The Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh, Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, said on Saturday that the state has faced the harshest rain and flood disasters in the past 75 years. He also said that the loss incurred by the state due to the rain-induced damages could reach 8,000 crore rupees.
The Chief Minister said there is a need for immediate financial relief from the Union Government.
“The central team has visited the state. We have demanded the pending 315 crore rupees of the 2022-23 disaster fund from the Union Government. The loss is estimated to be 8,000 Crore rupees. We are trying to restore the roads, electricity and water supply in the region,” said the Chief Minister while talking to the media.
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North India Deluge 2023: Rainfall during July 1-10 broke multiple records
July 1 through July 10 was a record-breaking period for several parts of the country during monsoon 2023. Delhi, Chandigarh and Himachal Pradesh surpassed several records even as parts of the country remained dry.
At least some regions of all 36 states/Union Territories experienced excess and large excess rainfall from July 1 through July 10, 2023. Of these, 29 states/UTs recorded large excess rainfall, exceeding the normal by 61 per cent going up to 10,000 per cent.
However, at the end of this period, the rains in 20 states were below normal even as 14 states received excess or large excess rainfall…
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Heat waves sweep the world from USA to Japan via Europe
Record heat is forecast around the world from the United States, where tens of millions are battling dangerously high temperatures, to Europe and Japan, in the latest example of the threat from global warming.
Italy faces weekend predictions of historic highs with the health ministry issuing a red alert for 16 cities including Rome, Bologna and Florence. ………
Torrential rains described by the meteorological agency as the “heaviest rain ever experienced” have also hit southern Japan in recent weeks, leaving at least 11 people dead. ………….
Relentless monsoon rains have reportedly killed at least 90 people in northern India, after burning heat…………..
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Last month was the planet’s hottest June on record by a huge margin
The past month was the hottest June globally on record in terms of sea and air temperatures, according to a statement by the EU-backed Copernicus Climate Change Service. “The month was the warmest June globally at just over 0.5°C above the 1991-2020 average, exceeding June 2019 – the previous record – by a substantial margin,” the Copernicus report said. The body bases its findings on computer-generated analyses using billions of data from satellites, ships, aircraft and weather stations around the world.
Copernicus said Europe experienced record temperatures during the month while parts of , and eastern Australia were significantly warmer than usual for the time of year. The sea temperature rose to a new record in June due to longer term changes and in part due El Nino, a natural climate phenomenon that fuels tropical cyclones in the Pacific and boosts rainfall. “Exceptionally warm sea surface temperature anomalies were recorded in the north Atlantic…Extreme marine heatwaves were observed around Ireland, the UK and in the Baltic sea” it said. Antarctic sea ice hit its lowest extent for the month, at 17% below the average, and broke a previous record…
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Minerals Security Partnership: India joins the critical minerals club
Recently, India became a part of the coveted critical minerals club — the Mineral Security Partnership (MSP) — headed by the United States. The announcement was part of a joint statement by US President Joe Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter’s visit to US.
MSP is a strategic grouping of 13 member states including Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, the United Kingdom, US, the European Union, Italy and now India. It aims to catalyse public and private investment in critical mineral supply chains globally.
The proposal to onboard India comes after strong diplomatic engagements and push for joining the strategic partnership to secure and build a resilient supply chain for critical minerals.
India is already a member of the Intergovernmental Forum on Mining, Minerals, Metals and Sustainable Development, which supports the advancement of good mining governance.
India’s inclusion in the club is vital for India to fulfill its ambition of shifting towards sustainable mobility through large, reliable fleets of electric public and private transport. Securing the supply chain of critical minerals will also provide the country with the necessary push towards a concerted indigenous electronics and semiconductor manufacturing….
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JSW Steel successfully completes waste plastic injection trials
Integrated steel manufacturer, JSW Steel, has accomplished a ‘significant breakthrough in environmental sustainability’ by successfully injecting waste plastic into Blast Furnace 3 at its Vijayanagar steel plant following extensive trials.
The company hopes that by injecting waste plastic into the process, coke consumption will be reduced, while maintaining the quality of the iron produced, and addressing the issue of plastic waste management.
Plastic Injection System developed by JSW helps in injecting plastic waste and residue into Electric Arc Furnace (EAF).
LR Singh, COO, JSW Steel-Vijayanagar Works, stated: “We are very happy to announce the successful waste plastic injection trial at our blast furnace. This breakthrough aligns with our vision of being a responsible corporate citizen and underscores our commitment to sustainable practices.”
