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Climate change is likely to worsen floods on rivers such as the Ganges, the Nile and the Amazon this century while a few, including the now-inundated Danube, may become less prone, a Japanese-led scientific study said on Sunday.
The findings will go some way to help countries prepare for deluges that have killed thousands of people worldwide and caused tens of billions of dollars in damage every year in the past decade, experts wrote in the journal Nature Climate Change.
Given enough warning, governments can bring in flood barriers, building bans on flood plains, more flood-resistant crops and other measures to limit damage.
Overall, a “large increase” in flood frequency is expected in south-east Asia, central Africa and much of South America this century, the experts in Japan and Britain wrote.
Severe floods would happen more often on most of the 29 rivers reviewed in detail, including the Yangtze, Mekong and Ganges in Asia, the Niger, the Congo and the Nile in Africa, the Amazon and the Parana in Latin America and the Rhine in Europe.
Flooding would become less frequent in a handful of river basins including the Mississippi in the United States, the Euphrates in the Middle East and the Danube in Europe. Read the rest of this entry »
People in the capital need not have to spend hours to go to Kurintar of Chitwan to ride on a cable car, they could soon enjoy the service in the Kathmandu Valley itself.
They would enjoy the service in the Kathmandu Valley within two years of the start of construction of the project to connect Chandragiri Hill (Mahabharat Hill) with Thankot VDC near Godam as it has been already started.
As per the project, Thankot VDC in the Kathmandu Valley would be connected with the historical hill, Chandragiri, above Kirtipur Municipality through a short trip of around 10 minutes. Read the rest of this entry »
No fancy new gear can take away the “man versus mountain” element of climbing, says one of Sir Edmund Hillary’s climbing contemporaries on the 60th anniversary of the climbing great’s conquest of Everest.
Wellingtonian Brian Wilkins, 88, was part of a New Zealand Alpine Club expedition to the Himalayas, led by Hillary in 1954, which tackled a series of mountains – Mr Wilkins himself summited six and survived a fall into a crevasse on one of the climbs with Hillary. He also made the first ascent of the northeast ridge of Mt Aspiring, in the Southern Alps. Read the rest of this entry »
Karki, who is inspired by Newton’s theory, succeeded in securing the Student Achievement Award (SAA) by presenting his theory on operating a railway in the mountains without electricity or any fuel in an energy conference organized in the USA.
The fund has provided him 1‚200 US dollars annually for four years. With a plan to study physics in the future‚ he is now studying at B. Sc. first year in applied physics in a university.
Nepal’s youth scientist Rijan Karki has done a quite praiseworthy deed by glorifying Nepal at the US space centre, National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
Karki, who is inspired by Newton’s theory, succeeded in securing the Student Achievement Award (SAA) by presenting his theory on operating a railway in the mountains without electricity or any fuel in an energy conference organized in the USA.
Karki, who was successful in presenting his talent in the world arena by being active with special interest in the sector of science and technology, has recently received a Rs. 25,101-amount cash prize entitled ‘Sami Youth Encouragement Award- 2069 BS.’
Rijan won the International Student Achievement Award at the age of 16 from the US space centre NASA in 2009. He had presented a working paper at NASA about the laws of gravitation and flabbergasted the participating scientists.
Nurturing a dream of becoming a doctor or engineer while he studied at Class 6, he is on his way to success of becoming a famous youth scientist, and researcher after he was attracted to Newton’s theories.
Karki, who has put several national level awards under his belt, plans to stay in Nepal itself and do something worthwhile in future. Karki, who is engaged in researches of inventions like ‘bouncing car’ and ‘RK’s Simple Machine’ named after himself (which can help push anything weighty and stores energy) , has been arguing that substances like water ,soil and rocks can be used as fuel.
The young Nepali boy, who succeeded in winning the prestigious Student Achievement Award from USA by using simple materials around us scientifically, had only passed Ten Plus 2 level from Nobel Academy, Baneshwor, after school education from the Budhanilkantha of Kathmandu.
Karki is now studying at Kathmandu University (KU) with assistance from a Nepali organization and the Wells Mountain Fund of USA. Read the rest of this entry »
KATHMANDU : A Nepalese presenter has set the world record for the longest television talk show by staying on air for 62 hours and 12 minutes, organisers said Sunday.
Rabi Lamichhane, a 36-year-old based in the US, returned to Kathmandu to stage the “Lord Buddha Was Born in Nepal” programme, which took the Guinness world record late Saturday night.
