Sanctuary | News
CLI M AT E
WATCH
CHINA CONDEMNS LACK OF
CLIMATE ACTION
At the ninth BRICS summit hosted by China
on September 4, 2017, Chinese President Xi
Jinping called out the lack of climate action
among the world’s nations. He cited the Paris
Climate Agreement and commented on the
non-committal attitude towards it by the
signatories that were either pulling out of the
agreement or resisting international cooperation.
He warned of the rising risks that the world
economy now faces due to unpreparedness
to combat climate change. "Multilateral trade
negotiations are having a diffi cult time. The
implementation of the Paris Agreement on climate
change is encountering resistance," said Jinping to
the world leaders representing the BRICS nations
of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. In
June this year, U.S. President Donald Trump pulled
out of the Paris Climate Agreement, which was
signed by 197 countries during the Paris climate
conference in December 2015. "Some countries
have become more inward-looking and less
willing to take part in international cooperation,
and the spillovers of their policy adjustments
are deepening," Xi said.
Interestingly, in characteristic see-saw
fashion, Trump’s advisors issued contradictory
communications through CNN, suggesting that
the U.S. was still open to working on some
aspects of the Paris Accord that would result
in greenhouse gas reductions.END OF THE LAST ICE AGE
Scientists at the Desert Research Institute
studying ice in Antarctica have revealed that it
was a series of severe volcanic eruptions from
West Antarctic’s Mount Tahake that lasted 192
years that caused deglaciation 17,700 years
ago, around the time the last ice age came to
an end. These volcanic eruptions coincided with
the start of the most rapid bout of climate
change in the southern hemisphere and the
rise in concentrations of greenhouse gases.DIGANT DESAIThese halogen-rich gases, the
researchers postulate, formed
a hole in the ozone layer
along the Earth’s stratosphere
over Antarctica, much like the
stratospheric ozone hole we see
today. These eruptions spewed
fallout that contained high
amounts of hydrofl uoric acid and
other toxic heavy metal traces
and is believed to have spread
across about 2,800 km. from
Mount Tahake. The ice core,
called the West Antarctic Ice
Sheet Divide core, was analysed
after drilling to a depth of over
3,000 m. for varied elements and
chemicals in the DRI Ultra-Trace
Laboratory.FISH TO SHRINK
IN SIZE?
Warming ocean waters could
lead future generations of fi sh to
shrink in size by at least 20 to 30
per cent, a study by University
of British Columbia, Canada,
warns. To cope with warming
temperatures, these cold-blooded
animals experience a rise in their
body metabolism for which they
need more oxygen for sustenance.
As fi shes’ gills do not grow at
the same rate as the rest of
their bodies, with age it becomes
harder for the gills to supply
them with enough oxygen. "There
is a point where the gills cannot
supply enough oxygen for a
larger body, so the fi sh just stops
growing," explains William Cheung
of the Institute for the Ocean and
Fisheries, who calls this the ‘gill-
oxygen limitation theory’. Climatechange-induced global warming
is resulting in lower oxygen levels
in the oceans, whereas warmer
water is increasing the need for
oxygen in fi shes. Researchers
predict that certain species of
fi sh will be more aff ected
than others depending on
their requirement of energy
and oxygen.INDIA WARMING UP
The Indian Institute of Tropical
Meteorology (IITM) recently
released a report titled 'Climate
Change Over India', which
suggests that the annual mean
temperatures have shown a
marked increase in India since- "Over the last 30 years,
there has been consistent
warming over the Indian
landmass," said M. Rajeevan,
Secretary, Ministry of Earth
Sciences (MoES). Between
1901 and 2010, the average
temperature increased by
0.6 oC and the warming trends
indicate rise by 0.16, 0.17 and
0.14 oC within the last three
decades alone. Days are getting
signifi cantly warmer in India,
whereas seasonal monsoon
rainfall has been showing an
alarming, decreasing trend.
But this fall in rainfall is being
compensated by a rise in heavy
rain events. "The total number of
consecutive dry days with a spell
length of more than fi ve days
has increased signifi cantly, while
the number of consecutive wet
days have shown a signifi cant
decrease," reads the report.
A recent study suggests that future generations of fi sh will shrink in size by almost 20 to 30
per cent owing to rising ocean temperatures and decreasing oxygen levels.