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https://www.steeltimesint.com/news/jsw-steel-successfully-completes-waste-plastic-injection-trials
Mumbai high-rise residential tower gets a 100 kW rooftop solar plant
Distributed solar company Oorjan Cleantech has recently installed a 100 kWp solar project on the high-rise towers of a housing society in Mumbai. The installation comprises more than 230 solar panels installed over 7500 square feet shadow-free area.
The latest project follows Oorjan’s solar project installation across towers in Dheeraj Dream, which is likely to be the largest housing society solar project in Mumbai with 1600+ solar panels.
“We are pleased to install solar rooftop panels in Mahavir Universe Phoenix Society, which is one of the most prominent societies in Bhandup, Mumbai. This project is expected to save Rs 20 lakh every year for the society, and the green impact is equivalent to planting 4,500 teak wood trees. We have 1500 customers across India and are committed to reaching 10,000 soon,” said Gautam Das, co-founder and CEO, Oorjan Cleantech.
Oorjan has built financing partnerships with institutional and private investors and has 1500+ customers across 15 states and union territories in India. The company has enabled the adoption of more than 100 MWp of solar projects across the country.
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EU Green Barriers irks Developing Countries
So far, the focus was on tariffs but recent actions by the European Union have put the spotlight on environmental issues becoming the new non-tariff barrier, first with the Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) that is due to kick in from October and now the Deforestation Regulation (DR).
Unlike CBAM, which will impact steel and aluminium exports from India too, the EUDR will not have much bearing on domestic exporters as the focus is on palm, cocoa, cattle, soya and wood. Coffee could, however, be one area of setback. But the bigger threat is around other developed countries planning similar measures.
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https://www.msn.com/en-in/money/topstories/eu-green-barriers-irk-developing-nations/ar-AA1aicgt
Sandstorms in Delhi: 100s of Aravali hillocks flattene
Scores of Aravali hills have vanished in the past 20 years due to unchecked mining and urbanisation, threatening the flora and fauna of one of the world’s oldest mountain ranges and leaving the path open for sandstorms from the Thar desert to hit the national capital region (NCR conflicts) and western UP and increased with animals, warns an ongoing study on the state of the hill range. The findings have come in a research of the Central University of Rajasthan (CURaj),which has identified over 31 hills in the upper Aravali range that have disappeared in the last two decades, besides “hundreds of hills” in the lower and middle levels.
“The systematic disappearance of hills at the upper level was recorded in Naraina, Kalwar, Kotputli, Jhalana and Sariska with heights of 200 metres to 600 metres above sea level. However, the count of vanishing hills at the lower and middle level, with heights between 50 to 200 metres above sea level, has yet to be completed. All I can share now are the preliminary results which are very alarming,” said L K Sharma, head of department of environmental science, CURaj.
The destruction of hills and forests in the Aravalis, apart from exposing NCR to more sandstorms, has also led to increased man-animal conflict. Leopards, chinkara and sambhar deer, which live in the hills, have been entering human settlements. Rare plants like neel, chonakurinji and karun kurinji also face wipe-out threats, says a study conducted by the Central University of Rajasthan (CURaj). “Until 1999, 10,462 sq km in the range was covered with dry deciduous forest. This has been reduced (41%) to 6116 km2 in 2019,” said Sharma, key researcher of the second part of the report titled “The Assessment of the Land Use Dynamics of Aravali Range”. The report makes special mention of dust storms, saying they have been hitting Rajasthan every year since 2018, claiming lives and damaging properties. ” Drawing a correlation of the vanishing hills with the dust storms hitting far-off places from the Thar desert is a little early.
As recently as this April and May, several of these areas were swept by dust storms and rain. This has become an annual feature now. The report also red-flags marble dumping yards in the entire range, from Delhi to Gujarat. The report suggests that mining leases granted by Rajasthan (which constitutes 80% of the range), Gujarat (10%), Haryana (7) and Delhi (3) be reworked, and suspended in vulnerable areas.
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Most Indian either alarmed or concerned about global warming
About 82% of Indians are either alarmed or concerned about global warming and are in support of bringing in energy policies to reduce its effects, reveals a new study. The study report, ‘Global Warming’s Four Indias, 2022: An Audience Segmentation Analysis’, prepared by the Yale Programme on Climate Change Communication and CVoter International, identified four types of audiences within the Indian public.
