More Ultraviolet radiation to hit earth

Rapid changes in climate are said to redistribut the already sinking ozone layer, exposing the earth's southern parts upto 20% more ultraviolet radiation, warns a canadian study. Ultra violet radiation causes genetic changes and trigger various cancers. Writing in nature geosciences, University of Toronto researchers warned that increase in temperatures will change the circulation of the earths upper atmosphere. The researchers claim that the increase in temperature will cause increase in movement of ozone layer from earth's upper atmosphere to lower atmosphere. As a result, there will be less ozone in stratosphere to protect us and all the living beings on the earth.we know, uv causes...... The researchers warned that more ultraviolet radiation will also deeply impact the air quality, and human and ecosystem health on the earth.

South Indian floods - consequence of climate change!

Its already too late, the consequences began
The floods in south India that have killed at least 350 people and made millions homeless are a result of climate change, said an expert in the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.
The sudden shift from "extreme drought" to "extreme floods" in the region was in consonance with the last report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), head of the climate centre Madeleen Helmer said here today.
In its 2007 fourth assessment report, the IPCC had said that one of the consequences of global warming would be more extreme weather events - droughts, floods and storms would become more frequent and more severe.
Experts shadowing the Sep 28-Oct 9 talks here between 177 countries in preparation for the Copenhagen climate summit this December have pointed out that these predictions have been borne out by a series of disasters in Asia in recent weeks - floods in India and typhoons in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Thailand.
"The problem with humanitarian aid agencies like ours is, what do you prepare for," Helmer told media, "when after extreme drought, you have extreme floods? Climate change is telling us we have to prepare for both, that we are in an age of more uncertainty. It's not easy and we're not geared to do it, but we'll have to be."
Richard Rumsey, director of disaster risk reduction and community resilience in the international NGO World Vision, said: "The problem is that the system is now being so stretched to provide short-term relief, to respond to all these climate disasters, that there is little planning to build long-term resilience of people to face climate change."
The NGO has seen its own budget to disaster response climbing in recent years.
"In 1998, 15 percent ($90 million) of World Vision's overall expenditure was spent on relief activities," Rumsey said. "Ten years later, it accounted for 35 percent ($644 million)."
As the number of climate disasters has climbed from an average of 200 per year in the 1990s to an average of 350 per year this decade, governments in industrialised countries have been forced to increase their response.
Brett Parris of World Vision pointed out that the percentage of overseas development aid (ODA) going for this "humanitarian response" had increased from 4 percent in the 1990s to 9 percent now.
Parris told media that the NGO had calculated that industrialised countries would have to pay developing countries $150 billion per year to help them adapt to climate change and to mitigate the emission of greenhouse gases that are leading to global warming.
The World Bank recently estimated yj sy developing countries will need $100 billion a year for adaptation alone.
"The current level of financing and the current pace of negotiations here is not good enough," Parris said. "They will take the world well beyond a two-degrees Celsius rise in temperature. That will be catastrophic and we'll need a lot more money to deal with those disasters."
According to Parris, developing countries were perfectly right to demand that industrialised countries reduce their greenhouse gas emissions far more than they were willing to do now. "Strong (emission reduction) targets are what science demands, they are not bargaining positions."
India and many developing countries have demanded that industrialised nations reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 40 percent by 2020, compared to 1990 levels.
source:www.headlinesindia.com

12 steps to a safe planet

12 steps to a safe planet
YOU MAY think that it takes a lot of effort or a lot of money to go green. This just isn’t the case. Here are 12 very easy ways that can help you, save the planet.

1.Replace lightbulbs in your home with low-energy lightbulbs. They are no longer expensive and save lots of electricity, which in turn saves you money. Buy them at your local supermarket or hard-ware store.

2.Turn off appliances when you aren’t using them. Televisions, DVD players, video recorders - don’t leave them on stand-by, turn them off properly. Switch off your computer when you’re not using it. Unplug your mobile phone charger, or switch it off at the wall when you’re not actually using it.

3.Recycle. This is so easy to do these day. For most of us, the council turns up every week (or fortnight) and collects our recycling from our doorsteps. All we have to do is sort our rubbish into what can be recycled and what can’t. It’s not hard to do.

4.If you’ve got old clothes or old household bits and pieces that you usually just put in the bin. Don’t. Give them to charity or Free cycle them. Giving away usable clothes and other items that you don’t want anymore saves someone else money and saves energy because they won’t be needing new stuff.

5.Feeling nippy? Don’t switch the heating back on, not at this time of year. Go and get yourself a jumper and put it on.

