.

The myth of &ldquo;clean coal&rdquo;

&ldquo;Clean coal&rdquo; is a political lobbyist term popularized in 2008 by the coal industry to influence public opinion. It actually refers to the nascent technology, carbon capture and storage or carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). CCS traps 90% of carbon dioxide emissions produced from using fossil fuels for generating electricity and other industrial processes, preventing it from reaching the atmosphere. This is an expensive technology still in its infancy, being used at just one coal plant,&nbsp;Petra Nova, in Texas.

In a sad reflection of the current state of affairs, President Trump touts clean coal that he&nbsp;interprets&nbsp;in the most literal sense &mdash; coal that is washed and cleaned. Notwithstanding Trump&rsquo;s understanding of the term, even America&rsquo;s coal baron, Robert Murray,&nbsp;admits&nbsp;that clean coal is &ldquo;neither practical nor economic.&rdquo; Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence linking global warming to carbon dioxide emissions, Scott Pruitt refuses to&nbsp;acknowledge&nbsp;the connection. Instead, he recommends that we should &ldquo;continue to debate, continue the review and analysis.&rdquo;

Upon careful analysis, it will become clear that the position and view point of Trump administration on global warming, carbon dioxide emissions and clean coal have several contradictions. If, as Pruitt believes, carbon dioxide emissions are not a contributing factor to global warming, then what would be the need for the expensive CCS technology? The problem CCS solves is essentially trapping 90% of carbon dioxide emissions and preventing them from entering the atmosphere. By promoting clean coal, the political synonym for CCS, Pruitt effectively acknowledges carbon dioxide emissions are indeed a contributing factor to global warming, even if he refuses to say so in as many words.

After being a climate change denier for years, Pruitt took a different tack in his recent&nbsp;interview&nbsp;with KSNV News 3 Las Vegas, where the head of the EPA questioned if global warming &ldquo;is necessarily a bad thing.&rdquo; Discussing whether climate change is an existential threat or not, Pruitt said: &ldquo;I think there&rsquo;s assumptions made that because the climate is warming, that necessarily is a bad thing. Do we really know what the ideal surface temperature should be in the year 2100, in the year 2018? That&rsquo;s fairly arrogant for us to think that we know exactly what it should be in 2100.&rdquo; This statement is an implicit acknowledgment&nbsp; by Pruitt that temperatures are indeed rising as a consequence of global warming, even though recognizing climate change is anathema to him.

In the same interview, Pruitt mentions several times the role of the EPA as a regulator is one of administrator of statutes, &ldquo;recognizing federalism, partnership with states, focusing on process.&rdquo; He also adds that the EPA overstepped its role to &ldquo;declare a war on coal and fossil fuel industry,&rdquo; something that the Trump administration had just ended. Since Pruitt is so particular about procedure, it would only be appropriate if he steps aside when it comes to interpreting scientific findings and let scientists do their work. Pruitt would do well by being the bureaucrat that his role demands, not conducting&nbsp;exercises challenging science that is beyond his comprehension.

To leave the world a bit better

Pulling out of the Paris accord with the excuse that it is a bad deal for America is an arrogant display of misguided nationalism. America is the largest&nbsp;consumer&nbsp;of resources in the world and the second largest&nbsp;greenhouse gas&nbsp;emitter in the world. It is only fair and appropriate that in any reduction of excesses America leads the way by doing more than its share in the international community, not walk away from it.

The actions of the Trump administration in rolling back environmental regulations, pandering to business interests with flimsy excuses and shortsighted economic growth, is a brazen attack on humanity, not just Americans. It is a sad irony that the perpetrators will be long gone when the consequences of their actions are faced by the future generations.

If only Pruitt and Trump would reflect on this poignant Ralph Waldo Emerson&rsquo;s quote that &ldquo;To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived &mdash; that is to have succeeded.&rdquo;

&nbsp;

This <a href="https://www.fairobserver.com/region/north_america/donald-trump-scott-pruitt-climate-change-epa-news-13421/">article</a> has been originally published in the <a href="https://www.fairobserver.com/">Fair Observer</a>.

&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;

The Trump administration’s rollbacks on environmental policies are a crime against future generations.

There was no doubt that America would regress on multiple issues when it elected Donald Trump as its 45th president. While opinion is divided on his intellectual capacity and mental stability, the president himself opines that he is a stable genius. Yet with every action and tweet of his, he does his best to belie the opinion that he is stable, let alone a genius. The most damaging of Trump’s egregious actions is the appointment of Scott Pruitt as the head of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Prior to assuming the leadership role as its 14th administrator, Pruitt had sued the EPA 14 times as Oklahoma’s attorney general. Time and again, Pruitt has refused to acknowledge the scientific consensus that human activity is a primary contributor to climate change. As attorney general, he had taken the position of a “leading advocate against the EPA’s activist agenda.” It is a travesty of justice that Pruitt is now heading the EPA. Pruitt wasted no time in changing the agency soon as he assumed the helm. The phrase “the United States plays a leadership role in working with the other nations to protect the global environment” was removed from EPA’s updated mission statement. This categorically announced to the world that America no longer intends to be a leader on climate change. The Trump administration unequivocally announced a plan to pull out of the historic Paris Climate Agreement, signed by all but two countries — Syria and Nicaragua (both of which have since committed to the accord.) A comparison of the current EPA website with the one that existed before Pruitt’s administration took over shows how unabashed the administration is in its parochial view of America’s short-term well-being over humanity’s long-term survival. Gone from the EPA are the stated priorities in seven areas to address the environmental challenges facing the world. The first year under Pruitt’s leadership has seen unprecedented number of environmental regulations rolled back. A recent New York Times article mentions 67 regulations that have been reversed or are in the process of being rolled back. The list includes a freeze on coal leases in public lands; anti-dumping rule for coal companies; offshore drilling ban in the Atlantic and Arctic; decisions on Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipelines; endangered species listings; a hunting ban on wolves and grizzly bears in Alaska; and protections for whales and sea turtles. The breakdown of these regulatory rollbacks across the board by the Environmental Integrity Project, a nonprofit watchdog advocating effective enforcement of environment laws, makes for a depressing and terrifying read. The myth of “clean coal” “Clean coal” is a political lobbyist term popularized in 2008 by the coal industry to influence public opinion. It actually refers to the nascent technology, carbon capture and storage or carbon capture and sequestration (CCS). CCS traps 90% of carbon dioxide emissions produced from using fossil fuels for generating electricity and other industrial processes, preventing it from reaching the atmosphere. This is an expensive technology still in its infancy, being used at just one coal plant, Petra Nova, in Texas. In a sad reflection of the current state of affairs, President Trump touts clean coal that he interprets in the most literal sense — coal that is washed and cleaned. Notwithstanding Trump’s understanding of the term, even America’s coal baron, Robert Murray, admits that clean coal is “neither practical nor economic.” Despite the overwhelming scientific evidence linking global warming to carbon dioxide emissions, Scott Pruitt refuses to acknowledge the connection. Instead, he recommends that we should “continue to debate, continue the review and analysis.” Upon careful analysis, it will become clear that the position and view point of Trump administration on global warming, carbon dioxide emissions and clean coal have several contradictions. If, as Pruitt believes, carbon dioxide emissions are not a contributing factor to global warming, then what would be the need for the expensive CCS technology? The problem CCS solves is essentially trapping 90% of carbon dioxide emissions and preventing them from entering the atmosphere. By promoting clean coal, the political synonym for CCS, Pruitt effectively acknowledges carbon dioxide emissions are indeed a contributing factor to global warming, even if he refuses to say so in as many words. After being a climate change denier for years, Pruitt took a different tack in his recent interview with KSNV News 3 Las Vegas, where the head of the EPA questioned if global warming “is necessarily a bad thing.” Discussing whether climate change is an existential threat or not, Pruitt said: “I think there’s assumptions made that because the climate is warming, that necessarily is a bad thing. Do we really know what the ideal surface temperature should be in the year 2100, in the year 2018? That’s fairly arrogant for us to think that we know exactly what it should be in 2100.” This statement is an implicit acknowledgment by Pruitt that temperatures are indeed rising as a consequence of global warming, even though recognizing climate change is anathema to him. In the same interview, Pruitt mentions several times the role of the EPA as a regulator is one of administrator of statutes, “recognizing federalism, partnership with states, focusing on process.” He also adds that the EPA overstepped its role to “declare a war on coal and fossil fuel industry,” something that the Trump administration had just ended. Since Pruitt is so particular about procedure, it would only be appropriate if he steps aside when it comes to interpreting scientific findings and let scientists do their work. Pruitt would do well by being the bureaucrat that his role demands, not conducting exercises challenging science that is beyond his comprehension. To leave the world a bit better Pulling out of the Paris accord with the excuse that it is a bad deal for America is an arrogant display of misguided nationalism. America is the largest consumer of resources in the world and the second largest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. It is only fair and appropriate that in any reduction of excesses America leads the way by doing more than its share in the international community, not walk away from it. The actions of the Trump administration in rolling back environmental regulations, pandering to business interests with flimsy excuses and shortsighted economic growth, is a brazen attack on humanity, not just Americans. It is a sad irony that the perpetrators will be long gone when the consequences of their actions are faced by the future generations. If only Pruitt and Trump would reflect on this poignant Ralph Waldo Emerson’s quote that “To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived — that is to have succeeded.” This article has been originally published in the Fair Observer. (Disclaimer: The opinions expressed above are the personal views of the author and do not reflect the views of ZMCL)

Opinion: Why Scott Pruitt can't deny climate change and head EPA

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cautioned the world against growing protectionism and rise in tariff and non-tariff barriers that are impeding global trade, while pitching for India as a global destination for investment.

The prime minister, however, said that climate change, terrorism and self centrism are the biggest challenges faced by the world.&nbsp;

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<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en">
Terrorism is a big threat but an even bigger threat is when you give definitions like good terrorism and bad terrorism: PM Modi at <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/WorldEconomicForum?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#WorldEconomicForum</a> in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Davos?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Davos</a> <a href="https://t.co/xvDRiN3JN3">pic.twitter.com/xvDRiN3JN3</a>
&mdash; ANI (@ANI) <a href="https://twitter.com/ANI/status/955755669017133056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 23, 2018</a></blockquote>
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While addressing the plenary session of the World Economic Forum, PM Modi said there was a need for reform of the international institutions for economic and political security in keeping with the ground realities.

Modi emphasised on the reforms, including GST and demonetisation, &nbsp;brought by his government in the last three years saying his government had replaced red tape with red carpet.&nbsp;

&quot;Today investing in India, travel to India, work in India, manufacture in India, production and exports from India to the rest of the world is easier than before as we have decided to eliminate the `licence-permit raj` and finish the red tape.&quot;&nbsp;

The Prime Minister that said in the last three and a half years, his government has abolished 1,400 outdated laws.

He said the decision has now made foreign direct investment in the country possible in more than 90 per cent of the sectors through the automatic route.&nbsp;

Modi is the first Prime Minister from India to participate in a forum meeting in two decades after H.D. Deve Gowda in 1997.

This is Modi`s second visit to Switzerland in nearly two years. He will interact with 120 members of the International Business Council, which is a part of the WEF.

Modi, in the course of his 24-hour visit to Davos, is also scheduled to hold a meeting with Sweden Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.