The study has found that the majority of the people belonging to three segments backed the formulation of policies to fight climate change and opined that the Indian government should be doing more to address global warming. They also backed the development of a national programme to teach Indians about global warming, train people on renewable energy jobs, encourage local communities to build check dams to ensure local water supplies, and express the opinion that India should reduce its greenhouse gas emissions immediately before other countries.
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Toxic tidal wave’ of plastic pollution putting human rights at risk
Plastic production has increased exponentially over recent decades and today the world is generating 400 million tonnes of plastic waste yearly,” said David R. Boyd, UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and the environment, and Marcos Orellana, Special Rapporteur on toxics and human rights.
The experts outlined how all stages of the “plastics cycle” are harmful to people’s rights to a healthy environment, life, health, food, water and an adequate standard of living.
Plastic production releases hazardous substances and almost exclusively relies on fossil fuels, and plastic itself contains toxic chemicals which put humans and nature at risk. Furthermore, 85 per cent of single use plastics end up in landfills or dumped in the environment.
Meanwhile, incineration, recycling and other “false and misleading solutions” only aggravate the threat, they added, noting that “plastic, microplastic and the hazardous substances they contain can be found in the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe.”
Plastic pollution has also made an “alarming” contribution to climate change, which is often overlooked, according to the experts. “For instance, plastic particles found in oceans limit the ability of marine ecosystems to remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere,” they said.
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https://news.un.org/en/story/2023/06/1137267
New study discovers 62 desiccation-tolerant vascular plant species in India’s Western Ghats
India’s biodiversity hotspot, the Western Ghats (WG), is home to 62 Desiccation-Tolerant Vascular Plant Species which could have applications in agriculture, particularly in areas with scarcity of water.
Desiccation-tolerant vascular (DT) plants are able to withstand extreme dehydration, losing up to 95% of their water content, and they revive themselves once water is available again. This unique ability allowsthem to survive in harsh, arid environments that would be uninhabitable for most other plants. DT plants have been studied for their possible applications in agriculture, particularly in areas with limited waterresources. In tropical regions, they are the predominant occupants of rock outcrops.
In India, DT plants have been relatively understudied. Although rock outcrops are common landscapes in the Western Ghats (WG), knowledge of DT plants in the region is poor.
A recent study by scientists from Agharkar Research Institute (ARI) Pune, an autonomous institute of the Department of Science and Technology (DST), has identified 62 DT species in the Western Ghats, many more than the earlier known nine species.
The research published in the Nordic Journal of Botany provides an overview of Indian DT plants, with a special focus on the WG, and includes an inventory of species with their habitat preferences.
In the inventory of 62 species, 16 are Indian endemic, and 12 are exclusive to the Western Ghats (WG) outcrops, highlighting WG’s importance as a global DT hotspot. In addition to rock outcrops, tree trunks in the partially shaded forests were also found to be crucial habitats for DT species, as per the study.
The team of researchers scrutinized outcrop species for their DT properties by seasonal field observations, followed by relative water content estimation protocols. Nine genera of DT plants are reported as new,also in a global perspective, with Tripogon capillatus representing the first record of an epiphytic DT angiosperm. The study also provides the first field observation-based proof of DT properties of thegesneriad Corallodiscus lanuginosus. Time-lapse video records the hydration process of this species.
The team led by Dr. Mandar Datar and involving Smrithy Vijayan, Aboli Kulkarni, and Bhushan Shigwan collaborated with Dr. Stefan Porembski from Rostock University Germany, who is recognized as an expert of tropical rock outcrops.
The findings of the study can provide valuable insights into the biodiversity and ecology of the Western Ghats and aid in the conservation of DT plant species. Besides, understanding the mechanisms by which plants can tolerate dehydration could lead to the development of crops that are more drought-resistant and require less water.
Source: Press Release by Ministry of Science & Technology, posted on June 1, 2023 by PIB.
https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1928967
Climate Change will speed Inflation in the next Decade says ECB
Climate change will increase global inflation by as much as one percentage point every year as food costs climb, according to new research from the European Central Bank (ECB). In a report published, analysts predicted rising temperatures mean annual inflation will be between 0.32 to 1.18 percentage points higher by 2035. That will create problems for consumers as well as policy makers, with the ECB’s target to keep inflation.
“Climate change poses risks to price stability by having an upward impact on inflation,” said the researchers Maximilian Kotz, Friderike Kuik, Eliza Lis and Christiane Nickel. That would “place global incomes under pressure from rising prices and could impact inflation expectations, thereby requiring monetary policy to react.”