Alcohol kills 2.5 million people worldwide: WHO

Harmful use of alcohol kills 2.5 million people annually and is the eighth leading factor for deaths globally, the World Health Organisation (WHO) said.

Of the 2.5 million people, 320,000 people are between 15 and 29 years of age, it said.

For the first time, representatives from 193 member states of the WHO have reached a consensus at the World Health Assembly May 17-21 on a resolution to confront the harmful use of alcohol.

The resolution urges countries to support initiatives to tackle the problem.

Ten recommended target areas for policy intervention include health services' responses, community action, pricing policies and reducing public health impact of illicit alcohol. The WHO was urged to support countries to implement the strategy and monitor progress.

Alcohol kills 2.5 million people worldwide: WHO- Hindustan Times

6 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 6:33 AM

Food inflation rises to 16.49 percent In India

India's annual food inflation edged up for the second straight week, rising to 16.49 percent for the week ended on May 8, official data released today showed.

The food inflation stood at 16.44 percent the previous week, up from 16.04 percent for the week ended April 24.

Data on the wholesale price index (WPI) released by the commerce and industry ministry showed that food inflation rose though the index for this group dropped marginally during the week under review.

The primary articles index was up 16.19 percent, compared to a rise of 16.76 percent during the previous week. Fuel prices rose 12.33 percent during the week ended on May 8, against a similar increase during the last week.

Following are the rise and fall in prices of some essential food items over the 52-week period:

- Pulses: 33.65 percent

- Milk: 21.12 percent

- Fruits: 17 percent

- Rice: 7.72 percent

- Cereals: 6.37 percent

- Wheat: 4.74 percent

- Potatoes: (-)30.36 percent

- Onions : (-) 16.01 percent

The overall annual rate of inflation in April stood at 9.59 percent.

The government, farmers and consumers alike are hoping that the monsoon will be good this year after last year's erratic and rainfall.

Over 60 percent of India's cultivable land is rain-fed, and hence the monsoon plays a critical part in food grain output and economic growth.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee drove home the importance of monsoon rains when he said recently that in India monsoon is "the real finance minister".

The India Meteorological Department has forecast normal rainfall during the June-September monsoon period. The seasonal rainfall is likely to be 98 percent of the 50-year average this year. (IANS)

Food inflation rises to 16.49 percent

4 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 3:02 AM

No tsunami threat to India due to Indonesia earthquake

There is no immediate tsunami threat to the Indian mainland and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands due to the earthquake which hit Indonesia today morning, the Indian government said.

"However, there is a possibility of a mild rise in the sea water level," the government said in a statement.

The union home ministry has advised the coastal states and union territories to take appropriate precautionary measures, it added.

Indonesia issued a tsunami warning after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake struck off the Sumatran coast of Aceh province.

DPA reports, quoting the Indonesian Meteorology, Geophysics and Climatology Agency, said the quake was recorded at 0559 GMT, with the epicentre 66 km southwest of Maulaboh in West Aceh district.

There were no reports of damage or casualties. (IANS)

No tsunami threat to India due to Indonesia earthquake

2 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 2:59 AM

Cyclone builds in south India, oilfield closes

A cyclone intensified over the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, forcing a southern Indian oilfield to shut and cut its gas output, and the evacuation of some 50,000 people in the region, officials said.

Officials also voiced concerns the cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 155 kph (100 mph), could slow the progress of the monsoon rains, vital for India's trillion-dollar economy.

Tropical Cyclone Laila was set to hammer the coast of the southern state Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, prompting Reliance Industries to stop oil production and reduce gas output from the region by 10 per cent, company sources said.

"We are monitoring the situation and if we find that the cyclone will directly hit our facilities, then our FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility) may have to be taken to a safer location," said a company source, which declined to be named, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The cyclone is forecast to move towards Orissa after striking Andhra Pradesh, but it is likely to weaken by the time it reaches the Paradip port, a hub for iron ore exports.

G.K. Biswal, deputy conservator of Paradip port, said port authorities were on alert although they did not expect any disruption.

Concerns for monsoon

Last year some forecasters blamed a cyclone in May for the failure of monsoon rains, but scientists are divided about the impact of tropical storms on the monsoon.

India has been hit by street protests due steep food prices, partly the result of last year's poor monsoon rains.

"We have to observe the post-Laila scenario," said Ajit Tyagi, the director general of India's Meteorology Department.

Tyagi said the weather office was standing by its forecast last month, which said the June-September monsoon rains would be 98 per cent of average.

Monsoon rains reached India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands and several parts of the Bay of Bengal on Monday, three days ahead of schedule.

"Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon," the weather office said in its latest five-day forecast.

Local officials said heavy rainfall would help the rice crop that will be sown next month as rains would boost soil moisture and facilitate ploughing.

"Due to pre-monsoon rains, summer planning has started. If the state receives rain, the ploughing will further pick up," said Babaji Giri, director of the agriculture department in the eastern state of Orissa.

Officials in Bangladesh said they had also alerted ports and fishing vessels.

Heavy rains and lightning have already killed 10 people in Andhra Pradesh.A cyclone intensified over the Bay of Bengal on Wednesday, forcing a southern Indian oilfield to shut and cut its gas output, and the evacuation of some 50,000 people in the region, officials said.

Officials also voiced concerns the cyclone, with wind gusts of up to 155 kph (100 mph), could slow the progress of the monsoon rains, vital for India's trillion-dollar economy.