6.Switch to recycled toilet paper. It costs the same as standard bogroll and you’re saving lots of trees. Trees suck up CO2. Recycled toilet paper is good.

7.Clean green. Buy Ecover or your supermarket’s own brand green products. It’s much better for your health and our environment.

8.Try green toiletries and beauty products. They’re good.

9.Reduce food miles by buying locally produced food. Visit your local Farmer’s Market, it’s a fun morning out! In the supermarket, have a look at where your food has travelled from. Try to buy British.

10.Put a hippo in your toilet cistern and save water. Get a hippo for free from your local water company.

11.Reuse plastic bags over and over again to carry your groceries home. Or take it one step further and get yourself some non-plastic reusable bags that you can take shopping with you from here on out.

12.Switch to green electricity. It only takes a few mouse clicks on U-Switch.

Seven reasons for 2012 !

Is this the end ?

SCIENTIFIC EXPERTS from around the world are predicting that five years from now, all life on Earth could well come to an end. Some are saying it’ll be humans that would set it off. Others believe that a natural phenomenon will be the cause. And the religious folks are saying it’ll be God himself who would press the stop button. The following are some likely arguments as to why the world would end by the year 2012.


Reason one: Mayan calendar

The first to predict 2012 as the end of the world were the Mayans, a bloodthirsty race that were good at two things -- building highly accurate astrological equipment out of stone and sacrificing virgins.

Thousands of years ago they managed to calculate the length of the lunar moon as 329.53020 days, only 34 seconds out. The Mayan calendar predicts that the earth will end on December 21, 2012. Given that they were pretty close to the mark with the lunar cycle, it’s likely they’ve got the end of the world right as well.

Reason two: Sun storms

Solar experts from around the world monitoring the sun have made a startling discovery. Our sun is in a bit of strife. The energy output of the sun is, like most things in nature, cyclic and it’s supposed to be in the middle of a period of relative stability. However, recent solar storms have been bombarding the earth with lot of radiation energy. It’s been knocking out power grids and destroying satellites. This activity is predicted to get worse and calculations suggest it’ll reach its deadly peak sometime in 2012.

Reason three: The atom smasher

Scientists in Europe have been building the world’s largest particle accelerator. Basically, its a 27 km tunnel designed to smash atoms together to find out what makes the universe tick. However, the mega-gadget has caused serious concern, with some scientists suggesting that it’s properly even a bad idea to turn it on in the first place. They’re predicting all manner of deadly results, including mini black holes. So when this machine is fired up for its first serious experiment in 2012, the world could be crushed into a super-dense blob the size of a basketball.

Reason four: The Bible says it

If having scientists warning us about the end of the world isn’t bad enough, religious folks are getting in on the act as well. Interpretations of the Christian Bible reveal that the date for Armageddon, the final battle between good an evil, has been set for 2012. The I Ching, also known as the Chinese Book of Changes, says the same thing, as do various sections of the Hindu teachings.

Reason five: Super volcano

Yellowstone National Park in United States is famous for its thermal springs and old faithful geyser. The reason for this is simple -- it’s sitting on top of the world’s biggest volcano and geological experts are beginning to get nervous sweats. The Yellowstone volcano has a pattern of erupting every 650,000 years or so, and we’re many years overdue for an explosion that will fill the atmosphere with ash, blocking the sun and plunging the earth into a frozen winter that could last up to 15,000 years. The pressure under the Yellowstone is building steadily, and geologists have set 2012 as a likely date for the big bang.

Reason six: The physicists

This one’s case of bog -- simple maths mathematics. Physicists at Berkely University have been crunching the numbers. They’ve determined that the earth is well overdue for a major catastrophic event. Even worse, they’re claiming that their calculations prove that we’re all going to die, very soon. They are also saying that their prediction comes with a certainty of 99 per cent; and 2012 just happens to be the best guess as to when it occurs.

Reason seven: Earth’s magnetic field

We all know the Earth is surrounded by a magnetic field that shields us from most of the sun’s radiation. What you might not know is that the magnetic poles we call North and South have a nasty habit of swapping places every 750,000 years or so -- and right now we’re about 30,000 years overdue. Scientists have noted that the poles are drifting apart roughly 20-30 kms each year, much faster than ever before, which points to a pole-shift being right around the corner. While the pole shift is under way, the magnetic field is disrupted and will eventually disappear, sometimes for up to 100 years. The result is enough UV outdoors to crisp your skin in seconds, killing everything it touches.