climate change – Page 16 – आवारा मुसाफिर

Europe facing its worst drought in 500 years – study

August 24, 2022346 Views

Europe is facing its worst drought in at least 500 years, with two-thirds of the continent in a state of alert or warning, reducing inland shipping, electricity production and the yields of certain crops, a European Union agency said on Tuesday. The August report of the European Drought Observatory (EDO), overseen by the European Commission, said 47% of Europe is under warning conditions, with clear deficit of soil moisture, and 17% in a state of alert, in which vegetation is affected. A woman takes pictures in the peninsula of Sirmione, on Garda lake, Italy, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) "The severe drought affecting many regions of Europe since the beginning of the year has been further expanding and worsening as of early August," the report said, adding tha...

चीनजलवायु परिवर्तन

Its largest lake is so dry, China digs deep to water crops

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August 23, 2022306 Views

With China’s biggest freshwater lake reduced to just 25% of its usual size by a severe drought, work crews are digging trenches to keep water flowing to one of the country’s key rice-growing regions. The dramatic decline of Poyang Lake in the landlocked southeastern province of Jiangxi had otherwise cut off irrigation channels to nearby farmlands. The crews, using excavators to dig trenches, only work after dark because of the extreme daytime heat, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. A severe heat wave is wreaking havoc across much of southern China. High temperatures have sparked mountain fires that have forced the evacuation of 1,500 people in the southwest, and factories have been ordered to cut production as hydroelectric plants reduce their output amid drought conditions....

जलवायु परिवर्तन

Already shrunk by half, Swiss glaciers melting faster

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August 22, 2022269 Views

Switzerland’s 1,400 glaciers have lost more than half their total volume since the early 1930s, a new study has found, and researchers say the ice retreat is accelerating at a time of growing concerns about climate change. ETH Zurich, a respected federal polytechnic university, and the Swiss Federal Institute on Forest, Snow and Landscape Research on Monday announced the findings from a first-ever reconstruction of ice loss in Switzerland in the 20th century, based in part on an analysis of changes to the topography of glaciers since 1931. A person stands in front of the Bernina mountain group with the Pers and Morteratsch glaciers in Pontresina, Switzerland, Wednesday, August 10, 2022. (Gian Ehrenzeller/Keystone via AP) The researchers estimated that ice volumes on the glaciers ...

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African migratory birds threatened by hot, dry weather

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August 20, 2022608 Views

Africa’s migratory birds are threatened by changing weather patterns in the center and east of the continent that have depleted natural water systems and caused a devastating drought. Hotter and drier conditions due to climate change make it difficult for traveling species who are losing their water sources and breeding grounds, with many now endangered or forced to alter their migration patterns entirely by settling in cooler northern areas. Roughly 10% of Africa’s more than 2,000 bird species, including dozens of migratory birds, are threatened, with 28 species — such as the Madagascar fish eagle, the Taita falcon and hooded vultures — classed as “critically endangered.” Over one-third of them are especially vulnerable to climate change and extreme weather, an analysis by environm...

खबरनामा

Collapse of ancient Mayan capital linked to drought

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August 19, 20221047 Views

UAlbany professor's research sheds light on link between climate change, societal instability Prolonged drought likely helped to fuel civil conflict and the eventual political collapse of Mayapan, the ancient capital city of the Maya on the Yucatán Peninsula, suggests a new study in Nature Communications that was published with the help of a University at Albany archeologist. Mayapan served as the capital to some 20,000 Maya people in the 13th through mid-15th centuries but collapsed and was abandoned after a rival political faction, the Xiu, massacred the powerful Cocom family. Extensive historical records date this collapse to sometime between 1441 and 1461. But new evidence shows drought in the century prior may have played a larger role in the city’s demise than was previousl...

