All posts tagged: climate change

Working on framework for hill cities amid growing disaster risks, govt tells LS

Working on framework for hill cities amid growing disaster risks, govt tells LS

Published by Parlour News

The government is working on a new planning framework for the rapidly growing Himalayan cities as climate change and human activity are increasing disaster risks in the region, it told the Lok Sabha on Tuesday. The government said that anthropogenic factors had also contributed to disaster risk. (HT PHOTO) In its reply to a question on whether climate change and unscientific construction were contributing to the rise in cloudburst incidents and other disasters in Himachal Pradesh, the government said that anthropogenic factors had also contributed to disaster risk. It added that climate change had increased the intensity and frequency of extreme rainfall events in the region. The government’s public policy think tank NITI Aayog is working on a planning framework for hill cities. On July 13, NITI Aayog and the North Eastern Council held a consultation on the Hill City Regions Planning Initiative for Sustainable Urban Development in the Indian Himalayan Region. The proposed approach will cover ecological carrying capacity, climate resilience, sustainable infrastructure, governance and financing. There have been calls for more integrated Himalayan planning. …

El Niño to intensify in coming months, lead to extreme temperatures, rainfall world over | India News

El Niño to intensify in coming months, lead to extreme temperatures, rainfall world over | India News

Published by Parlour News

2 min readBengaluruJul 31, 2026 08:51 PM IST The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) Friday warned that the ongoing El Niño is set to further intensify and dominate the climate worldover in the coming months. El Niño will particularly lead to above-normal temperatures across much of the world and drive significant shifts in rainfall patterns during August to October. During the later months of the year, exceptionally warm conditions will prevail over all the oceans and there is a likely development of positive Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) conditions. Together, these oceanic drivers could amplify regional climate impacts and lead to drought, floods and wildfires, particularly around the Indian ocean basin. As the El Nino conditions strengthens, it will be in the backdrop of seasonal-average sea-surface temperature anomalies more than 2.9 degrees Celsius, as indicated by multiple weather models. “El Niño is strengthening – adding fuel to a planet already on fire with scorching heat domes, apocalyptic wildfires and record hot seas. Fossil fuels are fanning the flames of this crisis.  Expansion must stop.  More coal, oil …

Climate change, El Nino threaten tea plantations in Nilgiris

Climate change, El Nino threaten tea plantations in Nilgiris

Published by Webster

Rising temperature and erratic weather patterns driven by global climate change and Super El Nino conditions are posing an unprecedented challenge to the tea plantations in the Nilgiris district, an official said on Monday. Since tea is harvested continuously as young shoots, even small changes in climate directly affects shoot growth, internodal length, harvesting time, yield, and long-term bush health besides quality, he said. This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever Disclaimer: We do not own any of the content, ideas, images, or text presented here. All rights belong to their respective owners. For more information and to view the original source, please visit the following link: Source link

Italy struggles with wildfires, heatwave

Italy struggles with wildfires, heatwave

Published by Parlour News

Italian firefighters battled dozens of wildfires Wednesday in Sicily, where one inferno forced a clinic to be evacuated. Italy struggles with wildfires, heatwave Temperatures topped 40C and gusts of hot wind fanned the flames on the southern island, where wildfires have been raging for several days. Rome meanwhile strugged with an intense summer heartwave that prompted air-conditioned cinemas to offer free places, city officials said. Scientists agree that climate change caused by humans burning fossil fuels is making extreme weather events such as fires and heatwaves more likely and more severe. Sicily’s regional president Renato Schifani said that nearly 50 blazes out of 344 reported on Wednesday were still beyond firefighters’ control. Some 6,000 forest workers, firefighters and civil protection agents were battling the fires, authorities said. One fire raging for several days in the centre of the island forced the evacuation of about 100 residents around Castronovo and Santo Stefano Quisquina and 22 patients in a clinic, officials said. Firefighters have reported 1,000 wildfires since Saturday across Sicily but no casualties. A civil protection …

