Climate Change Science in School Curriculum: Solution to Ignorance of Commons in Developing Countries

In developing countries and to a certain degree in developed countries too, either climate change (CC) consequences or drivers of CC are alien to the mindset of commoners, who after High School had with/without vocational skills entered the workforce. This deficit or ignorance can be rectified only by adding CC education in the school system. We present a school appropriate outline of CC learning content spanning Kinder Garten to High School. Adding CC content in school education is immensely warranted, as a large chunk of high schoolers annually joins the work force with or without vocational or skill training. Further, such a knowledge deficit among the generations of working class can be remedied only by providing appropriate and sufficient knowledge on CC consequences, etc., only through a structured adult education campaign.

Impact of Climate Change on Rural Livelihood: A Case Study of Central Rajasthan

Climate change is already bringing tremendous influence on people’s lives, particularly the underprivileged. It’s already visible in a variety of ways. In recent decades, Asia and the Pacific have seen consistent warming trends as well as more frequent and powerful extreme weather events such as droughts, cyclones, floods, and hailstorms. This study was done in Ajmer District of Rajasthan, to find out the climate variation in the last 10 years. The study describes the effects due to climate change on the livelihoods of the people, so a descriptive research design was used for the study to find out the impact of climate change on rural livelihood in central Rajasthan. The study is based on a large representative of sample, quantitative data was collected to gain an idea of the impact on the livelihoods due to climate change at the household level. It shows the negative impact of climate change on rural livelihood which forced the people to change their livelihood directly or indirectly. It was found that climate change had an impact on people’s lives and people do understand the variation in climate change in terms of changes in the weather, unseasonal rain, and drought.

Micropaleontological Assemblages on December-2004 Tsunamigenic Sediments Record of Climate Variation Between Cuddalore and Nagapattinam, East Coast of India

Ninety-nine benthic foraminiferal species belonging to 41 genera, 26 families, 17 superfamilies and 5 suborders have been identified from 84 samples which were collected from beach (23 nos), offshore (24 nos), estuaries (8 nos), inland (23 nos) and one pit sample (6 nos), between Cuddalore and Nagapattinam in the tsunami affected coastal environment. Out of 99 species, only 20 species are living ones. The following species are appreciably distributed in different stations, namely Ammonia beccarii, Elphidiumcrispum, Rosalina globularis, Asterorotaliatrispinosa and Pararotalianipponica. The total distribution of foraminifera is higher at Cuddalore and Nagapattinam whereas at Pudupettai and Samadanpettai it is noticed in the lower order. Organic matter and living species show positive relation. No relationship is observed between dead species and the organic matter, which suggests that the dead species recorded in the sediment, must have been primarily drifted/transported as empty calcareous shells. From the sand/silt/clay ratios, it is inferred that the sediments are normally sandy in nature but silty sand dominates at deeper depths. Carbonate content establishes a positive correlation with all parameters. A fluctuation of salinity values in offshore regions indicates the influx of fresh water from Colleroon river. From the overall studies of foraminiferal distribution in this region, it may be inferred that the species distribution in the offshore region is mainly derived from the inner shelf region. To observe the earlier changes in climactic condition in marine environment mainly based on information from marine sediments. The collected samples from our study area marine sediments contain a variety of foraminifera, which archive climactic information from both planktonic and benthic assemblages and in their sedimentological compositions.

Sedimentological and Grain Size Characteristics of Two Lake Cores from Himachal Pradesh, India