PM Modi pitched for India as a global destination for investment.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday cautioned the world against growing protectionism and rise in tariff and non-tariff barriers that are impeding global trade, while pitching for India as a global destination for investment. The prime minister, however, said that climate change, terrorism and self centrism are the biggest challenges faced by the world. Terrorism is a big threat but an even bigger threat is when you give definitions like good terrorism and bad terrorism: PM Modi at #WorldEconomicForum in #Davos pic.twitter.com/xvDRiN3JN3 — ANI (@ANI) January 23, 2018 × While addressing the plenary session of the World Economic Forum, PM Modi said there was a need for reform of the international institutions for economic and political security in keeping with the ground realities. Modi emphasised on the reforms, including GST and demonetisation, brought by his government in the last three years saying his government had replaced red tape with red carpet. "Today investing in India, travel to India, work in India, manufacture in India, production and exports from India to the rest of the world is easier than before as we have decided to eliminate the `licence-permit raj` and finish the red tape." The Prime Minister that said in the last three and a half years, his government has abolished 1,400 outdated laws. He said the decision has now made foreign direct investment in the country possible in more than 90 per cent of the sectors through the automatic route. Modi is the first Prime Minister from India to participate in a forum meeting in two decades after H.D. Deve Gowda in 1997. This is Modi`s second visit to Switzerland in nearly two years. He will interact with 120 members of the International Business Council, which is a part of the WEF. Modi, in the course of his 24-hour visit to Davos, is also scheduled to hold a meeting with Sweden Prime Minister Stefan Lofven.

Rise in tariff, non-tariff barriers impeding global trade: PM Modi

As the Cape Town city is at the edge of becoming a first modern city to run out of the water, India&#39;s It hub and Karnataka&#39;s Bengaluru is also facing similar circumstances.

Also read: <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/as-cape-town-drought-bites-residents-prepare-for-day-zero-32350">As Cape Town drought bites, residents prepare for &#39;Day Zero&#39;</a>

India&#39;s IT hub, Bengaluru has been listed&nbsp;at number two in the list carrying cities name that would soon run out of the water.

Surprisingly the city that was also in the list was London; despite the recent heavy rains in January.

In 2017 many reports claimed that Bengaluru faced the worst drought in past 40 years in 2017.

Water in the Bengaluru city comes from&nbsp;number of sources and 80% of that supply is fulfilled by Cauvery river; &nbsp;report says that the place where Cauvery river originates has gone dry.

Other two main sources Krishna Sagar Dam and the Arkavathi has also gone dry.

According to reports as the sewage system need an urgent which leads to the loss of over half of the drinking water to waste.

Some of the cause of water shortage is the sewage system of the city which needs urgent expand.

Though the city is known for its lakes and rivers and not a single river is suitable to use for drinking or bathing purpose.

The number of healthy existing lakes has been reducing to 17 which used to be 51 in 1985.

The city that is at number one is Brazil&#39;s capital, Sao Paulo.&nbsp;

According to reports in 2017 about 850 cities of Brazil are suffering from water scarcity including Sao Paulo which is also in the list of most polluted cities in the world.

Beijing who is also suffering from pollution problem was at number three in the list.

Two-thirds of the water supply comes from groundwater, one third from surface water. Average rainfall has substantially declined since the 1950s. Furthermore, one of the two main rivers supplying the city, the Yongding River, had to be abandoned as a source of drinking water because of pollution.&nbsp;

The full list of cities that would soon run out of the water.

1. Sao Paulo, Brazil 
2. Banglore, India 
3. Beijing, China 
4. Cairo, Egypt 
5. Jakarta, Indonesia 
6. Moscow, Russia 
7. Istanbul, Turkey 
8. Mexico, United States 
9. &nbsp;London, United Kingdom 
10. Tokyo, Japan 
11. Miami, United States

South Africa&#39;s Cape Town has been hit by a severe drought&nbsp;due to climate change and is heading towards <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/drought-forces-some-cape-town-residents-into-midnight-queues-for-water-32064">&#39;day zero</a>&#39;, the day when the water in the dams reaches 13.5 per cent of the capacity which currently three-quarter empty, which probably will fall in April.

&nbsp;

Bengaluru has been listed at number two in the list carrying name of eleven cities that would soon run out of the water

As the Cape Town city is at the edge of becoming a first modern city to run out of the water, India's It hub and Karnataka's Bengaluru is also facing similar circumstances. Also read: As Cape Town drought bites, residents prepare for 'Day Zero' India's IT hub, Bengaluru has been listed at number two in the list carrying cities name that would soon run out of the water. Surprisingly the city that was also in the list was London; despite the recent heavy rains in January. In 2017 many reports claimed that Bengaluru faced the worst drought in past 40 years in 2017. Water in the Bengaluru city comes from number of sources and 80% of that supply is fulfilled by Cauvery river; report says that the place where Cauvery river originates has gone dry. Other two main sources Krishna Sagar Dam and the Arkavathi has also gone dry. According to reports as the sewage system need an urgent which leads to the loss of over half of the drinking water to waste. Some of the cause of water shortage is the sewage system of the city which needs urgent expand. Though the city is known for its lakes and rivers and not a single river is suitable to use for drinking or bathing purpose. The number of healthy existing lakes has been reducing to 17 which used to be 51 in 1985. The city that is at number one is Brazil's capital, Sao Paulo. According to reports in 2017 about 850 cities of Brazil are suffering from water scarcity including Sao Paulo which is also in the list of most polluted cities in the world. Beijing who is also suffering from pollution problem was at number three in the list. Two-thirds of the water supply comes from groundwater, one third from surface water. Average rainfall has substantially declined since the 1950s. Furthermore, one of the two main rivers supplying the city, the Yongding River, had to be abandoned as a source of drinking water because of pollution. The full list of cities that would soon run out of the water. 1. Sao Paulo, Brazil 2. Banglore, India 3. Beijing, China 4. Cairo, Egypt 5. Jakarta, Indonesia 6. Moscow, Russia 7. Istanbul, Turkey 8. Mexico, United States 9. London, United Kingdom 10. Tokyo, Japan 11. Miami, United States South Africa's Cape Town has been hit by a severe drought due to climate change and is heading towards 'day zero', the day when the water in the dams reaches 13.5 per cent of the capacity which currently three-quarter empty, which probably will fall in April.

Bengaluru, London, Tokyo among cities that would soon run out of water!

Hit by a severe drought, the city authorities of South Africa&#39;s Cape town issued a warning to residents&nbsp;saying that it might have to turn off most city taps in mid-April if residents don&#39;t save enough water.

New water restrictions&nbsp; have also been introduced by the authorities on Thursday in an attempt to avoid &quot;Day Zero.&quot;

Residents will be asked to use no more than 50 litres (13.2 gallons) of water daily, down from the current limit of 87 litres (23 gallons).

The day zero is the day when the water in the dams reaches 13.5 per cent of the capacity which currently three-quarter empty, which probably will fall in April.

Most of the city&#39;s water is demand is supplied by dams.

According to the new instructions, taps will be shut off and residents will have to stand in queues to get water which will be only allowed 25 litres per person.

However, water will be supplied to hospitals, clinics and essential services.

Showing proof of consequence of climate change, drought is hurting Cape town&#39;s tourism industry also affecting economy of the city,

Hotels have asked guests not to use baths and to limit showers to two minutes or less, while some restaurants are switching to disposable cups and ditching table linen.

Tourism accounted for an estimated 9 percent of South Africa&#39;s economic output last year, or 412 billion rands ($35 billion).

There is no official data available yet to quantify the impact water shortages are having on numbers&nbsp;

According to the reports if the situation remains same for several more weeks then it will become a first major city to run out of the water.

(With inputs from Reuters)

New water restrictions have also been introduced by the authorities on Thursday in an attempt to avoid 'Day Zero'

Hit by a severe drought, the city authorities of South Africa's Cape town issued a warning to residents saying that it might have to turn off most city taps in mid-April if residents don't save enough water. New water restrictions have also been introduced by the authorities on Thursday in an attempt to avoid "Day Zero." Residents will be asked to use no more than 50 litres (13.2 gallons) of water daily, down from the current limit of 87 litres (23 gallons). The day zero is the day when the water in the dams reaches 13.5 per cent of the capacity which currently three-quarter empty, which probably will fall in April. Most of the city's water is demand is supplied by dams. According to the new instructions, taps will be shut off and residents will have to stand in queues to get water which will be only allowed 25 litres per person. However, water will be supplied to hospitals, clinics and essential services. Showing proof of consequence of climate change, drought is hurting Cape town's tourism industry also affecting economy of the city, Hotels have asked guests not to use baths and to limit showers to two minutes or less, while some restaurants are switching to disposable cups and ditching table linen. Tourism accounted for an estimated 9 percent of South Africa's economic output last year, or 412 billion rands ($35 billion). There is no official data available yet to quantify the impact water shortages are having on numbers According to the reports if the situation remains same for several more weeks then it will become a first major city to run out of the water. (With inputs from Reuters)

South Africa: Cape town issues warning as city faces severe water shortage due to drought

Technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help tackle global warming only have limited potential and more effort should be made to reduce emissions, European scientists said in a report on Wednesday.&nbsp;

Proposals to use climate technologies, ranging from spraying sun-dimming chemicals high above the Earth to capturing and storing carbon dioxide underground, have been gaining more attention as the urgency to act on climate change mounts.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, world governments have agreed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels but a large gap remains between countries&#39;&nbsp;emissions plans and the reductions needed.&nbsp;

The European Academies&#39;&nbsp;Science Advisory Council (EASAC), formed from national science academies of EU members, has reviewed scientific evidence about several options for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere with so-called negative emission technologies.

Examples of such technologies include the direct capture of CO2 and trapping it underground (carbon capture and storage); afforestation and reforestation; land management to increase and fix carbon in soils and ocean fertilisation.

The EASAC, which advises European policymakers, said these technologies have &quot;limited realistic potential to remove carbon from the atmosphere&quot; and not at the scale in some climate forecasts, such as several gigatonnes of carbon each year after 2050.

Their deployment on a large scale would also involve high economic costs and have major impacts on terrestrial or marine ecosystems, the EASAC said in a report.&nbsp;

&quot;Technologies capable of taking out CO2 from the atmosphere are certainly no silver bullet - a point that should drive policymakers to renewed efforts to accelerate emissions reductions,&quot; the report said.

However, the world will need all possible tools to limit warming and some of these technologies can make contributions to remove CO2 from the atmosphere even now, while further research, development and demonstration may allow others to make a limited future contribution,&quot; it added.

Commenting on the report, Andrew Watson, Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Exeter said that while some technologies for removing CO2 from the atmosphere could have a role to play in reducing climate change, all have drawbacks making them difficult to use them on a large scale.&nbsp;

&quot;So our main focus and best hope for avoiding the worst effects of climate change still needs to be reducing our emissions,&quot; he added.

Last week, a leaked draft U.N. report said there is a high chance that the levels of CO2 removal which might be required to meet the Paris goals might not be feasible due to the required scale and speed of technology deployment.

Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, world governments have agreed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius

Technologies to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere to help tackle global warming only have limited potential and more effort should be made to reduce emissions, European scientists said in a report on Wednesday. Proposals to use climate technologies, ranging from spraying sun-dimming chemicals high above the Earth to capturing and storing carbon dioxide underground, have been gaining more attention as the urgency to act on climate change mounts. Under the 2015 Paris Agreement, world governments have agreed to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels but a large gap remains between countries' emissions plans and the reductions needed. The European Academies' Science Advisory Council (EASAC), formed from national science academies of EU members, has reviewed scientific evidence about several options for removing carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere with so-called negative emission technologies. Examples of such technologies include the direct capture of CO2 and trapping it underground (carbon capture and storage); afforestation and reforestation; land management to increase and fix carbon in soils and ocean fertilisation. The EASAC, which advises European policymakers, said these technologies have "limited realistic potential to remove carbon from the atmosphere" and not at the scale in some climate forecasts, such as several gigatonnes of carbon each year after 2050. Their deployment on a large scale would also involve high economic costs and have major impacts on terrestrial or marine ecosystems, the EASAC said in a report. "Technologies capable of taking out CO2 from the atmosphere are certainly no silver bullet - a point that should drive policymakers to renewed efforts to accelerate emissions reductions," the report said. However, the world will need all possible tools to limit warming and some of these technologies can make contributions to remove CO2 from the atmosphere even now, while further research, development and demonstration may allow others to make a limited future contribution," it added. Commenting on the report, Andrew Watson, Royal Society Research Professor at the University of Exeter said that while some technologies for removing CO2 from the atmosphere could have a role to play in reducing climate change, all have drawbacks making them difficult to use them on a large scale. "So our main focus and best hope for avoiding the worst effects of climate change still needs to be reducing our emissions," he added. Last week, a leaked draft U.N. report said there is a high chance that the levels of CO2 removal which might be required to meet the Paris goals might not be feasible due to the required scale and speed of technology deployment.

CO2 removal 'no silver bullet' to fighting climate change: Scientists

Climate change could adversely affect farmers income by up to 20-25 per cent in the medium term, the Economic Survey warned and suggested the need for &quot;dramatic&quot; improvement in irrigation, use of new technologies and better targeting of power and fertiliser subsidies.

The government has also been recommended to take &quot;radical follow-up action&quot; to achieve its objective of addressing agricultural stress and doubling farmers&nbsp;income.

Since agriculture is a state subject and an open political economy question, the Survey strongly advocated a mechanism similar to the GST Council to bring more reforms in the agriculture sector and boost farmers income.

&quot;Climate change&nbsp;whose imprint on Indian agriculture is already visible&nbsp;might reduce farm incomes by up to 20-25 per cent in the medium term,&quot; the Survey for 2017-18 said.

Climate change could reduce annual farm incomes in the range of 15-18 per cent on average, and up to 20-25 per cent for unirrigated areas, it said.

At current levels of farm income, that translates into more than Rs 3,600 per year for the median farm household, the survey estimated.

&quot;Minimising susceptibility to climate change requires drastically extending irrigation via efficient drip and sprinkler technologies, and replacing untargeted subsidies in power and fertiliser by direct income support,&quot; the Survey said, while calling for review of cereal-centric farm policy.

India needs to spread irrigation and do so against a backdrop of rising water scarcity and depleting groundwater resources, it said.

At present, about 45 per cent of farm land is under irrigation. The Indo-Gangetic plain, and parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are well irrigated.

But parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand are still extremely vulnerable to climate change on account of not being well irrigated.

The Survey further said that fully irrigating Indian agriculture, that too against the backdrop of water scarcity and limited efficiency in existing irrigation schemes, will be a defining challenge for the future.

Technologies of drip irrigation, sprinklers, and water management captured in the more crop for every drop campaign?may well hold the key to future Indian agriculture and hence should be accorded greater priority in resource allocation, it said.

And, of course, the power subsidy needs to be replaced by direct benefit transfers so that power use can be fully cost and water conservation furthered, it added.

Stating that the climate change will increase farmer uncertainty, the Survey called for an effective crop insurance and embrace farm science and technology with renewed ardour.

&quot;Building on the current crop insurance program Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, weather-based models and technologies like drones need to be used to determine losses and compensate farmers within weeks,&quot; it said.

Stating that the agri-sector is experiencing structural changes leading to new challenges and opportunities, the Survey said that the farm sector will remain an engine of broad based growth even as its share in gross value addition (GVA) is on the decline.

The central priority of the government will be to provide opportunities for farmers to diversify their income generating opportunities to reduce the various risks by facilitating the development of agriculture sub-sectors like livestock and fisheries, it observed.

The government has also been recommended to take 'radical follow-up action' to achieve its objective of addressing agricultural stress and doubling farmers income

Climate change could adversely affect farmers income by up to 20-25 per cent in the medium term, the Economic Survey warned and suggested the need for "dramatic" improvement in irrigation, use of new technologies and better targeting of power and fertiliser subsidies. The government has also been recommended to take "radical follow-up action" to achieve its objective of addressing agricultural stress and doubling farmers income. Since agriculture is a state subject and an open political economy question, the Survey strongly advocated a mechanism similar to the GST Council to bring more reforms in the agriculture sector and boost farmers income. "Climate change whose imprint on Indian agriculture is already visible might reduce farm incomes by up to 20-25 per cent in the medium term," the Survey for 2017-18 said. Climate change could reduce annual farm incomes in the range of 15-18 per cent on average, and up to 20-25 per cent for unirrigated areas, it said. At current levels of farm income, that translates into more than Rs 3,600 per year for the median farm household, the survey estimated. "Minimising susceptibility to climate change requires drastically extending irrigation via efficient drip and sprinkler technologies, and replacing untargeted subsidies in power and fertiliser by direct income support," the Survey said, while calling for review of cereal-centric farm policy. India needs to spread irrigation and do so against a backdrop of rising water scarcity and depleting groundwater resources, it said. At present, about 45 per cent of farm land is under irrigation. The Indo-Gangetic plain, and parts of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh are well irrigated. But parts of Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand are still extremely vulnerable to climate change on account of not being well irrigated. The Survey further said that fully irrigating Indian agriculture, that too against the backdrop of water scarcity and limited efficiency in existing irrigation schemes, will be a defining challenge for the future. Technologies of drip irrigation, sprinklers, and water management captured in the more crop for every drop campaign?may well hold the key to future Indian agriculture and hence should be accorded greater priority in resource allocation, it said. And, of course, the power subsidy needs to be replaced by direct benefit transfers so that power use can be fully cost and water conservation furthered, it added. Stating that the climate change will increase farmer uncertainty, the Survey called for an effective crop insurance and embrace farm science and technology with renewed ardour. "Building on the current crop insurance program Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, weather-based models and technologies like drones need to be used to determine losses and compensate farmers within weeks," it said. Stating that the agri-sector is experiencing structural changes leading to new challenges and opportunities, the Survey said that the farm sector will remain an engine of broad based growth even as its share in gross value addition (GVA) is on the decline. The central priority of the government will be to provide opportunities for farmers to diversify their income generating opportunities to reduce the various risks by facilitating the development of agriculture sub-sectors like livestock and fisheries, it observed.

Climate change may cut farm income by 20-25%: Survey

If you were travelling via motorway from Islamabad to Lahore during November or December 2016, you might have felt like your head was in the clouds. That&rsquo;s thanks to the smog that engulfed large parts of Pakistan&rsquo;s Punjab and Sindh provinces in that period.

This was clearly &ldquo;not a natural phenomenon&rdquo;, as the Pakistani newspaper Dawn recently noted. Beyond causing acute ailments such as asthma, lung tissue damage, bronchial infections and heart problems, the smog also resulted in dozens of fatal road accidents due to poor visibility.

Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, former director general of Pakistan&rsquo;s meteorological office and now an international climate change specialist at the Asian Development Bank, attributed the smog primarily to toxic car emissions and atmospheric pollutants coming from coal-based industries in neighbouring Indian Punjab.

Imagine, then, what will happen to the environment when Pakistan begins mining billions of tonnes of coal, in part due to its plan to open at least five new coal power plants by 2018 under a new agreement with China.

Smog would spread across cities and rural areas, including in the Thar region, which spreads across Pakistan and parts of India. The poor indigenous people there might have to be relocated to other areas thanks to planned coal projects, losing their livelihoods, lands and villages to new mines.

A global challenge for climate change

Burning coal is not just a matter of local social and environmental concern. It is clear today that the coal that powered the developed world&rsquo;s industrial revolution has also triggered global climate changes.

According to Greenpeace International, coal is the single greatest threat to our climate. Emissions from burning coal fuel global warming and coal mining is also a source of climate-warming methane gas.

Pakistan is responsible for a mere 0.43 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but it is among the world&rsquo;s ten most vulnerable countries to climate change. Domestic climate change experts see the issue as a bigger threat than terrorism.

The country is grappling with many issues, including receding glaciers, floods, heatwaves, droughts, shifting weather patterns and declining groundwater levels &ndash; and the list goes on.

Agriculture, which comprises 21 per cent of Pakistan&rsquo;s GDP, 60 per cent of exports and employs 45&nbsp;per cent of the national labour force, is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

China reduces coal investments at home but not abroad

In the landmark December 2015 Paris Agreement, 195 countries agreed to curtail climate change by keeping global warming to &ldquo;well below 2&deg;C and &hellip; pursu[ing] efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5&deg;C above pre-industrial levels&rdquo;.

All told, 141 countries (including Pakistan and China), jointly responsible for over 82 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified the agreement.

China &ndash; world&rsquo;s second-biggest economy and largest coal consumer, which also has the world&rsquo;s highest coal-fired power plant capacity &ndash; is considered a crucial player in the success of the Paris Agreement.

Domestically, China has realised that its over-dependence on coal causes severe air pollution and other environmental impacts. The most recent data show reductions in coal use for the third year in a row.

Yet China also invested US$25 billion in coal projects worldwide between 2007 and 2015, according to a recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The report criticises China and other G20 countries for such investments, which are in conflict with their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement.

It shows how some of the world&rsquo;s leading polluters have, on one hand, pledged to control climate-changing carbon emissions within their borders, and, on the other, continued to finance fossil fuel projects elsewhere.

That&rsquo;s precisely what happened with Pakistan. After most international financial institutions turned away from coal, China established itself as Pakistan&rsquo;s partner in developing the new coal power plants.

Under the 2015 China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative, the Chinese government and banks have planned to finance companies to invest US$27.6 billion in energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan over the next six years, of which Pakistan is contributing US$18.1 billion. According to Pakistan&rsquo;s Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform, coal-fired plants with a combined capacity of 7,560 mW will be established as CPEC-energy priority projects.

In the guise of bringing energy, this investment will harm the air, water, public health and environment of Pakistan. The costs and lifespans of such coal projects can stretch over decades, trapping developing nations in a system of carbon-intensive energy use.

Rapid utilisation of coal &ndash; the &ldquo;dirty&rdquo; energy-generation option &ndash; has given many Chinese cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, the world&rsquo;s worst air quality.

Pakistan&rsquo;s proposed Port Qasim Power Project, a 1320-mW coal plant in Sindh province, will be located near Karachi, a metropolis of 25 million. This could cause disastrous damage to air quality and environment.

