Global disasters linked to warming Indo-Pacific seas

29/11/2019 0 Comments read Environment & Development

By Neena Bhandari

SYDNEY, 29.11.19 (SciDev.Net): East Asian floods, African droughts and the frequent California fires may be linked to the rapid warming of the Indo-Pacific Ocean that impacts global rainfall patterns and corresponding weather, says a new study published on 27 November in Nature.

Each year, weather variability at sub-seasonal to seasonal timescales costs the global economy over US$2 trillion with costs to the US alone amounting to US$700 billion.

“The Indo-Pacific warm pool, a region between the eastern Indian Ocean and western Pacific Ocean, with ocean temperatures generally warmer than 28 degrees Celsius, has been warming since the 1900s, but during 1981—2018, it expanded at a rate of about 400,000 square kilometres per year — the size of Thailand or Spain,” says Roxy Mathew Koll, lead author and climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune.

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Rural-urban divide in deaths from extreme weather

20/03/2019 0 Comments read Environment & Development

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 20.03.2019 (SciDev.Net): People in rural areas are at greater risk of dying from extreme hot and cold temperatures than those living in urban areas, says a new study conducted in China’s eastern Zhejiang province.

Published in March in Environmental Health Perspectives, the study relies on the province’s data on weather, air pollution, population density and mortality gathered from 2009 to 2015 to compare rural and urban mortality in Zhejiang.

Although Asian countries are recording steady urbanisation, a large percentage of population continues to live in villages and towns. The UN’s Population Division predicts that by 2025 about 45 per cent of Asia’s population will still be rural.

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Rich Asia Pacific nations rank poorly on development policies

21/09/2018 0 Comments read Business and Trade, Environment & Development

By Neena Bhandari

Sydney, 21.09.2018 (SciDev.Net): The richer Asia-Pacific countries and the US do poorly on the 2018 Commitment to Development Index (CDI), which ranks 27 wealthy countries according to how well their aid, trade, environment and migration policies support low and middle-income countries in poverty alleviation, good governance and security.

Published annually by the Center for Global Development (CGD), the index is based on benefits policies of some members of the OECD’s (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) Development Assistance Committee provide to about five billion people living in poor countries.

New Zealand ranks 13th, the highest ranked Asia Pacific country, Australia 14th, the US 23rd, Japan 24th and South Korea comes last at 27th in the CDI released on 18 September by the CGD, a nonprofit think-tank with offices in London and Washington DC.

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