Colorado River in crisis


The Colorado River tops the annual list of Americas Most Endangered Rivers. Dammed, diverted, and drained to a trickle and facing another drought this summer. The Colorado River flows for 2,334 kilometres through seven US and two Mexican states, sustaining 30 million people as well as endangered fish and wildlife.

 The flow of the river is expected to reduce by 10 to 30 per cent by 2050 due to climate change....Read More >>

Rings causes cosmic rain


The rings of Saturn produce their own rain that falls onto the planet, having a major influence on its atmosphere, astronomers have discovered. Funded by NASA, the analysis was led by the University of Leicester, England. It discloses the changes in the composition and temperature structure of parts of Saturns upper atmosphere.

Saturn is the first planet to show significant interaction between its atmosphere and ring system, said James O'Donoghue, lead author of the study published in the journal Nature....Read More >>

New strain of bird flu strikes China, kills 14


Sixty-three people fell ill with a new strain of bird flu in China, 14 of whom died, according to the World Health Organisation. Shanghai, Chinas largest metropolis and financial hub, was the worst hit. The three most recent cases were men and women in their 60s living in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui provinces, all close to China's east coast, says WHO....Read More >>

Leakage in Fukushima toxic water tanks


Signs of toxic water leakage are being detected at Fukushima nuclear plant. Tonnes of highly radioactive water are being moved from a temporary storage tank to a nearby tank at the Fukushima Daichi plant. Around 120 tonnes of the water might have breached in the inner linings of the tank, some of the water might have leaked into the soil, says Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO)....Read More >>

China responsible for increase in global CO₂ emissions


China represented a whopping 68 per cent of the increase in global CO2 emissions between 2000 and 2010 according to a report by US based Climate Policy Initiative (CPI). The study released at The Brookings Institution in Washington DC, claims to have evaluated the impact of three decades of implementation of various kinds of policies to curb climate change in India, China, Brazil and the US....Read More >>

Treaty effective, ozone layer healing


Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are a global environmental problem that is being solved by society. The Montreal Protocol is working, says chemist Mario Molina, who was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the effects of CFCs. The use of CFCs, gases used as coolants in refrigerators and to propel aerosols like hair spray out of cans, was stopped by an international treaty, which opened for signature in 1987....Read More >>

Tibetan glaciers shrinking


Achinese scientist has warned that approximately 90 per cent of Tibetan glaciers are shrinking. Black carbon pollution transferred from South Asia to the ecologically fragile Tibetan plateau is the key reason. Like Antarctica and the Arctic, the Third Pole is drawing increased attention from the international academic community, but the results of former international studies in this area are inconsistent, says Yao Tandong, Director of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Institute of Tibetan Plateau Research....Read More >>

Earthquake rocks Iran and Pakistan


An earthquake of magnitude 7.8 rocked the Iranian border province of Sistan-Baluchistan.  Experts said that the hypocentre, that occurs below the epicentre,  where the built-up strain energy is released was located 82 km below surface, making it a deep earthquake. The epicentre of the quake was situated 95 km north of the city of Saravan, as per the Iranian Seismological Centre....Read More >>