Common science

If there is a neem or jamun tree in your backyard, check it regularly and note down when they flower and fruit. You may soon realise you are collecting data for scientific research. The National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS), a research body in Bengaluru, plans to rope in people for creating an online database on the lifecycle of various plant species across the country and on the influence of climate change on them.

Warming up to kill

140,000 excess deaths due to global warming in 2004

Experts give them a miss

farmers do not disappear when they are not making news by protesting support prices or committing suicides (see Sweet victory)

It is raining lizards and geckos

Global warming is good news for animal species that can manipulate their offsprings sex following changes in the temperature. A S Kallimanis, environment and natural resource management scientist at the University of Ioannina in Greece created a model on the impact of climate change on the geographical range of such species. He talks to Sharmila Kher How was the model created?

A work in progress

WE need to conduct more studies to understand if Himalayan glaciers are melting at a faster rate. And if they do retreat at a faster rate, we probably need even more studies to find out if global warming is the cause (see Glacial melt? Need more studies). That in essence was what environment minister Jairam Ramesh said

Countdown to copenhagen

Brazil announces deep emission cut Ahead of Copenhagen

Mumbye

The financial capital of India could face damages worth Rs 35,00,000 crore by 2050 because of climate change. Between 1901 and 2007, it registered a mean temperature rise of 1.62C. The sea level around the island city is rising by 2.4 mm every year. Together they would unleash a chain of disasters flash floods, disease outbreaks, building collapses, dislocation and death Downpour unleashed

December In Copenhagen

US climate bill clears one hurdle Unlikely to pass before Copenhagen

Plants have a new date with flowering

Roy Thompson from the department of Geology and Geophysics, Edinburgh University, told Tiasa Adhya that by 2080 certain plants would flower 50 days ahead of schedule because of climate change. As spring moves up the calendar it is bound to affect the birds that cannot change their migratory patterns as promptly On the impact of global warming on flowering

Science and Technology - Briefs

agricultural sciences Potato genes mapped