Worldwide carbon emissions have reached a total of 10 billion tones, doubling in the last two decades, according to the team at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

The increase confirms a trend of rising emissions of carbon dioxide from fossil-fuel burning. Scientists believe that it will result in severe climate change in coming few decades. The figures published in Nature Climate Change show that it might be very difficult for the governments to control the global warming from increasing more than 2C from the pre-industrialized levels.

Senior scientists at the Wadia Institute of Himalayan Geology (WITG) has rejected the Global Warming Theory and told that the Himalayas are quite safer zone on earth, where Global Warming has no role in controlling the conditions.

In an exclusive chat with HT, Director WIHG Dr AK Dubey has said that the conditions of Himalayas are controlled by the winter snowfall rather than external factors like much hyped Global Warming. He told that for a concrete result, at least 30 years of continuous research with steady outcome is needed to confirm the actual impact.

It may be lagging far behind its neighbours like India and China in development, but Nepal has managed to score a lead over other South Asian nations in environment protection according to a latest worldwide survey.

The 2010 Environmental Performance Index released on Thursday at Davos has ranked Nepal 38th among 163 countries on 25 performance indicators tracked across 10 policy categories covering both environmental public health and eco-system vitality.

Only Japan (20) and Singapore (28) are the other Asian countries that have performed better than the Himalayan nation. Nepal’s bigger neighbours India and China have been ranked 123 and 121 respectively in the survey.

Days after the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change admitted to goofing up on Himalayan glaci-ers, it said it was reviewing earli-er finding blaming global warming for increase in number of natural disasters such as floods and droughts.

In short: the panel could have got this wrong too.

“We are reassessing the evidence and will publish a report on natural disasters and extreme weather with the latest findings,” IPCC vice-chairperson Jean-Pascal van Ypersele told a London weekly Sunday Times.

India, Brazil, China and South Africa, together called the Basic countries, on Sunday said the Copenhagen Accord was only a political agreement and not legally binding as being argued by the developed countries.

The four countries also said they will announce their plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions by January 31 as agreed in Copenhagen.

This is in line with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s letter to Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen stating that the accord was just a “political agreement” and was not “binding”.

Nobody is ever responsible for anything, it seems, after Copenhagen. The rich countries, primary contributors to this mess, have got away scott free. It’s as if we don’t live on the same planet anymore. The most disturbing aspect of this is the historic reflection it casts once more.

From the fifteenth century onwards, colonizers have sailed to other countries and used technological and other advantages to plunder them. The amassed riches helped the colonizers develop.

The landscape after Copenhagen is not that different-we haven’t even caused the problem.

India’s consent to the final accord on climate hammered out at the Copenhagen meet goes against the assurance Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh had given Parliament before his departure, said CPM leader Sitaram Yechury.

The world’s environment is in crisis. The Himalayan glaciers are shrinking. The Pacific Ocean is expanding. The atmosphere is thickening. My cough is sickening. My doctor said I am suffering from a smoker’s cough, and that I’d better give it up.

I did give it up — consulting that quack. I could have told him that my problem stems from excess carbon emissions spewed by industrial chimneys, car exhausts and hot air from know-alls who assemble in places like Copenhagen, Bali and Kyoto where they can party in discos under thousands of coloured bulbs burning all the energy they brag about saving.

While countries are fighting over who should reduce carbon emissions and by how much at Copenhagen, a simpler solution was proffered by eco-feminist Vandana Shiva on Wednesday.

"Grow food organically to cut carbon emissions by almost 40 per cent," said Shiva while delivering the inaugural lecture of the Catalysts of Change series at the Social Communications Media Department of Sophia Polytechnic.

As negotiations to save the planet from overheating dissolved in intense bickering on Wednesday between the rich and poor, the European Union made a last-gasp 100 billion euro payout to the poorest, mainly African, nations.

The announcement is unlikely to please India and China, which earlier in the day led a protest against a Danish move to leave the final text to be adopted on December 18 to 103 heads of state.

