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DRC: Battle to protect Virunga National Park and wildlife living there

Business Times: The Virunga National Park in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) is simultaneously one of the most beautiful yet heartbreaking places on Earth. Africa's oldest national park has been a hotbed of armed conflict throughout the country's turbulent history, but it is also home to some of the world's last remaining mountain gorillas, lions, forest and savanna elephants, rare species of birds and some 20,000 hippopotamuses. The landscape of lush greenery, lava plains and snowcapped mountains...

India Drought 2015: Climate Change Biggest Threat India Economy, Modi Finance Aide Says

Business Times: Climate change is threatening to derail India’s fast-growing economy, a top aide to Prime Minister Narendra Modi said this week. Erratic monsoon rain patterns have left crops parched, jeopardizing India’s nearly $370 billion agricultural sector and hundreds of millions of jobs. “The No. 1 risk we face is global climate change, because we are still very dependent on the monsoon,” Jayant Sinha, the country’s junior finance minister and a Harvard Business School graduate, told Bloomberg News. “The...

‘Sacred mountain protectors’ move against astronomers in Hawaii

Business Times: Mauna Kea, the tallest summit in the world, has been a place for a growing conflict between sanctity and science early in 2015. Scientists have been placing telescopes on the summit because for them it is the best location in the world for space observatory, but some scientific projects have been halted by native Hawaiians as they believe the dormant volcano is the most sacred land in the entire Pacific. For both parties, the summit is the best point where the sky and earth meet, but each carries...

Mauna Kea, Hawaiians’ Origin Story And Why TMT Outraged Island Residents

Business Times: It’s not great views and stargazing but centuries-old traditions and a feeling of connecting with their roots that draw native Hawaiians to the slopes of Mauna Kea on Hawaii’s Big Island. The dormant volcano is the site of ancient burial grounds, the final resting place for some of the island natives’ most revered ancestors, and represents an important chapter in Hawaii’s heritage. That’s why many native islanders don’t want to see it developed with modern structures. Hawaiians who consider the...

Global warming: atmosphere will adapt to hotter, wetter climate

Business Times: Strong storms will become stronger while weak storms become weaker, and the cumulative result of all the storms will remain unchanged under global warming, says a study led by atmospheric physicists at the University of Toronto. The team quantified the way in which increase in water vapour from global warming influences the strength of atmospheric air circulation. The atmosphere it turns out will adapt to hotter, wetter climate. "We know that with global warming we'll get more evaporation...

Bushfires In Australia ‘Wake-Up Call’ For Abbott Government To Commit To Climate Action

Business Times: As firefighters continue to contain the fires raging in the two states, dozens of homes were lost to the blaze. Milne warned that Australia is going to suffer the same extreme weather events. She said that the Abbott government must stop its climate change "denial" and get on with creating a plan in the face of extreme weather, ABC News reported. Milne said the government should look at the "suffering" of the people and commit to strong climate action. She recommended a number of actions in preparation...

Tropical deforestation leads rise in temperature, erratic rainfall affecting crops far away

Business Times: Clearing of trees in tropical rainforests not only increases carbon dioxide in the air but also affects rainfall patterns and raises temperatures across the globe, says a study showing that forests have many impacts on climate. This in turn could adversely affect agricultural productivity. A complete tropical deforestation could lead to a rise in global temperature of 0.7 degrees Celsius (on top of the impact from greenhouse gases). The study from the University of Virginia in collaboration with...

Wildfires And ‘Biomass Burning’ Bigger Climate Change Threats Than Previously Thought

Business Times: Nearly one-fifth of the carbon dioxide emissions caused by humans can be traced back to wildfires, slash-and-burn agriculture and the burning of wood waste to produce power, a Stanford University report found. While “biomass burning” has long been considered a culprit of climate change, the new research is the first to comprehensively quantify that threat -- and the number suggests the risks may be higher than previously thought. About 18 percent of all human-made carbon dioxide emissions -- or...

Global Warming Shrinks China’s Tibetan Glaciers by 15% in 30yrs

Business Times: China's very own glaciers off in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau have shrunk by 15 per cent in the last 30 years because of global warming. In a report, official state-run media Xinhua News said at least 8,000 square kilometres (3,089 square miles) of glaciers have thinned out in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau in western China. This plateau covers the Tibetan Autonomous Region and highland parts of neighbouring provinces. From a total of 53,000 sq km, glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet plateau are now only...