How glacial lakes expansion adds to the growing concerns about GLOFs

How glacial lakes expansion adds to the growing concerns about GLOFs

Published by Parlour News

As rising global temperatures accelerate glacier retreat and increase meltwater, glacial lakes across the Himalaya are expanding at an unprecedented rate. This expansion has heightened concerns over the growing threat of Glacial Lake Outburst Floods (GLOFs).   India has witnessed some of the disastrous GLOF events in recent years that claimed thousands of lives and caused severe infrastructure damage. A recent analysis of glacial lakes in the Mago Chu Basin in Arunachal Pradesh’s Tawang district found that four out of the five examined glacial lakes – Dharkha Tso, Sanhapo Lake, and three other unnamed lakes – have expanded between 2016 and 2026.  For instance, Sanhapo Lake, a ‘high risk’ lake, increased from 55.87 hectares (ha) in 2016 to 88.81 ha in mid-June 2026, according to the analysis by Noida-based geospatial intelligence firm Suhora Technologies. Among these, two unnamed lakes, which are categorised as ‘very high risk’ by the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), are also expanding at modest rates.  Such expansion has raised concerns over the current status of glacial lakes in India and the country’s …

Digger trailer: An unrecognisable Tom Cruise goes wild to complete another mission; fans say he is coming for the Oscar

Digger trailer: An unrecognisable Tom Cruise goes wild to complete another mission; fans say he is coming for the Oscar

Published by Parlour News

Digger trailer: After months of anticipation, the makers of Tom Cruise‘s Digger have released the official trailer of the film. And as many predicted it, the film presents Tom Cruise in a completely unrecognisable avatar- with his face covered in make-up. He plays Digger Rockwell, and the man may have set off a massive global ecological disaster. The political comedy presents itself as a satire on ecological collapse and climate change. Tom Cruise in a still from Digger, which releases in theatres on October 2. About the trailer The trailer opens with Tom’s Digger being presented with an unimaginable crisis. Sporting a thick Southern accent, he plays a billionaire whose company is somehow responsible for having set off an ecological disaster by causing a glacier to shift significantly. “That glacier over there in Greenland shifts five feet. Now, this desk in front of me is bigger than five feet. My dick is a tenth of that size,” he says, irritated, over a zoom call. John Goodman portrays the US president who accompanied Digger in an …

India’s gram panchayats need climate plans

India’s gram panchayats need climate plans

Published by Parlour News

Across rural India, the climate crisis is no longer a future risk, it is a lived reality. Villages are experiencing falling groundwater levels, erratic rainfall, rising temperatures, declining soil fertility, biodiversity loss, and increasing pressure on livelihoods. Yet, despite these interconnected challenges, village planning often continues to operate through disconnected departmental schemes and annual infrastructure wish lists. Gram panchayat (HT Archive) The irony is that the institution best positioned to respond to climate change already exists–the gram panchayat. Every year, gram panchayats prepare the gram panchayat development plan (GPDP), India’s most extensive local planning exercise. But while GPDPs determine investments in roads, water bodies, livelihoods, sanitation, agriculture, and social welfare, climate risks rarely shape how these decisions are made. A climate plan at the gram panchayat level is, therefore, not about creating another document. It is about helping villages understand their changing landscape and using existing resources, institutions, and schemes to build resilience. Climate action becomes meaningful when it is rooted in local realities, local knowledge, and local governance. For many panchayats, GPDP preparation has become …

An overheated Europe, an underprepared world

An overheated Europe, an underprepared world

Published by Parlour News

3 min readJun 30, 2026 06:05 AM IST First published on: Jun 30, 2026 at 06:05 AM IST For several years, weather extremes seemed a distant crisis for much of the Western world. The devastating heatwave of 2023 did leave an imprint on the ecological consciousness of a section of Europeans. But it’s only been about a decade since people outside the developing world began to feel the impact of global warming acutely. In Europe, temperature records were broken during the summers of 2019, 2022 and 2023. The hot weather has been particularly distressing for people across the continent this year. Temperatures have exceeded 40 degrees Celsius in several countries, red alerts have spread across France and other parts of Europe, schools have shut, transport systems have been disrupted, and health services have come under immense pressure. The UK has recorded its hottest June day on record, while Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Netherlands and Germany have all experienced conditions that until recently would have been considered highly unusual. The exact toll taken by the climate …

Record-breaking heat grips Europe, millions endure temperatures above 35 degree C

Record-breaking heat grips Europe, millions endure temperatures above 35 degree C

Published by Webster

Europe’s deadly heatwave pushed east Sunday with hundreds of millions still sweltering across the continent despite fleeting relief from overnight storms, notably in France and Belgium. The heat remained intense across central and eastern Europe, with the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland hit hard as temperatures soared and records fell. At least 191 million Europeans were expected to face temperatures above 35C during the day, according to AFP estimates. Disclaimer: We do not own any of the content, ideas, images, or text presented here. All rights belong to their respective owners. For more information and to view the original source, please visit the following link: Source link