Potential for clean energy

No country can be expected to compromise on development, and development requires energy. But, as the cases of Jordan, Peru and Mexico demonstrate, it doesn&rsquo;t require dirty energy. Instead of using coal, Pakistan could drive development with renewables, in particular solar energy.

Much of Pakistan&rsquo;s territory is arid or semi-arid, an ideal setting for harnessing solar energy with more than the necessary number of sunny days per year.

In addition to providing clean energy, solar solutions can produce energy in the same places it is consumed, making it useful in remote areas that may lack transmission infrastructure.

Recent research suggests that the deployment and maintenance of renewable energy projects are also likely to create better quality jobs than coal.

The costs of renewables are declining rapidly worldwide. Solar and wind now cost the same or less than new fossil fuel in more than 30 developing and developed countries.

India&rsquo;s energy minister noted last year that solar tariffs had become cheaper than coal-based electricity, and India is pushing ahead with its renewables plan.

China, too, has realised the economic potential of leading in renewable sources. By the end of 2016, its solar energy capacity hit 7,742 mW, double that of 2015, and this year it claimed the title of world&rsquo;s biggest solar power producer.

The investment bank Lazard reckons that, given proper infrastructures, prices will continue to decline in the near future.

Yet under the CPEC, there is only one sizeable solar project in Pakistan, the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park project, with a relatively skimpy total capacity of 1,000 mW. 
So why is China, a leader in renewable energy technologies, investing in coal-based projects abroad? It may be a way to provide overseas business opportunities for Chinese coal-plant equipment manufacturers, engineering and construction companies as a recent Bloomberg article pointed out.

Pakistan&rsquo;s domestic interests are otherwise. Instead of seeking foreign investment to fulfil its energy needs with fossil fuels, it can ride the renewables wave, developing its workforce and technical and institutional capacity to harness solar energy. Climate conditions suggest the country could produce enough power to both cover&nbsp;domestic needs and to export, along with associated equipment and technology.

What Pakistan needs now are forward-looking policies to foster renewable development, innovative business models, and strong leadership in obtaining financial and technical partnerships, both local and international. The World Bank&rsquo;s new solar maps of Pakistan can support these clean-energy efforts. Transparency in costs and production also need to be ensured.

One thing is certain: Winning the future will not be done with technologies of the past.

This article was originally published on <a href="http://theconversation.com" rel="nofollow">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/in-china-and-pakistans-coal-romance-wheres-the-love-for-the-climate-74772" rel="nofollow">original article</a>.

(Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).

Massive new coal plants planned for Pakistan will further harm the environment in a country already suffering the effects of climate change. Solar energy is a clear alternative

If you were travelling via motorway from Islamabad to Lahore during November or December 2016, you might have felt like your head was in the clouds. That’s thanks to the smog that engulfed large parts of Pakistan’s Punjab and Sindh provinces in that period. This was clearly “not a natural phenomenon”, as the Pakistani newspaper Dawn recently noted. Beyond causing acute ailments such as asthma, lung tissue damage, bronchial infections and heart problems, the smog also resulted in dozens of fatal road accidents due to poor visibility. Qamar-uz-Zaman Chaudhry, former director general of Pakistan’s meteorological office and now an international climate change specialist at the Asian Development Bank, attributed the smog primarily to toxic car emissions and atmospheric pollutants coming from coal-based industries in neighbouring Indian Punjab. Imagine, then, what will happen to the environment when Pakistan begins mining billions of tonnes of coal, in part due to its plan to open at least five new coal power plants by 2018 under a new agreement with China. Smog would spread across cities and rural areas, including in the Thar region, which spreads across Pakistan and parts of India. The poor indigenous people there might have to be relocated to other areas thanks to planned coal projects, losing their livelihoods, lands and villages to new mines. A global challenge for climate change Burning coal is not just a matter of local social and environmental concern. It is clear today that the coal that powered the developed world’s industrial revolution has also triggered global climate changes. According to Greenpeace International, coal is the single greatest threat to our climate. Emissions from burning coal fuel global warming and coal mining is also a source of climate-warming methane gas. Pakistan is responsible for a mere 0.43 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but it is among the world’s ten most vulnerable countries to climate change. Domestic climate change experts see the issue as a bigger threat than terrorism. The country is grappling with many issues, including receding glaciers, floods, heatwaves, droughts, shifting weather patterns and declining groundwater levels – and the list goes on. Agriculture, which comprises 21 per cent of Pakistan’s GDP, 60 per cent of exports and employs 45 per cent of the national labour force, is particularly vulnerable to climate change. China reduces coal investments at home but not abroad In the landmark December 2015 Paris Agreement, 195 countries agreed to curtail climate change by keeping global warming to “well below 2°C and … pursu[ing] efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”. All told, 141 countries (including Pakistan and China), jointly responsible for over 82 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, have ratified the agreement. China – world’s second-biggest economy and largest coal consumer, which also has the world’s highest coal-fired power plant capacity – is considered a crucial player in the success of the Paris Agreement. Domestically, China has realised that its over-dependence on coal causes severe air pollution and other environmental impacts. The most recent data show reductions in coal use for the third year in a row. Yet China also invested US$25 billion in coal projects worldwide between 2007 and 2015, according to a recent report by the Natural Resources Defense Council. The report criticises China and other G20 countries for such investments, which are in conflict with their climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. It shows how some of the world’s leading polluters have, on one hand, pledged to control climate-changing carbon emissions within their borders, and, on the other, continued to finance fossil fuel projects elsewhere. That’s precisely what happened with Pakistan. After most international financial institutions turned away from coal, China established itself as Pakistan’s partner in developing the new coal power plants. Under the 2015 China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) initiative, the Chinese government and banks have planned to finance companies to invest US$27.6 billion in energy and infrastructure projects in Pakistan over the next six years, of which Pakistan is contributing US$18.1 billion. According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Planning, Development and Reform, coal-fired plants with a combined capacity of 7,560 mW will be established as CPEC-energy priority projects. In the guise of bringing energy, this investment will harm the air, water, public health and environment of Pakistan. The costs and lifespans of such coal projects can stretch over decades, trapping developing nations in a system of carbon-intensive energy use. Rapid utilisation of coal – the “dirty” energy-generation option – has given many Chinese cities, including Shanghai and Beijing, the world’s worst air quality. Pakistan’s proposed Port Qasim Power Project, a 1320-mW coal plant in Sindh province, will be located near Karachi, a metropolis of 25 million. This could cause disastrous damage to air quality and environment. Potential for clean energy No country can be expected to compromise on development, and development requires energy. But, as the cases of Jordan, Peru and Mexico demonstrate, it doesn’t require dirty energy. Instead of using coal, Pakistan could drive development with renewables, in particular solar energy. Much of Pakistan’s territory is arid or semi-arid, an ideal setting for harnessing solar energy with more than the necessary number of sunny days per year. In addition to providing clean energy, solar solutions can produce energy in the same places it is consumed, making it useful in remote areas that may lack transmission infrastructure. Recent research suggests that the deployment and maintenance of renewable energy projects are also likely to create better quality jobs than coal. The costs of renewables are declining rapidly worldwide. Solar and wind now cost the same or less than new fossil fuel in more than 30 developing and developed countries. India’s energy minister noted last year that solar tariffs had become cheaper than coal-based electricity, and India is pushing ahead with its renewables plan. China, too, has realised the economic potential of leading in renewable sources. By the end of 2016, its solar energy capacity hit 7,742 mW, double that of 2015, and this year it claimed the title of world’s biggest solar power producer. The investment bank Lazard reckons that, given proper infrastructures, prices will continue to decline in the near future. Yet under the CPEC, there is only one sizeable solar project in Pakistan, the Quaid-e-Azam Solar Park project, with a relatively skimpy total capacity of 1,000 mW. So why is China, a leader in renewable energy technologies, investing in coal-based projects abroad? It may be a way to provide overseas business opportunities for Chinese coal-plant equipment manufacturers, engineering and construction companies as a recent Bloomberg article pointed out. Pakistan’s domestic interests are otherwise. Instead of seeking foreign investment to fulfil its energy needs with fossil fuels, it can ride the renewables wave, developing its workforce and technical and institutional capacity to harness solar energy. Climate conditions suggest the country could produce enough power to both cover domestic needs and to export, along with associated equipment and technology. What Pakistan needs now are forward-looking policies to foster renewable development, innovative business models, and strong leadership in obtaining financial and technical partnerships, both local and international. The World Bank’s new solar maps of Pakistan can support these clean-energy efforts. Transparency in costs and production also need to be ensured. One thing is certain: Winning the future will not be done with technologies of the past. This article was originally published on The Conversation. Read the original article. (Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).

Opinion: China and Pakistan are dabbling with 'dirty' energy

An increasingly warm Arctic, where temperatures rise twice as fast as the rest of the planet and ice melts at an alarming pace is the &quot;new normal,&quot; warned a global scientific report Tuesday.

In 2017, winter sea ice around the Earth&#39;s northern pole cover fell to the smallest extent on record, said the Arctic Report Card, released annually by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

The year was the second warmest in modern times for the fragile Arctic, said the peer-reviewed report compiled by 85 scientists from 12 nations.

&quot;The magnitude and pace of the 21st century sea ice and surface ocean warming decline are unprecedented in at least the last 1,500 years and likely much longer,&quot; said the report.

&quot;There are many strong signals that continue to indicate the Arctic environmental system has reached a &#39;new normal.&#39;&quot;

The consequences of this continued warming are dire -- harming valuable fisheries in the eastern Bering Sea, compromising roads, homes and infrastructure due to permafrost thaw and risking increasing wildfires at high altitudes, said the report.&nbsp;

Even though fewer heat records were shattered than in 2016, the &quot;Arctic shows no sign of returning to the reliably frozen region it was decades ago,&quot; it said.

&quot;Arctic temperatures continue to increase at double the rate of the global temperature increase.&quot;

Scientists released the Arctic Report Card, now in its 12th&nbsp;year, at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

In 2017, winter sea ice around the Earth's northern pole cover fell to the smallest extent on record

An increasingly warm Arctic, where temperatures rise twice as fast as the rest of the planet and ice melts at an alarming pace is the "new normal," warned a global scientific report Tuesday. In 2017, winter sea ice around the Earth's northern pole cover fell to the smallest extent on record, said the Arctic Report Card, released annually by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The year was the second warmest in modern times for the fragile Arctic, said the peer-reviewed report compiled by 85 scientists from 12 nations. "The magnitude and pace of the 21st century sea ice and surface ocean warming decline are unprecedented in at least the last 1,500 years and likely much longer," said the report. "There are many strong signals that continue to indicate the Arctic environmental system has reached a 'new normal.'" The consequences of this continued warming are dire -- harming valuable fisheries in the eastern Bering Sea, compromising roads, homes and infrastructure due to permafrost thaw and risking increasing wildfires at high altitudes, said the report. Even though fewer heat records were shattered than in 2016, the "Arctic shows no sign of returning to the reliably frozen region it was decades ago," it said. "Arctic temperatures continue to increase at double the rate of the global temperature increase." Scientists released the Arctic Report Card, now in its 12th year, at the annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union in San Francisco.