“Our campaign was aimed to spread the message to the world that the Buddha was born in Nepal,” said Anil Joshi, Chairman of News24, the television station broadcasting the program told AFP, adding that the programme promoted tourism destinations such as Mount Everest.
One hundred guests, ranging from former Maoist rebel leader Pushpa Kamal Dahal, to the Indian ambassador to Nepal, to Nepalese television celebrities and common people joined Lamichhane during the programme.
Lamichhane’s performance broke the record previously held by Pavlo Kuzheyev and Tetiana Danylenko for a 52-hour broadcast to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Ukraine’s independence in 2011.
According to Guinness World Records rules, Lamichhane was allowed five minutes every hour for a break.
Organizers said he ate some meals while interviewing guests, banked several of the slots for a longer rest period and otherwise survived on energy drinks. Read the rest of this entry »
KATHMANDU, 11 April 2013 (IRIN) – Experts have long predicted widespread devastation and death should a large earthquake hit Nepal, a country with vulnerable infrastructure and ill-equipped urban search-and-rescue teams. In an effort to prepare for such an event, officials have created a strategy to boost emergency responders’ skills.
Nepal’s Kathmandu Valley, the densely populated capital metropolitan area, has a history of major earthquakes every 70 to 80 years. The last big quake was in 1934. And though the country has building codes for each of its 99 municipalities, enforcement is scant.
The National Society for Earthquake Technology-Nepal (NSET), a local NGO, estimates 85 percent of buildings in Kathmandu Valley could collapse in an earthquake of magnitude 7.0 Mw or greater on the moment magnitude scale, claiming 85,000 lives.
Another 15,000 people could be saved, but only if there is an equipped, well-trained urban search and rescue team (USAR) in place, said Ramesh Guragain, NSET’s deputy director.
Training, equipment needed
The country currently has only light teams, which can search at the surface of collapsed structures, and a more limited number of medium teams, which can go into fallen buildings to save trapped persons. Heavy teams carry out the most difficult and complex search-and-rescue operations, using search dogs and other tools. The classifications are set by the UN International Search and Rescue Advisory Group (INSARAG), which provides guidance for the preparation and deployment of search-and-rescue teams internationally. Read the rest of this entry »
According to photographer Jamey Stillings, the Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System (ISEGS) will be the “world’s largest concentrated solar thermal power plant” when complete at the end of this year. That’s if we want to get all technical.
In plain terms: There’s a huge solar plant under construction in the middle of the Mojave Desert, and Stillings has been documenting the process since the very beginning. Did you know this was happening? I didn’t.
“What I found along the way is that this is a very complicated issue,” he says over the phone, as I ask him to explain in simple terms what he’s seen out there. Read the rest of this entry »
LOS ANGELES — Stephen Hawking, who spent his career decoding the universe and even experienced weightlessness, is urging the continuation of space exploration – for humanity’s sake.
The 71-year-old Hawking said he did not think humans would survive another 1,000 years “without escaping beyond our fragile planet.”
The British cosmologist made the remarks Tuesday before an audience of doctors, nurses and employees at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where he toured a stem cell laboratory that’s focused on trying to slow the progression of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Hawking was diagnosed with the neurological disorder 50 years ago while a student at Cambridge University. He recalled how he became depressed and initially didn’t see a point in finishing his doctorate. But he continued to delve into his studies.
President Putin’s worrying thoughts about the current deadlock on the Korean peninsula come as South Korea backtracks on claims that the North is preparing a fourth nuclear test later this week. A government minister in Seoul now says he was being inaccurate when talking about indications of activity at a North Korean test site. Read the rest of this entry »
Developing world will have 4 billion in cities by 2030
Urban flooding is a top worry
“Compact cities” speed emergency response
Colombo’s remedy for flash floods: lakes and pumps
COLOMBO, 9 April 2013 (IRIN) – With the world’s mega-cities growing even larger, policymakers – especially those in developing countries – need urban planning that will help these areas withstand the impacts of natural disasters.
The urban population in developing countries is expected to double to four billion people by 2030, from two billion at the start of the century, according to a recent World Bank report on urban planning.
The physical space of these cities is likely to triple in size to 600,000sqkm over the same period, the report revealed, noting that implementing the right planning policies will be “the key to resilient and sustainable development”.
Abhas K. Jha, a World Bank sector manager for urban and disaster risk management in East Asia and the Pacific, based in Washington, DC, told IRIN it is crucial for government officials to build cities’ “resilience” to disaster.