Two lake cores from Khajjiar (length 746 cm) and Rewalsar lakes (length 647 cm) in Himachal Pradesh (India) were retrieved to understand the sedimentological characteristics and variation in grain size distribution. Both the lake cores are Upper Holocene in age. The Rewalsar lake sediments are composed predominantly of silt with small amounts of clay, whereas the Khajjiar sediments contain sand, silt and clay and both cores have high carbonaceous matter. The standard deviation ranges from 0.88 ϕ to 2.56 ϕ for Khajjiar lake and from 0.957 ϕ to 2.264 ϕ for Rewalsar lake, indicating poorly to very poorly sorted core sediments. The values of the Kurtosis vary between 0.678 ϕ and 1.205 ϕ for Khajjiar lake and from 0.8 ϕ to 1.2.4 ϕ for Rewalsar lake, viewing platykurtic to leptokurtic nature. Further, the skewness value ranges from -0.097 ϕ to 0.240 ϕ for Khajjiar lake and 0.079 ϕ to 0.25 ϕ for Rewalsar lake revealing fine to symmetrical skewness model. The bivariate plots by using the grain-size parameters were also interpreted. The Total Organic Carbon (TOC) is higher in the Khajjiar lake sediments (0.9 to 31.2%; av. 10.6%), compared to that in the Rewalsar lake sediments (1.0 to 9.0; av. 2.6%). The sedimentological characteristics indicate that the energy conditions were linked to the climatic conditions prevailing in the area. In general, the Khajjiar lake core is composed of relatively coarser sediments and more affected by arid conditions while the fine fraction of the Rewalsar shows the consequence of lower energy conditions. The Khajjiar lake shows the transition from fluctuating conditions (zone 1) to humid (zone 2) to arid (zone 3), while the Rewalsar shows the change from fluctuating (zone 1) to humid conditions (zones 2 and 3). The similarity between zone 1 and 2 of both the lake profiles shows that both lakes have experienced similar climatic conditions during the deposition, revealing domination of fluctuating and arid conditions.

High Altitude Lake and Hydrochemistry: A Study of Lam Dal and Six Consecutive Lakes of Dhauladhar, Himachal Himalaya, India

Increased human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land thereby resulting in widespread and rapid changes in the atmosphere, ocean, cryosphere and biosphere (IPCC, 2021). High altitude lakes are generally small and quite sensitive to natural and anthropogenic perturbations. The present work is a preliminary work to investigate different hydro chemical processes and factors that controls the geochemistry of a high altitude lake, Lam Lake (dal) and its consecutive six lakes flowing through the Chamba district, Himachal Pradesh. Two hundred and eighty (n=280) water samples were collected in the year 2017 during the pre-monsoon and post-monsoon season. The anion concentration for all the seven lakes followed the trend HCO3- > NO3- > Cl- > SO42- > PO43- whereas the order of cation concentrations was Ca2+> Mg2+> Na+> K+ for both the seasons. Less EC of the water samples shows its serene nature. Components of bicarbonate (HCO3-) were found to be the major anion whereas calcium (Ca2+) was found to be the major cation present in the lakes. Piper Plot and Durov plot indicated Ca2+ – HCO3- as the major hydrogeochemical facies with comparatively less contribution from Mg2+–HCO3- type. The dominance of Ca2+ – HCO3- over Mg2+– HCO3- reflects the possibility of the natural order of dominance in the geology of the catchment area. The low Na+ + K+/TZ+ (total cations) ratios and the high Ca2+ + Mg2+/TZ+ (total cations) and (Ca2+ + Mg2+)/(Na+ + K+) ratios showed dominance of carbonate weathering. The average carbon ratios during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon were found to be 0.97 and 0.98, respectively, suggesting that proton is primarily derived from the oxidation of sulphide involving carbonate dissolution. The baseline data generated for a high-altitude lake shows that weathering and erosion during monsoonal precipitation and snow melt runoff during ablation season are the main sources of the chemical composition of lake water. Further to trace the imprints of climate change and seasonal variations in the high-altitude lakes, long term monitoring is recommended along with isotopic tracer techniques.

Determinants of Perception and Impact of Climate Change Induced Events on Livelihood of People in the Haor Area of Kishoreganj, Bangladesh

Bangladesh is prone to the danger of different natural calamities and is going to be most affected due to climate change-induced events in the upcoming decades. This study attempted to assess the farmers’ awareness, perception and the impact of climate change on the livelihood of people living in the Haor area of Kishoregang, Bangladesh. A total of 230 respondents were interviewed in the study area (Khatkhal union) using the cluster sampling technique. Only 52.2% of farmers are found to be aware of climate change, 61.7% unaware and 47.8% did not know the consequences of rapid climate change. Climate change and the unavailability of flood control embankments are considered as the main reasons for flash floods. Due to the devastating flash flood that occurred in early April 2017; most of the farmers lost more than two-thirds of their standing crops. Flash flood has a large scale impact on soil degradation. As a consequence of these effects, crop production was observed to be reduced the following year. People from Khoishore village are affected by riverbank erosion while the people from Dalargaon village and Hasimpur village are severely affected by Riverbed fill up. Above 93%, people of three villages opined that there is a severe climate change impact on pisciculture, biodiversity and cultivable land.