Warming, melting Arctic is 'new normal'

While experts believe medical advances to increasingly help in providing solutions to complex riddles associated with human health, a recent report refutes the same suggesting human lifespan to have already reached its peak.&nbsp;

&ldquo;These traits (height, lifespan and physical performance) no longer increase, despite further continuous nutritional, medical, and scientific progress. This suggests that modern societies have allowed our species to reach its limits. We are the first generation to become aware of this,&rdquo; Jean-Francois Toussaint from Paris Descartes University in France was quoted by a PTI report.&nbsp;

For the study, a team of experts looked at 120 years worth of historical information to conclude that humans have biological limitations and that anthropogenic impacts on the environment &ndash; including climate change &ndash; could have a deleterious effect on these limits.

&ldquo;The current declines in human capacities we can see today are a sign that environmental changes, including climate, are already contributing to the increasing constraints we now have to consider,&rdquo; he said. &ldquo;Observing decreasing tendencies may provide an early signal that something has changed but not for the better,&rdquo; he added.

After studying data from a pool of studies, experts suggested human height to have decreased in the last decade in some African countries. This was suggestive of lack of proper nutrition in some societies.&nbsp;

All in all, the report suggested that humans will not continue to improve after a point, we are gradually moving toward hitting a plateau which will manifest in increasingly fewer sports records being broken and more people reaching but not exceeding the present highest life expectancy.

(With inputs from PTI)&nbsp;

The report suggested that humans will not continue to improve after a point

While experts believe medical advances to increasingly help in providing solutions to complex riddles associated with human health, a recent report refutes the same suggesting human lifespan to have already reached its peak. “These traits (height, lifespan and physical performance) no longer increase, despite further continuous nutritional, medical, and scientific progress. This suggests that modern societies have allowed our species to reach its limits. We are the first generation to become aware of this,” Jean-Francois Toussaint from Paris Descartes University in France was quoted by a PTI report. For the study, a team of experts looked at 120 years worth of historical information to conclude that humans have biological limitations and that anthropogenic impacts on the environment – including climate change – could have a deleterious effect on these limits. “The current declines in human capacities we can see today are a sign that environmental changes, including climate, are already contributing to the increasing constraints we now have to consider,” he said. “Observing decreasing tendencies may provide an early signal that something has changed but not for the better,” he added. After studying data from a pool of studies, experts suggested human height to have decreased in the last decade in some African countries. This was suggestive of lack of proper nutrition in some societies. All in all, the report suggested that humans will not continue to improve after a point, we are gradually moving toward hitting a plateau which will manifest in increasingly fewer sports records being broken and more people reaching but not exceeding the present highest life expectancy. (With inputs from PTI)

Human lifespan has already peaked, climate change a factor: Report

Almost half of all girls in South Asia marry before the age of 18, says UNICEF. One in five girls is married before the age of 15. Bangladesh is the worst offenders in this regard followed by India. Child marriages are most prevalent in rural India, with rates of child marriage being the highest in the central and western parts of India and lower in the eastern and southern parts of the country.&nbsp;

While these facts and figures, as a journalist, are not unknown to me, to meet a child bride is a different experience. Discomforting and unnerving too. In a book release ceremony recently organised by HAQ, I came face to face dozen of child brides-most of whom are married but have not met their groom or the in-laws yet. Many of them pointed out to me that they didn&#39;t even remember the face of their husband not to mention the marriage ceremony.&nbsp;

I have, as the UNICEF does too, always associated the menace of child marriage with the restraints poverty places on an individual family. Recently, the Guardian even carried a report as to how an increasing number of African girl children are getting married off because of climate change, such as drought and flood, crop loss and stunted growth. Thus Africa witnesses a social evil because a drastic environmental change is taking an economic toll on their lives.

But poverty is not always the stimulus behind child marriage. As was pointed out to me in so many words by Ayesha. Ayesha comes from a village of Murshidabad. Not necessarily a child of a poor father, Ayesha&#39;s family tried to give her off in marriage as per the cultural norms of her community. She repeatedly blames societal norms for the trauma she underwent as a child. From the tender age of 3 months, her father tried to get her married off at least dozen times before she entered her teens.

The only silver lining of her story is that all these hardships hardened her resolve to complete her education. She is the only girl from her village who has successfully completed a Masters degree in science. Now Ayesha devotes her time in fighting the curse of child marriage which she claims is still ubiquitous in the villages of Murshidabad.&nbsp;

Jaya is another woman who went through the ordeal of getting married at the age of 13. Hailing from a village in Rajasthan, Jaya went through the terrible pain of getting beaten by her in-laws and even her husband. Her voice of protest was stifled and met with further harassment. But Jaya did not give up. Now she is a well-known activist who plays a pivotal role in organising the women against the menace of child marriages. She does not depend on the government or anyone else for her crusade. She has fought for the education of her of own two girls who are now principals of local schools.&nbsp;

If these two grown-ups tell us the stories of the lives that have, fortunately, taken a favourable turn over time, though it has exacted a very stiff price in the course, there are many other young girls who still stare at an unknown future.&nbsp;

One such fighter is young Zeba. She hails from Rajasthan too. She was given to marriage at the age of 3. Now a student of class XI and already a child rights activist, Zeba asked her mother the reason behind such an act. Her mother&#39;s answer was that the family did not have money to marry off all her sisters separately. So her eldest sister who was 16 at that time and Zeba at 3, all were married off together in a pack. Zeba has not met her husband yet. Her parents constantly threaten that at the completion of Class XI, Zeba will be sent to her husband.&nbsp;

But Zeba does not want to go. She wants to complete her education and be a teacher someday.&nbsp;

Jaba&#39;s story is little different from that of Zeba other than they belong to different religious communities. Jaba&#39;s mother wanted her to be married after the death of her father. Jaba did not, however, elaborate whether such a decision was prompted by reasons of poverty or only a sense of insecurity. My hunch is the death of the male guardian of the family created a sense of terrible insecurity and the mother felt pressurised to give her off in marriage. &nbsp;

Daughters are after all prescribed by Shastraic injunctions to spend the childhood under the tutelage of the father, the adulthood under a husband and old age under the care of the son(s). This care ethics unknowingly breed a sense of dependence and, perhaps more dangerously, a sense of ownership over women. Jaba is a classic example of what misfortune can befall a girl child once she loses the male guardian in her life.&nbsp;

When I asked the organisers as the what prompted them to take up the cudgel against child marriage among all other social evils. Indrani Pancholi pointed out to me that they wanted to locate voices of dissent among sufferers themselves. They wanted the resistance to come from the girls who are suffering because they will be the ones who can best point out what they want.&nbsp;

This brings us back to Jaya who pointed out at the end of the interview to us how her village is witnessing changes that are not grafted from outside but organically efflorescing, courtesy the initiatives of women like her. For instance, Jaya pointed out, women would cover their heads and faces in the past, but they don&#39;t do it anymore.&nbsp;

It did not require a French political system type of ban to prevent women from covering their faces, it came most spontaneously from a sense of empowerment.&nbsp;

Let us hope that this force of social change, emanating from the ground will change the gender dynamics in India not so far in the future.&nbsp;

(Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).

Social custom is as much to be blamed as poverty for the perpetuation of child marriage in India.

Almost half of all girls in South Asia marry before the age of 18, says UNICEF. One in five girls is married before the age of 15. Bangladesh is the worst offenders in this regard followed by India. Child marriages are most prevalent in rural India, with rates of child marriage being the highest in the central and western parts of India and lower in the eastern and southern parts of the country. While these facts and figures, as a journalist, are not unknown to me, to meet a child bride is a different experience. Discomforting and unnerving too. In a book release ceremony recently organised by HAQ, I came face to face dozen of child brides-most of whom are married but have not met their groom or the in-laws yet. Many of them pointed out to me that they didn't even remember the face of their husband not to mention the marriage ceremony. I have, as the UNICEF does too, always associated the menace of child marriage with the restraints poverty places on an individual family. Recently, the Guardian even carried a report as to how an increasing number of African girl children are getting married off because of climate change, such as drought and flood, crop loss and stunted growth. Thus Africa witnesses a social evil because a drastic environmental change is taking an economic toll on their lives. But poverty is not always the stimulus behind child marriage. As was pointed out to me in so many words by Ayesha. Ayesha comes from a village of Murshidabad. Not necessarily a child of a poor father, Ayesha's family tried to give her off in marriage as per the cultural norms of her community. She repeatedly blames societal norms for the trauma she underwent as a child. From the tender age of 3 months, her father tried to get her married off at least dozen times before she entered her teens. The only silver lining of her story is that all these hardships hardened her resolve to complete her education. She is the only girl from her village who has successfully completed a Masters degree in science. Now Ayesha devotes her time in fighting the curse of child marriage which she claims is still ubiquitous in the villages of Murshidabad. Jaya is another woman who went through the ordeal of getting married at the age of 13. Hailing from a village in Rajasthan, Jaya went through the terrible pain of getting beaten by her in-laws and even her husband. Her voice of protest was stifled and met with further harassment. But Jaya did not give up. Now she is a well-known activist who plays a pivotal role in organising the women against the menace of child marriages. She does not depend on the government or anyone else for her crusade. She has fought for the education of her of own two girls who are now principals of local schools. If these two grown-ups tell us the stories of the lives that have, fortunately, taken a favourable turn over time, though it has exacted a very stiff price in the course, there are many other young girls who still stare at an unknown future. One such fighter is young Zeba. She hails from Rajasthan too. She was given to marriage at the age of 3. Now a student of class XI and already a child rights activist, Zeba asked her mother the reason behind such an act. Her mother's answer was that the family did not have money to marry off all her sisters separately. So her eldest sister who was 16 at that time and Zeba at 3, all were married off together in a pack. Zeba has not met her husband yet. Her parents constantly threaten that at the completion of Class XI, Zeba will be sent to her husband. But Zeba does not want to go. She wants to complete her education and be a teacher someday. Jaba's story is little different from that of Zeba other than they belong to different religious communities. Jaba's mother wanted her to be married after the death of her father. Jaba did not, however, elaborate whether such a decision was prompted by reasons of poverty or only a sense of insecurity. My hunch is the death of the male guardian of the family created a sense of terrible insecurity and the mother felt pressurised to give her off in marriage. Daughters are after all prescribed by Shastraic injunctions to spend the childhood under the tutelage of the father, the adulthood under a husband and old age under the care of the son(s). This care ethics unknowingly breed a sense of dependence and, perhaps more dangerously, a sense of ownership over women. Jaba is a classic example of what misfortune can befall a girl child once she loses the male guardian in her life. When I asked the organisers as the what prompted them to take up the cudgel against child marriage among all other social evils. Indrani Pancholi pointed out to me that they wanted to locate voices of dissent among sufferers themselves. They wanted the resistance to come from the girls who are suffering because they will be the ones who can best point out what they want. This brings us back to Jaya who pointed out at the end of the interview to us how her village is witnessing changes that are not grafted from outside but organically efflorescing, courtesy the initiatives of women like her. For instance, Jaya pointed out, women would cover their heads and faces in the past, but they don't do it anymore. It did not require a French political system type of ban to prevent women from covering their faces, it came most spontaneously from a sense of empowerment. Let us hope that this force of social change, emanating from the ground will change the gender dynamics in India not so far in the future. (Disclaimer: The author writes here in a personal capacity).