अंटार्कटिकाजलवायु परिवर्तन

Antarctica’s ice shelves could be melting faster than we thought

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August 16, 2022261 Views

How coastal ocean currents increase Antarctic ice shelf melt A new model developed by Caltech and JPL researchers suggests that Antarctica's ice shelves may be melting at an accelerated rate, which could eventually contribute to more rapid sea level rise. The model accounts for an often-overlooked narrow ocean current along the Antarctic coast and simulates how rapidly flowing freshwater, melted from the ice shelves, can trap dense warm ocean water at the base of the ice, causing it to warm and melt even more. The study was conducted in the laboratory of Andy Thompson, professor of environmental science and engineering, and appears in the journal Science Advances on August 12. A research vessel in Antarctica on June 3, 2017. Photo: Ben Adkison Ice shelves are outcroppings of t...

इटलीजलवायु परिवर्तन

Italy’s Lake Garda shrinks to near-historic low amid drought

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August 14, 2022267 Views

Italy’s worst drought in decades has reduced Lake Garda, the country’s largest lake, to near its lowest level ever recorded, exposing swaths of previously underwater rocks and warming the water to temperatures that approach the average in the Caribbean Sea. Tourists flocking to the popular northern lake Friday for the start of Italy’s key summer long weekend found a vastly different landscape than in past years. An expansive stretch of bleached rock extended far from the normal shoreline, ringing the southern Sirmione Peninsula with a yellow halo between the green hues of the water and the trees on the shore. People sunbath on the peninsula of Sirmione, on Garda lake, Italy, Friday, Aug. 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Antonio Calanni) “We came last year, we liked it, and we came back this y...

अफ्रीकाजलवायु परिवर्तन

African wildlife parks face climate, infrastructure threats

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August 14, 20221124 Views

Africa’s national parks, home to thousands of wildlife species such as lions, elephants and buffaloes, are increasingly threatened by below-average rainfall and new infrastructure projects. A prolonged drought in much of the continent’s east, exacerbated by climate change, and large-scale developments, including oil drilling and livestock grazing, are hampering conservation efforts in protected areas, several environmental experts say. FILE PHOTO: A pair of hippopotamuses cool off in the Nile river near the waterfalls in Murchison Falls National Park, northwest Uganda, on Feb. 21, 2020. (AP Photo) The at-risk parks stretch all the way from Kenya in the east — home to Tsavo and Nairobi national parks — south to the Mkomazi and Serengeti parks in Tanzania, the Quirimbas and Gorongo...

खबरनामाघटनाएंयूरोप

Drought in England, fires rage in France as heatwave persists

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August 13, 2022644 Views

Firefighters from across Europe came to France's rescue on Friday to battle a massive wildfire, while fire also raged in Portugal and parts of England faced a severe drought, as successive heatwaves renewed the focus on climate change risks. Much of Europe has faced weeks of baking temperatures that have also depleted water levels of the Rhine River in Germany and seen the source of Britain's River Thames dry up further downstream than in previous years. A firefighting aircraft drops flame retardant to extinguish a wildfire near Hostens, as wildfires continue to spread in the Gironde region of southwestern France, in this handout photograph released on August 12, 2022. Courtesy SDIS 33/Handout via REUTERS High temperatures and a worsening drought brought a high risk of new fires...

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Tourist boats marooned, farmland parched as drought lowers Europe’s rivers

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August 10, 2022249 Views

Business for Francoise Droz-Bartholet has reduced to a trickle, just like stretches of the Doubs River straddling the French-Swiss border that her cruise boats usually ply. Water levels in rivers, lakes and reservoirs across western Europe are running low, or even dry, amid the severest drought in decades which is putting stress on drinking water supplies, hampering river freight and tourism and threatening crop yields. The dried bed of the drought-affected Doubs River is seen in Arcon, France, August 8, 2022. REUTERS/Denis Balibouse The Doubs river should coarse through a forested canyon and cascade over waterfalls before spilling out into Brenets Lake, a draw for tourists in eastern France's Jura region. After months without meaningful rain, the river water has receded up the c...