As deadlocked climate talks in Copenhagen prepared to enter a critical, fractious second week, a major new United Nations’ study showed how quickly the world could be running out of time.

The world’s biggest insurance policy against rapid warming, the oceans, are soaking up atmospheric carbon dioxide at such a rate that their acidity — and so their ability to nuture an intricate planet-wide web of life — could increase 150 per cent by 2050.

Here is a rural wedding that can be of immense academic interest at Copenhagen's Climate Change summit. A boy, 24 and a girl, 20, getting into the wedlock on Saturday (December 12) have carbon emission on their mind more than the honeymoon. Thhey are planning a green wedding. The two are just matriculates from village schools.

Cotton clothes coloured in turmeric would dress the two up for the occasion instead of any wedding fineries. The girl's family would give a Tusli (Holy Basil) sapling to the boy's family as a dowry.

India and China for the first time asking the rich countries to reduce emissions by 40 per cent to allow the temperature rise of less than two degree Celsius level by 2050.

African block and small Island nations said they would bring their own proposals for adoption on the final day. Three proposals are already under discussion --- Danish, Basic and Tuvalu.

Small island nations distanced itself from Tuvalu, an island nation in Pacific, proposal that calls for a separate protocol saying it was of an individual country. Small island nations’ spokesperson said they want an agreement under Kyoto Protocol, which maintain different obligations for the rich and the developing world.

As climate change talks continued in Copenhagen on the second day of the summit, Indian negotiators again issued a clarification on the country’s recent carbon intensity cuts, saying that India has already taken “domestic action” to reduce the carbon intensity of its economy.

“If our actions outlined in the national action plan on climate change (NAPCC) work, we would be able to reduce our emission intensity as announced,” said Shyam Saran, PM Manmohan Singh’s special envoy on climate change and leader of the Indian delegation.

Even as India gears up to meet emission targets, Mumbai’s new suburban trains have already begun cutting down 40 per cent carbon emissions, claim railways.

India has promised to a reduction by 20 per cent by 2020 at the Copenhagen climate change summit.

“The Copenhagen summit wants India to cut down 20 to 25 per cent of carbon emissions. Here is a project in Mumbai that has already cut down emissions by 40 per cent. I think we can compensate for other government bodies,” P. C. Sehgal, managing director of Mumbai Railway Vikas Corporation told Hindustan Times.

The moment has arrived and the world will be watching.

The biggest meeting of global leaders to decide how the world will fight ill-effects of climate change starts in the Danish capital of Copenhagen from Monday.

The last such meeting was at Rio De Janeiro in Brazil in 1992, where the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the global climate policy guideline, was adopted.

“India must clearly convey it is not part of the problem, but position itself as a problem solver.”

That is the advice offered by Veerabhadran Ramanathan, head of the US Climate Change Science Programme and one of the world’s premier climatologists, as the last chance to save a historic
12-year-old global agreement — and the Earth from overheating — begins on Monday amid new hope in the Danish capital.

Rumors on Bachchan babu Aishwarya becoming a mommy very soon are doing the rounds of B-town. Some insiders also claim that Ash dearie is soon wrapping up all her assignments and is hitting home to start planning a family with hubby dear.

But looks like hubby Abhishek, begs to differ, as he clears the air and puts an end to all the speculation by stating loud and clear that he is not going to be a ‘Paa’! Well at least, not in the coming nine months

How would climate change impact India and what are your concerns?

The worst impact will be on monsoons, which would become more difficult to predict, and frequency of extreme monsoon events will increase. Given that it is related to lives and livelihoods of millions, any change in monsoon will have a major impact on agriculture.

What should India do domestically for climate change mitigation?

We should not commit mistakes of the western world —first pollute and then clean — while building cities. We should build cities around public transport and not cars.

Fewer people in urban India can hang around in greens anymore. We live in concrete shells, with car parks where shrubs once flourished.

That’s why the few remaining parks in our cities mean so much more now — they are where even a poor man can enjoy nature. For many young children, parks are the green sanctuaries of their city.