Need risk assessment
“An assessment of the risk levels, a cost-benefit analysis of available interventions, and an inventory of existing capacity and financial resources can guide decision-makers in cities or in national governments in the prioritization of concrete actions,” Jha said.
He added that the first step is to understand risks at the national, regional and city levels.
“We have seen that disasters can wipe out decades of progress, and that [these] impacts can be felt throughout the whole region and globally, too, through supply chains and trade patterns,” said the Bank expert.
O.P. Agrawal, an urban transport specialist and one of the co-authors of the World Bank report, said planning is paramount to avoid hefty disaster-related bills. “The sooner you get into planning cities, even those cities that are already large, the more cost-effective it will be.”
Having a lead agency helps, he said, “to get good urban planning off the ground” so city services know about one another’s plans, urban emergency services are handled more effectively and land use is regulated more easily.
Urban flooding
South Asia is home to some of the fastest-growing cities worldwide. Some of the main cities in the region include Dhaka, Bangladesh, which has a population of 13-15 million and is home to 37 percent of the country’s people, and Colombo, Sri Lanka, which has a population of 753,000. Both are the main economic engines of their countries and are prone to natural disasters, with floods being a top threat. Read the rest of this entry »
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange formally unveiled on Monday the latest release from the whistleblower site, Project K, calling it “the single most significant geopolitical publication that has ever existed.”
Speaking via Skype from the Ecuadorian Embassy in London, Assange introduced Project K on Monday morning to a group of journalists at the National Press Club in Washington, DC.
Nearly three years earlier to the day, Assange spoke at the Press Club in person to debut “Collateral Murder,” a video of US soldiers firing at Iraqi civilians that has since become one of WikiLeaks’ most well-recognized contributions to journalism. Since that release, WikiLeaks and the organization’s associates have become the target of a number of government investigations, with Assange himself having been confined to the embassy in London for nearly one year while awaiting safe passage to Ecuador where he was granted political asylum. Ongoing attempts to prosecute the journalists for sharing state secrets aside, however, Assange and company have now unloaded the organization’s biggest leak yet.
Project K, says Assange, contains roughly 1.7 million files composed of US Department of State diplomatic communications. And although the material has been classified, declassified and, in some instances, re-classified, the public’s inability to access and peruse the unredacted copies has made them nearly inaccessible.
“One form of secrecy is the complexity and the accessibility of documents,” WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson said during Monday’s event. “You could say that the government cannot be trusted with these documents.” Read the rest of this entry »
ReutersIndira Gandhi, then Indian prime minister, at the site of India’s first underground nuclear test in Pokhran, Rajasthan, in Dec. 1974.
The “Kissinger Cables,” a collection of U.S. diplomatic cables released on Monday by WikiLeaks, contain some fascinating revelations about the political scenario in India in the 1970s. Here are the five great insights about India in the WikiLeaks release:
India’s first nuclear test was possibly motivated by political considerations:
According to this cable, sent from New Delhi to the Department of State, India’s first nuclear test on May 18, 1974, was motivated by domestic politics. The cable says that the nuclear test had been done at a time when the Indian government was tackling an economic slowdown, increasing discontent and rising political unrest.
“We are inclined to believe that this general domestic gloom and uncertainty weighed significantly in the balance of India’s nuclear decision,” reads the cable sent on the date of the nuclear test. “The need for a psychological boost, the hope of recreated atmosphere of exhilaration and nationalism that swept the country after 1971 – contrary to our earlier expectation – may have tipped the scales.” Read the rest of this entry »
KATHMANDU, 5 April 2013 (IRIN) – Nepal’s recently adopted policy of subsidizing renewable energy is the latest of many attempts to electrify long-deprived areas, but much more is needed, say experts.
More than half of the country’s households – almost all in urban and semi-urban areas – are connected to the national electricity grid. But 80 percent of the population is rural, and in these areas, less than one-third have electricity. With grid extension to the country’s hilly and mountainous areas prohibitively expensive, officials are looking to off-grid renewable alternatives.
“Renewable, off-grid energy solutions [are] the only realistic way to provide energy in parts of the country,” according to the government’s National Rural and Renewable Energy Programme (NRREP), a five-year framework launched in 2012. Read the rest of this entry »
Climate change is likely to worsen floods on rivers such as the Ganges, the Nile and the Amazon this century while a few, including the now-inundated Danube, may become less prone, a Japanese-led scientific study said on Sunday.
ReutersIndira Gandhi, then Indian prime minister, at the site of India’s first underground nuclear test in Pokhran, Rajasthan, in Dec. 1974.