Opinion: A child needs parents, not a husband

By&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/alex-mcbratney-129" rel="author">Alex McBratney</a>&nbsp;&amp;&nbsp;<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrea-koch-221" rel="author">Andrea Koch</a>*

&nbsp;

Soils can help us solve two of the most pressing problems of the coming decades: climate change and food shortage.

There is more fresh water in the world&rsquo;s soils than in all its lakes and rivers. Soil contains more carbon than in all the vegetation and atmosphere above it. In a single handful of soil there are a billion organisms, 10 million species and more DNA than in a human body.

Most of us have lost our link to the soil. Urbanisation and advanced technology help us forget how much we need it.

We tend to believe technology can produce food, fibre and also renewable energy, without really thinking about where any of them come from. But technology has produced no alternative to the complexity and processing ability of soils and ecosystems.

Producing more food for an ever-burgeoning population has been hard on our soils. In the same way that we think and agonise about food security we should concern ourselves with soil security. In some sense it is even more fundamental.

Soil security is the maintenance or improvement of the world&rsquo;s soil resource so it can keep providing sufficient food and fibre. It provides fresh water, and contributes to energy sustainability and climate stability.

In the university sector, we can&rsquo;t simply follow our noses in research. We need to engage in and raise public debate in key areas that relate to our scholarship.

In February of this year, a summit of 18 of the world&rsquo;s leading soil and plant scientists congregated to discuss soil carbon.

They discovered a common sense of urgency and concern about the state of the world&rsquo;s soils, but also a consensus that we have the scientific knowledge and technology to achieve soil security.

Five things need to happen.

Building carbon in soils must become a priority. Not only does increased soil carbon draw down from the atmospheric legacy load, it will also underpin future food and fresh water supplies. This is crucial with a burgeoning global population.

Public policy must turn its attention to protecting and rebuilding soil. It is a vital asset.

Contrary to common wisdom that &ldquo;nature be left to its own devices&rdquo;, soil carbon will increase in closely managed systems. Farmers must be supported with good science and policy that acknowledges them as stewards of soil and managers of the vital ecosystem services that soil provides.

We need a rethink of agricultural research and development. We can no longer afford to focus on increasing productivity through agriculture without a focus on the substrate of production. Soil security must become a co-benefit of new agricultural developments and technology.

Finally, soil science must experience a revival in engagement and funding; more soil scientists and more soil science. We don&rsquo;t have enough global information about the composition and quality of our soils.

Without this information, land managers face serious challenges in planning food production, carbon sequestration and regeneration.

We know a lot about how soil works (and we can learn a lot more) but we often don&rsquo;t know where soil of a particular kind can be found. Solid soil information lets us model climate, water storage and crop production scenarios so we can develop sound public policy. Globalsoilmap (www.globalsoilmap.net) addresses that kind of problem.

Researchers worldwide are working on this digital map of the earth&rsquo;s soils using a suite of techniques largely developed in Australia. The project is capturing legacy soil data - including soil carbon - generated over a century of research and investigation and presenting it digitally: it&rsquo;s a kind of Google Maps for soil.

Leonardo da Vinci&rsquo;s 500 year old statement about knowing more about the cosmos than the soil under our feet remains true.

If we want to solve problems like climate change or food security, society needs to get behind the grand challenges of soil mapping and monitoring. It is with information like this that we can formulate and test the kind of radical ideas needed to grapple with such complex conundrums.

&nbsp;

*<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/andrea-koch-221" rel="author">Andrea Koc</a>h is Project Manager, Soil Carbon Initiative, United States Studies Centre , University of Sydney

<h2>&nbsp;</h2>

This article was originally published in <a href="http://theconversation.com" nofollow="" rel="">The Conversation</a>. Read the <a href="https://theconversation.com/soil-its-what-keeps-us-clothed-and-fed-146">original article</a>.

Urbanisation and advanced technology help us forget how much we need soil in solving two of the most pressing problems of the coming decades namely, climate change and food shortage.

By Alex McBratney & Andrea Koch* Soils can help us solve two of the most pressing problems of the coming decades: climate change and food shortage. There is more fresh water in the world’s soils than in all its lakes and rivers. Soil contains more carbon than in all the vegetation and atmosphere above it. In a single handful of soil there are a billion organisms, 10 million species and more DNA than in a human body. Most of us have lost our link to the soil. Urbanisation and advanced technology help us forget how much we need it. We tend to believe technology can produce food, fibre and also renewable energy, without really thinking about where any of them come from. But technology has produced no alternative to the complexity and processing ability of soils and ecosystems. Producing more food for an ever-burgeoning population has been hard on our soils. In the same way that we think and agonise about food security we should concern ourselves with soil security. In some sense it is even more fundamental. Soil security is the maintenance or improvement of the world’s soil resource so it can keep providing sufficient food and fibre. It provides fresh water, and contributes to energy sustainability and climate stability. In the university sector, we can’t simply follow our noses in research. We need to engage in and raise public debate in key areas that relate to our scholarship. In February of this year, a summit of 18 of the world’s leading soil and plant scientists congregated to discuss soil carbon. They discovered a common sense of urgency and concern about the state of the world’s soils, but also a consensus that we have the scientific knowledge and technology to achieve soil security. Five things need to happen. Building carbon in soils must become a priority. Not only does increased soil carbon draw down from the atmospheric legacy load, it will also underpin future food and fresh water supplies. This is crucial with a burgeoning global population. Public policy must turn its attention to protecting and rebuilding soil. It is a vital asset. Contrary to common wisdom that “nature be left to its own devices”, soil carbon will increase in closely managed systems. Farmers must be supported with good science and policy that acknowledges them as stewards of soil and managers of the vital ecosystem services that soil provides. We need a rethink of agricultural research and development. We can no longer afford to focus on increasing productivity through agriculture without a focus on the substrate of production. Soil security must become a co-benefit of new agricultural developments and technology. Finally, soil science must experience a revival in engagement and funding; more soil scientists and more soil science. We don’t have enough global information about the composition and quality of our soils. Without this information, land managers face serious challenges in planning food production, carbon sequestration and regeneration. We know a lot about how soil works (and we can learn a lot more) but we often don’t know where soil of a particular kind can be found. Solid soil information lets us model climate, water storage and crop production scenarios so we can develop sound public policy. Globalsoilmap (www.globalsoilmap.net) addresses that kind of problem. Researchers worldwide are working on this digital map of the earth’s soils using a suite of techniques largely developed in Australia. The project is capturing legacy soil data - including soil carbon - generated over a century of research and investigation and presenting it digitally: it’s a kind of Google Maps for soil. Leonardo da Vinci’s 500 year old statement about knowing more about the cosmos than the soil under our feet remains true. If we want to solve problems like climate change or food security, society needs to get behind the grand challenges of soil mapping and monitoring. It is with information like this that we can formulate and test the kind of radical ideas needed to grapple with such complex conundrums. *Andrea Koch is Project Manager, Soil Carbon Initiative, United States Studies Centre , University of Sydney This article was originally published in The Conversation. Read the original article.

Opinion: Key to food security lies in soil conservation

Almost 200 nations kept a 2015 global agreement to<a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/successful-talk-for-india-at-the-bonn-climate-summit-24438"> tackle climate change</a> on track on Saturday after marathon talks overshadowed by US&nbsp;President Donald Trump&#39;s decision to pull out.

Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, presiding at the two-week talks in Bonn, said the outcome &quot;underscores the importance of keeping the momentum and of holding the spirit and vision of our Paris Agreement.&quot;

Delegates agreed to launch a process in 2018 to start reviewing existing plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions as part of a long-term effort to ratchet up ambition. It would be called the &quot;Talanoa Dialogue, after a Fijian word for story-telling and sharing experiences.

And they made progress to draft a detailed rule book for the 2015 Paris agreement, which seeks to end the fossil fuel era this century, at the meeting in Bonn that ran overnight beyond a planned ending on Friday.

The rule book, covering aspects such as how to report and monitor each nation&#39;s greenhouse gas emissions, is due to be ready by December next year.

Many delegates said the work needed to go faster.

&quot;Right now we&#39;re moving at a brisk walk, so all countries will need to really pick up the pace from here,&quot; said Jose Sarney Filho, Brazil&#39;s minister for the environment.

Gebru Jember Endalew of Ethiopia, who leads the group of least developed countries, also said &quot;many areas of work are still lagging behind&quot;, despite steps forward in Bonn.

The Paris pact aims to limit a rise in average world temperatures to &quot;well below&quot; two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, ideally 1.5 (5.4F) to limit more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels.

But existing policies are on track to cause a rise of about three degrees (5.4F) by 2100. The Talanoa Dialogue would be a step towards tighter policies.

<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/global-2-rise-in-co2-giant-leap-backwards-for-humankind-24118">The Bonn meeting</a> was under the shadow of Trump&#39;s decision in June to withdraw from the Paris accord and instead promote the coal and oil industry. Trump doubts that man-made emissions are the prime cause of rising temperatures.

No other nations have followed suit and even nations whose economies depend on fossil fuels have rallied around.

&quot;Everyone got together and said &#39;we have to protect the world. We have to protect the Paris Agreement&#39;. Countries are moving forward,&quot; United Arab Emirates Climate Minister Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi told Reuters.

One senior European diplomat said Trump&#39;s decision had &quot;sedated&quot; the talks into a numbed sense of unity, avoiding major confrontations to underscore that the main faultline on policy was between Trump and the rest of the world.

Washington retains its place in the talks for now because the Paris pact stipulates that no country can formally pull out before November 2020.

The fossil fuel industry was very much under the spotlight during the talks. The US&nbsp;administration&#39;s only event in Bonn was to promote coal, which jarred with many other nations who wanted talks to focus on renewable energies.

In seeming defiance, 20 countries and two U.S. states joined an international alliance to phase out coal from power generation before 2030.

Environmental groups said the outcome in Bonn was a step in the right direction, but many issues needed to be resolved over the next year, including financial support for developing nations who want to cut emissions and for adaptation.

