China News: Beijing dust storm expected to linger until Sunday (11 April 2014)

Beijing dust storm expected to linger until Sunday

The dust storm that has enshrouded the Chinese capital since Wednesday night won't disperse until Sunday, the city's environmental watchdog said.

Beijing was hit by another wave of floating dust and sand on Thursday, with the intensity of PM10 (particulate matter with a diameter smaller than 10 micrograms) reaching 595 micrograms per cubic meter in the southwestern part of the city, and 496 downtown.

According to the Beijing Environmental Monitoring Center, the sandstorm originated in the northeastern part of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and has lingered in Beijing due to the slow wind speed close to the ground.

The Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau warned the public to take precautions when going outside.

The amount of pollutants discharged in the capital last year was much greater than the environment could handle, with PM2.5 exceeding standards, according to a 2013 Beijing Environment Bulletin released by the bureau on Thursday.

PM2.5 is particulate matter with a diameter smaller than 2.5 micrograms that is extremely harmful to health.

Despite efforts to curb pollution, the bureau said in the report that the quality of the capital's environment in 2013 remained almost the same as that of the previous year.

Liu Xianshu, director of the environmental monitoring department of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, said there is a gap between air quality in the southern and northern parts of the city.

According to the bulletin, the PM2.5 in the capital has an average annual intensity of 89.5 micrograms per cubic meter, 156 percent higher than the standard.

"The average PM2.5 index monitored in the north was 60.3 micrograms per cubic meter last year, while it stood at 116.3 in the south, about twice the amount of the north," Liu said.

The average index of nitrogen dioxide and PM10 was 56 and 108.1 micrograms per cubic meter, exceeding the national standards by 40 and 54 percent. The daily maximum eight-hour average ozone concentration exceeded the standard by 14.6 percent.

Among all the six pollutants monitored in the city, only the index for sulfur dioxide and carbon monoxide met the standards last year.

The rapid urbanization and population growth has seriously affected the city's ecological system, he said.

The monitoring stations in high-traffic areas witness a much greater PM2.5 intensity, while some mountainous regions in the northern and western suburbs have better air and water quality.

Liu said the government will add more trees, grassland and wetland in the capital and replace some industrial land with forests.

source from: http://www.china.org.cn/environment/2014-04/11/content_32061916.htm

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India News: Get ready for more freaky weather (12 March 2014)

Get ready for more freaky weather

HYDERABAD: India will see more intense freak weather in the coming days, warned climate change scientists, days after hailstorms killed at least 10 people and wounded scores in Andhra Pradesh and similar storms destroyed crops across Karnataka and Maharashtra.

"The keyword is that these extreme events will increase under climate change and we need to gear up quickly to counter it before it's too late through drastic cuts on fossil fuel emissions and micro-level climate vulnerability assessment at local levels," says G Bala, a top climate change expert at the Indian Institute of Science's Divecha Centre for Climate Change in Bangalore.

In absence of micro-level assessment, officials are struggling to answer why places like Hyderabad got heavy rainfall in early March and sudden hailstorms destroyed crops over lakhs of acres in Warangal, Bidar in Karnataka or Nashik and Aurangabad in Maharashtra this week.

Scientists predict that the frequency of extreme weather is likely to increase with fewer rainy days, but more quantum of rainfall, because of greater intensity and severe drought hitting other places.

They say states should immediately carry out a micro-level study to assess the unpredictable weather as the country's fossil fuel emission is reaching alarming levels with no effort being made by governments to address climate change at local levels.

"Knowledge is very important and information about climate change must be provided to politicians and policymakers. But there is simply no information. Climate action plans prepared by some states lack quality that is based on science," says Bala.

India in 2009 said it will reduce its emissions intensity by 25% and agreed with other developed countries to keep global warming at a check and keep rate of growth in global temperature under 2 degrees in this century.

However, an international study led by Britain's Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research released in November last year revealed India was among the biggest contributors to fossil fuel emissions in 2012 with carbon dioxide emissions rising by a whopping 7.7%, mostly from burning coal.

Scientists said last June's cloudburst in Uttarakhand, a severe cold wave in north India this year, heavy snowfall in Chevella last January, and Bangalore city recording 32 degree Celsius in January this year, are all extreme local weather phenomenon, which needs to be studied and analyzed properly.

"What needs to happen is a clear micro-level vulnerability assessment that can help us understand and prepare for these unusual weather," says Siddharth Pathak, an International policy coordinator at the Climate Action Network International.

Local scientists now calculate India's fossil fuel emission at 60% more than what it was 20 years ago, with the country all set to breach the 2 degree temperature rise mark in future.

"Temperatures are going to rise with higher intensity across the country unless steps are taken to reduce emissions drastically," says Raman Sukumar, an ecological scientist at Indian Institute of Science.

Back in Hyderabad, RV Subba Rao, a retired meteorologist, who is busy studying the weather charts, says the wind pattern has been different this March and thinks the state could have early monsoon.

"Climate change is occurring due to development of El Nino in the Pacific Ocean and the freaky weather condition as a result could continue till May this year," he says.

"More research on climate vulnerability would only help as this early March weather has been something that I have not seen here before," he says.


source from: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/home/environment/global-warming/Get-ready-for-more-freaky-weather/articleshow/31864510.cms

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