Climate Change

Image & Content Courtesy: ATREE

ATREE invites applications for faculty positions in the broad theme of Environment and Development, specifically in areas of Land and Water Resources, Forests and Livelihoods, Energy and Climate Change.

Qualifications: Candidates must be dynamic and highly motivated scholars, Ph.D. with one or more years of post-doctoral experience, with a strong track record of academically rigorous but socially relevant research in the areas indicated above. They could be trained in any branch of the social sciences or of the natural/ physical/ engineering sciences, or both. Applicants must have a strong interest in applied research, working in multi-disciplinary teams, and teaching on environmental issues.

Interested and qualified candidates should submit detailed curriculum vitae, list of publications, copies of key publications, names and contact information of three references, and an outline of proposed future research. Please use 'Faculty position in E&D' in the subject head of your e-mail. There is no separate application form. The deadline for receiving applications is September 15, 2009.

As observed by the United Nations Environment Program (GRID-Arendal) ice and snow are major components of the climate system. That is why human induced climate change can be first observed in Polar Regions where most of Earth's snow and ice are concentrated. In these areas global warming induces the progressive melting of ice and snow.

Altered frequencies and intensities of extreme weather, together with sea level rise, are expected to have mostly adverse effects on natural and human systems.

The earth is currently warming rapidly. And this warming is bringing about massive changes. Our glaciers are melting rapidly. The artic ice-shelf is breaking apart into pieces and threatens to modify the salinity of the oceans.

Current Science's paper on improvements made in greenhouse gases (GHG) inventory estimation

In the debate over global warming, many a time, there is an attempt to indicate that human contribution to the Greenhouse effect is on a very minuscule scale and is negligible when compared to the scale at which GHGs as a whole work.

A number of films on climate change are available on the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) store. These include:

The UN Panel on Climate Change is informing the world on what damage global warming can cause. But a recent study shows how temperature changes have already hit the global economy and Indian agriculture is suffering the brunt of it.

India is gifted with heterogeneous landforms and variety of climatic conditions such as the lofty mountains, the raverine deltas, high altitude forests, peninsular plateaus, variety of geological formations endowed with temperature varying from arctic cold to equatorial hot, and rainfall from extreme aridity with a few cms (<10 cm) to pre humid with world's maxim

This research study (Mar 15 2009) throws light on how climate change is leading to a rising trend of short but intense spells of rainfall, which is making usable water scarce in India.

Read the study