Almost 200 nations kept a 2015 global agreement to tackle climate change on track on Saturday after marathon talks overshadowed by US?President Donald Trump's decision to pull out

Almost 200 nations kept a 2015 global agreement to tackle climate change on track on Saturday after marathon talks overshadowed by US President Donald Trump's decision to pull out. Fijian Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama, presiding at the two-week talks in Bonn, said the outcome "underscores the importance of keeping the momentum and of holding the spirit and vision of our Paris Agreement." Delegates agreed to launch a process in 2018 to start reviewing existing plans to limit greenhouse gas emissions as part of a long-term effort to ratchet up ambition. It would be called the "Talanoa Dialogue, after a Fijian word for story-telling and sharing experiences. And they made progress to draft a detailed rule book for the 2015 Paris agreement, which seeks to end the fossil fuel era this century, at the meeting in Bonn that ran overnight beyond a planned ending on Friday. The rule book, covering aspects such as how to report and monitor each nation's greenhouse gas emissions, is due to be ready by December next year. Many delegates said the work needed to go faster. "Right now we're moving at a brisk walk, so all countries will need to really pick up the pace from here," said Jose Sarney Filho, Brazil's minister for the environment. Gebru Jember Endalew of Ethiopia, who leads the group of least developed countries, also said "many areas of work are still lagging behind", despite steps forward in Bonn. The Paris pact aims to limit a rise in average world temperatures to "well below" two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial times, ideally 1.5 (5.4F) to limit more droughts, floods, heatwaves and rising sea levels. But existing policies are on track to cause a rise of about three degrees (5.4F) by 2100. The Talanoa Dialogue would be a step towards tighter policies. The Bonn meeting was under the shadow of Trump's decision in June to withdraw from the Paris accord and instead promote the coal and oil industry. Trump doubts that man-made emissions are the prime cause of rising temperatures. No other nations have followed suit and even nations whose economies depend on fossil fuels have rallied around. "Everyone got together and said 'we have to protect the world. We have to protect the Paris Agreement'. Countries are moving forward," United Arab Emirates Climate Minister Thani Ahmed Al Zeyoudi told Reuters. One senior European diplomat said Trump's decision had "sedated" the talks into a numbed sense of unity, avoiding major confrontations to underscore that the main faultline on policy was between Trump and the rest of the world. Washington retains its place in the talks for now because the Paris pact stipulates that no country can formally pull out before November 2020. The fossil fuel industry was very much under the spotlight during the talks. The US administration's only event in Bonn was to promote coal, which jarred with many other nations who wanted talks to focus on renewable energies. In seeming defiance, 20 countries and two U.S. states joined an international alliance to phase out coal from power generation before 2030. Environmental groups said the outcome in Bonn was a step in the right direction, but many issues needed to be resolved over the next year, including financial support for developing nations who want to cut emissions and for adaptation.

Governments keep global climate deal on track despite US pullout

As climate change drives up temperatures, Earth comes ever closer to dangerous &#39;tipping points&#39; that could accelerate global warming beyond our capacity to reign it in, scientists warned at UN talks in <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/climate-change-imperils-one-in-four-natural-heritage-sites-report-24124">Bonn</a> Monday.

&quot;<a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/if-asia-leads-on-climate-the-world-will-follow-24082">Climate change</a> is here. It is dangerous. And it is about to get much worse,&quot;&nbsp;said Johan Rockstrom, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre.

&quot;In the last two years, evidence has accumulated that we are now on a collision course with tipping points in the Earth system.&quot;

Think of someone leaning back on two legs of a chair, suggested Sybren Drijfhout, a professor at the University of Southampton.

&quot;The tipping point is when you&#39;re exactly in between two states,&quot; he said. &quot;A tiny perturbation&quot; - a gentle shove - &quot;will make the system tip over.&quot;

In relation to climate change, these invisible thresholds are a point-of-no-return beyond which lies a world that could fall rapidly and seriously out of balance.

Some <a href="http://www.wionews.com/world/world-carbon-emissions-on-the-rise-again-study-24098">scientists</a>, for example, have concluded that the planet&#39;s surface has already warmed enough - 1.1 degrees Celsius (2.0 degrees Fahrenheit) on average - in the last 150 years to lock in the disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which holds enough frozen water to lift global oceans by six or seven metres.&nbsp;

It may take 1,000 years, but -&nbsp;if they are right -&nbsp;the ice sheet will melt no matter how quickly humanity draws down <a href="http://www.wionews.com/india-news/delhi-government-files-plea-in-ngt-seeking-changes-in-its-previous-directions-24100">the greenhouse gases</a> that continue to drive global warming.

Other scientists say that threshold is higher, perhaps 1.5 C&nbsp; or 2.0 C. But all agree that there is a point of no return.

Rockstrom and other scientists identified a dozen tipping points - keyed to different temperature triggers - in a briefing paper presented at the 196-nation, 12-day UN talks, which run through Friday.

The danger, if they kick in, is that change could become abrupt and irreversible, at least on a timescale measured in thousands, or tens of thousands, of years.

An increase of 1-3 C could provoke the loss of Arctic summer sea ice; irreversible melting of parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet; loss of many warm-water coral reefs; and the disappearance of many mountain glaciers.&nbsp;

Earth getting in the act&nbsp;

A temperature rise of 3-5 C would likely turn large swathes of the Amazon rainforest into savanna; slow down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a deep-sea current which regulates weather on both sides of the northern Atlantic; and affect the intensity and frequency of El Ninos.&nbsp;

On the plus side, it could also green the Sahel region of northern Africa.

If the thermometer goes up beyond 5 C - unlikely but not impossible - the world would see the melting of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, lifting seas tens of metres; and the loss of Arctic winter sea ice.

It would also melt the permafrost, which traps at least nearly twice as much carbon as is contained in the atmosphere.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Right now, the scientists point out, humanity is having a very hard time dealing with the amount of CO2 and methane - the two most important greenhouse gases -- we have already released.

If Earth itself gets into the act, that task could quickly become overwhelming.

&quot;It is important to remind everyone of the very reasons why tens of thousands of people are meeting in Bonn,&quot; said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and co-author of the briefing.

&quot;It is because of the unprecedented risk to humanity due to global warming, as revealed by science.&quot;

This hard reality, he added, may force us to reconsider the &quot;culture of short-term convenience and consumption&quot; that has emerged since the middle of the 20th century.

As climate change drives up temperatures, Earth comes ever closer to dangerous 'tipping points' that could accelerate global warming beyond our capacity to reign it in, scientists warned at UN talks in Bonn Monday

As climate change drives up temperatures, Earth comes ever closer to dangerous 'tipping points' that could accelerate global warming beyond our capacity to reign it in, scientists warned at UN talks in Bonn Monday. "Climate change is here. It is dangerous. And it is about to get much worse," said Johan Rockstrom, executive director of the Stockholm Resilience Centre. "In the last two years, evidence has accumulated that we are now on a collision course with tipping points in the Earth system." Think of someone leaning back on two legs of a chair, suggested Sybren Drijfhout, a professor at the University of Southampton. "The tipping point is when you're exactly in between two states," he said. "A tiny perturbation" - a gentle shove - "will make the system tip over." In relation to climate change, these invisible thresholds are a point-of-no-return beyond which lies a world that could fall rapidly and seriously out of balance. Some scientists, for example, have concluded that the planet's surface has already warmed enough - 1.1 degrees Celsius (2.0 degrees Fahrenheit) on average - in the last 150 years to lock in the disintegration of the West Antarctic ice sheet, which holds enough frozen water to lift global oceans by six or seven metres. It may take 1,000 years, but - if they are right - the ice sheet will melt no matter how quickly humanity draws down the greenhouse gases that continue to drive global warming. Other scientists say that threshold is higher, perhaps 1.5 C or 2.0 C. But all agree that there is a point of no return. Rockstrom and other scientists identified a dozen tipping points - keyed to different temperature triggers - in a briefing paper presented at the 196-nation, 12-day UN talks, which run through Friday. The danger, if they kick in, is that change could become abrupt and irreversible, at least on a timescale measured in thousands, or tens of thousands, of years. An increase of 1-3 C could provoke the loss of Arctic summer sea ice; irreversible melting of parts of the Greenland Ice Sheet; loss of many warm-water coral reefs; and the disappearance of many mountain glaciers. Earth getting in the act A temperature rise of 3-5 C would likely turn large swathes of the Amazon rainforest into savanna; slow down the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a deep-sea current which regulates weather on both sides of the northern Atlantic; and affect the intensity and frequency of El Ninos. On the plus side, it could also green the Sahel region of northern Africa. If the thermometer goes up beyond 5 C - unlikely but not impossible - the world would see the melting of the East Antarctic Ice Sheet, lifting seas tens of metres; and the loss of Arctic winter sea ice. It would also melt the permafrost, which traps at least nearly twice as much carbon as is contained in the atmosphere. Right now, the scientists point out, humanity is having a very hard time dealing with the amount of CO2 and methane - the two most important greenhouse gases -- we have already released. If Earth itself gets into the act, that task could quickly become overwhelming. "It is important to remind everyone of the very reasons why tens of thousands of people are meeting in Bonn," said Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, and co-author of the briefing. "It is because of the unprecedented risk to humanity due to global warming, as revealed by science." This hard reality, he added, may force us to reconsider the "culture of short-term convenience and consumption" that has emerged since the middle of the 20th century.

Climate change pushing Earth towards 'tipping point': Report

Climate change imperils one in four natural World Heritage sites, including coral reefs, glaciers, and wetlands -- nearly double the number from just three years ago, a report said Monday.

The number of sites at risk has grown to 62 from 35 in 2014, when one in seven were listed, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which released the report at UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany.

Among the ecosystems most threatened by global warming are coral reefs which bleach as oceans heat up, and glaciers which melt.

&quot;Climate change acts fast and is not sparing the finest treasures of our planet,&quot; said IUCN director general Inger Andersen.

&quot;Climate change now threatens the very fabric of our society, threatens our identity, an identity that is grounded in the rich and yet delicate patchwork of natural heritage,&quot; she told journalists in Bonn.

The report found that 29 percent of World Heritage sites faced &quot;significant&quot; threats, and seven percent -- including the Everglades National Park in the United States and Lake Turkana in Kenya -- had a &quot;critical&quot; outlook.&nbsp;

&quot;The scale and pace at which it (climate change) is damaging our natural heritage underline the need for urgent and ambitious national commitments and actions to implement the Paris Agreement,&quot; said Andersen.

Negotiators are gathered in Bonn to work out a nuts-and-bolts rulebook for executing the pact adopted by nearly 200 countries in the French capital in 2015.

The agreement seeks to limit average global warming caused by greenhouse gases from fossil-fuel burning to under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, and to 1.5 C if possible.

The 1 C mark has already been passed, and scientists say that on current country pledges to cut emissions, the world is headed for a 3 C future.

- &#39;Devastating&#39; - 
The IUCN monitors more than 200 natural Heritage Sites listed by the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

Three World Heritage-listed coral reefs -- the Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean, the Belize Barrier Reef in the Atlantic, and Australia&#39;s Great Barrier Reef, the biggest on Earth -- have been affected by &quot;devastating&quot; bleaching events over the last three years, said the IUCN report.

Corals &quot;bleach&quot; when they are stressed by environmental changes -- due to ocean warming or pollution.&nbsp;

The corals expel the colorful algae that live in them and turn bone white.

&quot;Retreating glaciers, also resulting from rising temperatures, threaten sites such as Kilimanjaro National Park, which boasts Africa&#39;s highest peak, and the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch, home to the largest Alpine glacier,&quot; said the union.

Wetlands, low-lying deltas, permafrost and fire-sensitive ecosystems are also affected by changes in Earth&#39;s climate, it added.

- Insufficient funding - 
Harm to natural sites endangers local economies and livelihoods, the IUCN said.

&quot;In Peru&#39;s Huascaran National Park, for example, melting glaciers affect water supplies and contaminate water and soil due to the release of heavy metals previously trapped under ice.&quot;

Only invasive plant and animal species surpassed climate change as a risk to natural heritage sites said the union. And climate change boosts their spread.

Sites on the World Heritage list are earmarked for protection for future generations.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Countries assume responsibility under the World Heritage Convention to protect listed sites within their borders.&nbsp;

The report said the management of heritage sites has declined since 2014, &quot;notably due to insufficient funding.&quot;

The Bonn meeting is the first of UN climate envoys since US President Donald Trump said he would pull America out of the hard-fought Paris Agreement, a move many fear will make the 2 C goal that much harder to reach.

