Science and Technology - Briefs

ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES Storm alert

Miracle amid ruins

Two years ago, Japan was ravaged by a tsunami. Now there’s a new memorial to the people and things who lived through it: the “miracle tree” that survived the surge has been converted into a sculpture.

Inheritance of loss

The year 2012 set major records. A quick Google search reveals it was the hottest year in US history and second wettest one in the UK. Data from 2011 and 2010 show similar extremes. But not only is climate change getting worse, it is also getting costlier.

Drought of equity

Socially worth media

Iran’s heavily constricted social media has once again proved its worth. Placed under severe restrictions after protestors used Facebook as a rallying ground after the disputed verdict of the 2009 elections, it has now become an important source of help for the earthquake-hit people of northwestern Iran.

Flash floods are man-made

Flash floods are becoming recurrent in the Himalaya as well as in other parts of India. What are the geological processes that could trigger them? Interviewee:  K S Valdiya

Letters - September 15, 2012

Baneful Ban

Drought and livestock

As livestock economy becomes larger than the foodgrain economy, government’s conventional drought management strategy needs an overhaul More than the country’s stock market, it is the livestock economy to which Prime Minister’s appeal of unleashing the “animal spirit” is applicable. Particularly when the country faces the threat of a severe drought.

Letters - July 31, 2012

Backdoor trade The write-up, “Death on mounds of a bumper crop” (July 1-15, 2012), is a realistic analysis of farmers’ woes in the Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh. I have quit my corporate life to start farming. When I reached Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh in May, I saw many people making temporary shelters on their tractors or heaps of wheat and waiting outside procurement centres.

Weather dice is loaded

During my weekly conversation with my sister I told her about the unusual searing heat this June, the problems of power cuts and how we are coping in India. She, in turn, told me that in Washington DC, where she lives, there was a terrible storm that damaged her roof and uprooted trees in her garden. They were fortunate that they still had electricity, because most houses in the city were in the dark.