Feature Article

From 2020 on, an annual $ 100 billion is to be made available to developing countries so they can adapt to climate change and mitigate the phenomenon. The long-term commitments of donor governments are fuzzy, however. So far, there are no coherent pledges for the next seven years. Saleemul Huq of the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development assessed matters in an interview with Hans Dembowski.

Rising ocean temperatures have reduced rates of coral calcification and increased rates of coral mortality, thereby negatively impacting the health of coral reef ecosystems. Nevertheless, the response of corals to thermal stress seems to vary spatially across the reef environment. Here, we show that between 1982 and 2008 in the western Caribbean Sea, skeletal extension within forereef colonies of the reef-building coral Siderastrea siderea declined with increasing seawater temperature, whereas extension rates of backreef and nearshore colonies were not impacted.

Anthropogenic-induced changes in nutrient ratios have increased the susceptibility of large temperate lakes to several effects of rising air temperatures and the resulting heating of water bodies. First, warming leads to stronger thermal stratification, thus impeding natural complete water turnover (holomixis), which compensates for oxygen deficits in the deep zones. Second, increased water temperatures and nutrient concentrations can directly favour the growth of harmful algae. Thus, lake-restoration programmes have focused on reducing nutrients to limit toxic algal blooms.

South of Africa, the Agulhas Current retroflects and a portion of its waters flows into the South Atlantic Ocean, typically in the form of Agulhas rings. This flux of warm and salty water from the Indian to the Atlantic Ocean (the Agulhas leakage) is now recognized as a key element in global climate. An Agulhas leakage shutdown has been associated with extreme glacial periods, whereas a vigorous increase has preceded shifts towards interglacials.

Hydrological processes in the humid tropics differ from other regions in having greater energy inputs and faster rates of change, including human-induced change. Human influences on population growth, land use and climate change will profoundly influence tropical hydrology, yet understanding of key hydrological interactions is limited. We propose that efforts to collect tropical data should explicitly emphasize characterizing moisture and energy fluxes from below the ground surface into the atmosphere.

The Tibetan Plateau and surroundings contain the largest number of glaciers outside the polar regions. These glaciers are at the headwaters of many prominent Asian rivers and are largely experiencing shrinkage, which affects the water discharge of large rivers such as the Indus. The resulting potential geohazards merit a comprehensive study of glacier status in the Tibetan Plateau and surroundings. Here we report on the glacier status over the past 30 years by investigating the glacial retreat of 82 glaciers, area reduction of 7,090 glaciers and mass-balance change of 15 glaciers.

The contributions in this article examining some of the specific extreme weather or climate events of 2011 demonstrate the importance of understanding the interplay of natural climate variability and anthropogenic climate change on their occurrence.

Even from the outside, the IRRAD building gives you the feeling of tranquillity. Its dull reddish-brown façade looks like it has yachts sailing across it, except they are all upside down. Later I would find out that the sails of these ‘yachts’ are actually triangular curtains, specially designed to keep the summer sun out and let the winter sun in, one of several key features that makes this a ‘green building.’

Just days after the Visakhapatnam Steel Plant came third in an environmental rating of the steel industry, a huge fire at the plant claimed 16 lives. The disaster at Vizag raises questions about standards in the steel industry. If health and safety are so poorly managed in one of the top three plants in the country, what does it say about the others?