Among the ecosystems most threatened by global warming are coral reefs which bleach as oceans heat up, and glaciers which melt.

Climate change imperils one in four natural World Heritage sites, including coral reefs, glaciers, and wetlands -- nearly double the number from just three years ago, a report said Monday. The number of sites at risk has grown to 62 from 35 in 2014, when one in seven were listed, according to the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which released the report at UN climate talks in Bonn, Germany. Among the ecosystems most threatened by global warming are coral reefs which bleach as oceans heat up, and glaciers which melt. "Climate change acts fast and is not sparing the finest treasures of our planet," said IUCN director general Inger Andersen. "Climate change now threatens the very fabric of our society, threatens our identity, an identity that is grounded in the rich and yet delicate patchwork of natural heritage," she told journalists in Bonn. The report found that 29 percent of World Heritage sites faced "significant" threats, and seven percent -- including the Everglades National Park in the United States and Lake Turkana in Kenya -- had a "critical" outlook. "The scale and pace at which it (climate change) is damaging our natural heritage underline the need for urgent and ambitious national commitments and actions to implement the Paris Agreement," said Andersen. Negotiators are gathered in Bonn to work out a nuts-and-bolts rulebook for executing the pact adopted by nearly 200 countries in the French capital in 2015. The agreement seeks to limit average global warming caused by greenhouse gases from fossil-fuel burning to under two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, and to 1.5 C if possible. The 1 C mark has already been passed, and scientists say that on current country pledges to cut emissions, the world is headed for a 3 C future. - 'Devastating' - The IUCN monitors more than 200 natural Heritage Sites listed by the UN Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). Three World Heritage-listed coral reefs -- the Aldabra Atoll in the Indian Ocean, the Belize Barrier Reef in the Atlantic, and Australia's Great Barrier Reef, the biggest on Earth -- have been affected by "devastating" bleaching events over the last three years, said the IUCN report. Corals "bleach" when they are stressed by environmental changes -- due to ocean warming or pollution. The corals expel the colorful algae that live in them and turn bone white. "Retreating glaciers, also resulting from rising temperatures, threaten sites such as Kilimanjaro National Park, which boasts Africa's highest peak, and the Swiss Alps Jungfrau-Aletsch, home to the largest Alpine glacier," said the union. Wetlands, low-lying deltas, permafrost and fire-sensitive ecosystems are also affected by changes in Earth's climate, it added. - Insufficient funding - Harm to natural sites endangers local economies and livelihoods, the IUCN said. "In Peru's Huascaran National Park, for example, melting glaciers affect water supplies and contaminate water and soil due to the release of heavy metals previously trapped under ice." Only invasive plant and animal species surpassed climate change as a risk to natural heritage sites said the union. And climate change boosts their spread. Sites on the World Heritage list are earmarked for protection for future generations. Countries assume responsibility under the World Heritage Convention to protect listed sites within their borders. The report said the management of heritage sites has declined since 2014, "notably due to insufficient funding." The Bonn meeting is the first of UN climate envoys since US President Donald Trump said he would pull America out of the hard-fought Paris Agreement, a move many fear will make the 2 C goal that much harder to reach.

Climate change imperils one in four natural heritage sites: Report

The world must sharply curb greenhouse gas emissions and suck billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air if today&#39;s youth are to be spared climate cataclysm, a top scientist has warned.

&quot;This reality is being ignored by governments around the world,&quot; said James Hansen, who famously announced to the US Congress 30 years ago that global warming was underway.

&quot;To say that we are &#39;moving in the right direction&#39; just isn&#39;t good enough anymore,&quot; he said in an interview.

Head of NASA&#39;s Goddard Institute for Space Studies until 2013, Hansen and his 18-year-old granddaughter&nbsp;who is suing the US government for contributing to the problem&nbsp;delivered that message this week at UN climate negotiations in Bonn.

Thousands of diplomats at the 12-day, 196-nation talks are haggling over the fine print of a &quot;user&#39;s manual&quot; for a treaty that will go into effect in 2020.

Inked in the French capital in 2015, the Paris Agreement calls for capping global warming at two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).&nbsp;

With the planet out of kilter after only one degree of warming&nbsp;enough to amplify deadly heatwaves, superstorms, and droughts-the treaty also vows to explore the feasibility of holding the line at 1.5 C.&nbsp;

&quot;That is a good impulse because if we go to 2 C, it is guaranteed that we will lose our shorelines and coastal cities,&quot; said Hansen.&nbsp;

&quot;The only question is how fast.&quot;

Earth&#39;s surface temperature, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and sea levels have all changed in lock-step over hundreds of millions of years, he pointed out.

In 2016, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide the main greenhouse gas&nbsp;tipped over 403 parts per million (ppm), 40 per cent above the pre-industrial average and the highest level in at least 800,000 years, the UN&#39;s weather agency reported this week.&nbsp;

&#39;Proven prescient&#39;&nbsp;

Even under optimistic scenarios, that number is projected to rise for decades.&nbsp;

What&#39;s the limit for a climate-safe world?

The UN&#39;s science advisory body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has said we can &quot;likely&quot; stay under the 2 C threshold if CO2 levels don&#39;t exceed 450 ppm by 2100.

For Hansen, that&#39;s a recipe for disaster.

Meltwater from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could add metres to sea levels by 2100, he has calculated.

&quot;The last time in Earth&#39;s history that CO2 concentrations were at 450 ppm, sea level was 25 metres (80 feet) higher,&quot; he noted.

When writer and environmentalist Bill McKibben decided a decade ago to launch a campaign to fight global warming, he asked the world&#39;s best known climate scientist what he should call it.

&quot;He had in mind the name &#39;450.org&#39;,&quot; Hansen recalled.&nbsp;

By coincidence, Hansen was about to publish a major study that concluded the ceiling for CO2 levels should be 350 ppm, at most.&nbsp;

Thus was born 350.org, probably the largest grassroots climate action organisation in the world.

&quot;Hansen does make a compelling case that many climate change impacts are occurring sooner and with greater magnitude than we expected,&quot; said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University.

&quot;Jim&#39;s past predictions have proven prescient and we do indeed ignore him at our peril.&quot;

&quot;Hansen&#39;s contributions to the basic science of climate change are fundamental to our current understanding -- no one has contributed more,&quot; said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University.

&nbsp;Climate negligence&nbsp;

Even if humanity succeeds in bending down the curve of greenhouse emissions far sooner than currently seems imaginable, it would not be fast enough to bring CO2 levels back to 350 ppm by century&#39;s end, according to Hansen.&nbsp; &nbsp;&nbsp;

&quot;You would have to extract 150 billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere,&quot; more than 10 times the amount we emit each year, he said.

The technology to do that does not currently exist.At 76, Hansen is thinking a lot about and what kind of world young people will be inheriting.&nbsp;

So is his granddaughter, Sophie Kivlehan, a first year university student in the United States.&nbsp;

Along with 20 of her peers, Kivlehan has sued the US federal government for what might best be called climate negligence.&nbsp;

&quot;When the US Constitution says &#39;We the People,&#39; that means young people too,&quot; she said in an interview.&nbsp;

&quot;We have constitutional rights, and those rights are being violated.&quot;

The case is currently wending its way through the federal court system, and could one day wind up before the Supreme Court, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs told AFP.

Government attempts to have the case thrown out have failed.

Despite his grim predictions, Hansen has not thrown his hands up in despair. He continues, for example, to campaign for a direct tax on fossil fuels as the only realistic way to achieve the necessary cuts.

The world must sharply curb greenhouse gas emissions and suck billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air if today's youth are to be spared climate cataclysm, the scientist warned

The world must sharply curb greenhouse gas emissions and suck billions of tonnes of carbon dioxide from the air if today's youth are to be spared climate cataclysm, a top scientist has warned. "This reality is being ignored by governments around the world," said James Hansen, who famously announced to the US Congress 30 years ago that global warming was underway. "To say that we are 'moving in the right direction' just isn't good enough anymore," he said in an interview. Head of NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies until 2013, Hansen and his 18-year-old granddaughter who is suing the US government for contributing to the problem delivered that message this week at UN climate negotiations in Bonn. Thousands of diplomats at the 12-day, 196-nation talks are haggling over the fine print of a "user's manual" for a treaty that will go into effect in 2020. Inked in the French capital in 2015, the Paris Agreement calls for capping global warming at two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit). With the planet out of kilter after only one degree of warming enough to amplify deadly heatwaves, superstorms, and droughts-the treaty also vows to explore the feasibility of holding the line at 1.5 C. "That is a good impulse because if we go to 2 C, it is guaranteed that we will lose our shorelines and coastal cities," said Hansen. "The only question is how fast." Earth's surface temperature, the amount of CO2 in the atmosphere, and sea levels have all changed in lock-step over hundreds of millions of years, he pointed out. In 2016, the atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide the main greenhouse gas tipped over 403 parts per million (ppm), 40 per cent above the pre-industrial average and the highest level in at least 800,000 years, the UN's weather agency reported this week. 'Proven prescient' Even under optimistic scenarios, that number is projected to rise for decades. What's the limit for a climate-safe world? The UN's science advisory body, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has said we can "likely" stay under the 2 C threshold if CO2 levels don't exceed 450 ppm by 2100. For Hansen, that's a recipe for disaster. Meltwater from the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets could add metres to sea levels by 2100, he has calculated. "The last time in Earth's history that CO2 concentrations were at 450 ppm, sea level was 25 metres (80 feet) higher," he noted. When writer and environmentalist Bill McKibben decided a decade ago to launch a campaign to fight global warming, he asked the world's best known climate scientist what he should call it. "He had in mind the name '450.org'," Hansen recalled. By coincidence, Hansen was about to publish a major study that concluded the ceiling for CO2 levels should be 350 ppm, at most. Thus was born 350.org, probably the largest grassroots climate action organisation in the world. "Hansen does make a compelling case that many climate change impacts are occurring sooner and with greater magnitude than we expected," said Michael Mann, director of the Earth System Science Center at Pennsylvania State University. "Jim's past predictions have proven prescient and we do indeed ignore him at our peril." "Hansen's contributions to the basic science of climate change are fundamental to our current understanding -- no one has contributed more," said Michael Oppenheimer, a professor of geosciences and international affairs at Princeton University. Climate negligence Even if humanity succeeds in bending down the curve of greenhouse emissions far sooner than currently seems imaginable, it would not be fast enough to bring CO2 levels back to 350 ppm by century's end, according to Hansen. "You would have to extract 150 billion tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere," more than 10 times the amount we emit each year, he said. The technology to do that does not currently exist.At 76, Hansen is thinking a lot about and what kind of world young people will be inheriting. So is his granddaughter, Sophie Kivlehan, a first year university student in the United States. Along with 20 of her peers, Kivlehan has sued the US federal government for what might best be called climate negligence. "When the US Constitution says 'We the People,' that means young people too," she said in an interview. "We have constitutional rights, and those rights are being violated." The case is currently wending its way through the federal court system, and could one day wind up before the Supreme Court, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs told AFP. Government attempts to have the case thrown out have failed. Despite his grim predictions, Hansen has not thrown his hands up in despair. He continues, for example, to campaign for a direct tax on fossil fuels as the only realistic way to achieve the necessary cuts.

Climate target too low and progress too slow: Top Scientist

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