Tropical Cyclone Laila was set to hammer the coast of the southern state Andhra Pradesh on Thursday, prompting Reliance Industries to stop oil production and reduce gas output from the region by 10 per cent, company sources said.

"We are monitoring the situation and if we find that the cyclone will directly hit our facilities, then our FPSO (Floating Production Storage and Offloading facility) may have to be taken to a safer location," said a company source, which declined to be named, as he is not authorised to speak to the media.

The cyclone is forecast to move towards Orissa after striking Andhra Pradesh, but it is likely to weaken by the time it reaches the Paradip port, a hub for iron ore exports.

G.K. Biswal, deputy conservator of Paradip port, said port authorities were on alert although they did not expect any disruption.

Concerns for monsoon

Last year some forecasters blamed a cyclone in May for the failure of monsoon rains, but scientists are divided about the impact of tropical storms on the monsoon.

India has been hit by street protests due steep food prices, partly the result of last year's poor monsoon rains.

"We have to observe the post-Laila scenario," said Ajit Tyagi, the director general of India's Meteorology Department.

Tyagi said the weather office was standing by its forecast last month, which said the June-September monsoon rains would be 98 per cent of average.

Monsoon rains reached India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands and several parts of the Bay of Bengal on Monday, three days ahead of schedule.

"Conditions are favourable for further advance of southwest monsoon," the weather office said in its latest five-day forecast.

Local officials said heavy rainfall would help the rice crop that will be sown next month as rains would boost soil moisture and facilitate ploughing.

"Due to pre-monsoon rains, summer planning has started. If the state receives rain, the ploughing will further pick up," said Babaji Giri, director of the agriculture department in the eastern state of Orissa.

Officials in Bangladesh said they had also alerted ports and fishing vessels.

Heavy rains and lightning have already killed 10 people in Andhra Pradesh.

Cyclone builds in south India, oilfield closes- Hindustan Times

1 comments RSS Posted by Alluri Girish at 8:43 PM

Even plants cannot help cool earth if CO2 is in excess: Study

Contrary to the belief that plants could help cool earth, scientists have found that they will directly warm the land surface when there is excess carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

A recent global scale model study points to an emerging consensus that the physiological effects of increasing atmospheric CO2 on plants on land will contribute to global warming beyond what is caused by the ‘radiative’ effects of CO2, Prof. Govindasamy Bala of Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bangalore, one of the authors of the study, said.

Carbon dioxide warms the earth because it is a greenhouse gas. However, elevated CO2 in the atmosphere causes plants to transpire less and provide less ‘evaporative cooling’, he said.

“For scientists trying to predict global climate change in the coming century, the study underscores the importance of including plant biology in their climate models,” Bala, who conducted the study jointly with Long Cao and Ken Caldeira of Carnegie Institution for Science at Stanford University, said.

Explaining plant physiology, Bala said, “The CO2—physiological effect arises from a change in plant transpiration rate under elevated atmospheric CO2“.

“On a hot day, we sweat more, release more water through pores in our skin and cool ourselves. Similarly, while doing photosynthesis (food production process in plants using photons from sun), plants cool the environment by releasing water through the pores called stomata on the surface of leaves,” Bala said.

“But stomata opens less widely and the canopy sweats less when CO2 is increased which causes a decline in plant transpiration and thus warming of the land surface,” he said.

“Plants do photosynthesise and remove CO2 from the atmosphere and thus could help in cooling down the warming planet,” Prof. Bala said.

Plants have a very complex and diverse influence on the climate system, Prof Ken Caldeira from Stanford said, adding .

“plants take CO2 out of the atmosphere, but they also have other effects, such as changing the amount of evaporation from land surface. It’s impossible to make good climate predictions without taking all of these factors into account.”

An increase in atmospheric CO2 concentration influences climate both directly through its radiative effect (trapping long wave radiation) and indirectly through its physiological effect (reducing transpiration of land plants), he said.

“We compared the climate response to radiative and physiological effects of increased CO2 using the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) coupled Community Land and Community Atmosphere Model,” he said.

The paper was published in the May 3—7 online edition of Proceedings of the US National Academy of Sciences.

“The scale is important when we deal with global climate change. For average land, plants transpire about 25 cm of water each year. With doubling of CO2, this amount goes down to 20 cm. This change of 5 cm is about the same magnitude as decrease of evaporation from deforestation or annual global water extraction by humans for irrigation and other consumptive use,” the scientists said.

The greenhouse warming effect of CO2 has been known for a long time but Prof Bala and his colleagues were concerned that it is not as widely recognised that CO2 also warms planet by its physiological effects on plants.

“There is no longer any doubt that CO2 decreases evaporative cooling by plants and that decreased cooling adds to global warming. This effect would cause significant warming even if CO2 were not a greenhouse gas,” lead author Cao said.

In their climate modelling study, scientists doubled the concentration of atmospheric CO2 and recorded the magnitude and geographic pattern of warming from the greenhouse and physiological effects. They found that over the entire global land surface, the effects from physiological change account for 15 per cent of warming.

The scientists also found larger runoff from the land surface in most areas for elevated CO2, as more water from precipitation bypasses the plant cooling system and flows directly to rivers and streams.

“We find that the impact of physiological effect is stronger than greenhouse effect on land surface hydrology,” Prof. Bala added.

http://beta.thehindu.com/sci-tech/energy-and-environment/article432057.ece?homepage=true

3 comments RSS Posted by Krasugir & Co at 4:03 AM