Monsoon Impact on the Air Quality During SAR-CoV-2 Pandemic Spread in Central Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah: Pre, During and Post Lockdown Scenarios

Malaysia is considered as one of the countries with the highest novel corona virus (COVID-19) infected cases in Southeast Asia. Recent studies have identified that the air quality of a region also governs the transmission of the virus through pollutants. Hence, a study was conducted to assess the influence of air quality on the COVID-19 pandemic spread in central Peninsular Malaysia and Sabah. An attempt was also made to infer the effect of monsoonal precipitation on air quality. Central Peninsular Malaysia consists of major cities like Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya. These cities are highly populated, with the expansion of industrial activities, rapid urbanisation and greater usage of vehicles has resulted in air quality deterioration. Such conditions have led to related public health issues, compared to Sabah in east Malaysia. In this study, COVID-19 infected cases, air quality index (AQI) and precipitation data were collected from 25 January to August 2020 to infer the relationship of air quality to the pandemic spread before, during and after the implementation of lockdown periods in the country, referred as movement control order (MCO). The lockdown periods fall under various monsoon climate patterns in the country. Interpretation of data reveals that the variation in air quality correlates with the infected cases. Improved air quality was observed during the last phase of MCO with a lesser number of infected cases. The HYSPLIT model was adopted to study the backward air mass trajectories for different time frames to identify the variation in the sources of pollutants reaching the study area. The study determined that the air pollutants have reached the study area from various directions, reflecting a mixed contribution from the ocean and land area. The relationship between high precipitation (during inter-monsoon and SW monsoon) and improved air quality reveals the washout effect of air pollutants. The outcome of this study inferred that the variation of air quality and precipitation rates facilitate the pandemic spread in this region in addition to the other meteorological factors, apart from individual immune capacity and social distancing.

Hydro-meteorological Correlations of Himalayan Glaciers: A Review

This review manuscript addresses hydro-meteorological correlations of various glaciers situated in the Himalayan region. Meteorological parameters influence the discharge pattern of the glacier. A strong correlation has been observed between discharge and air temperature of the studied Himalayan glaciers. Whereas, other meteorological parameters such as wind speed and wind direction etc. were not significantly correlated with the meltwater runoff of different glaciers in this region. In general, variability (Cv) in discharge from the various Himalayan glaciers such as Chhota Shigri and Gangotri glaciers follow the variability (Cv) in the temperature of these glaciers. Maximum variability (Cv) in meltwater runoff from the Chhota Shigri glacier has been reported in the month of September, which might be due to the fast decline in stream runoff and air temperature of the study area during the month of September. A strong relationship has been observed between suspended sediment concentration and temperature of the majority of studied Himalayan glaciers. Such type of result shows that the suspended sediment concentration in the glacial meltwater has increased with rising air temperature in this region.

Climate Change as Observed in the Bay of Bengal

The Bay of Bengal covers a vast expanse of area, it being warmer, holds signatures of climate change. Its impact and the parameters have been studied in terms of rise in temperature, sea level change, increased rainfall, drought, heat waves, the intensity of tropical cyclones, ocean acidification and ocean productivity. In the last 45 years, sea surface temperature (SST) has risen by 0.2 to 0.3°C and is projected to rise further by 2.0 to 3.5°C by the end of this century. As a result, the sea level is expected to also rise 37 cm by 2050. The Bay of Bengal is witnessing an increase in the intensity of cyclones in the last two decades. Floods and droughts have increased over the years and are a growing threat to plant and animal life. Ocean acidification and increase in the sea surface temperature have made many fish species a major part of the coastal food chain vulnerable to its productivity. Hence, the collection of real time data and its continuous monitoring of the Bay of Bengal is essential to predict and project the future climate change to its accuracy both in space and time.

On the Global Contrasting Temperature-Precipitation Phase Mechanisms in the Last Century

Global precipitation patterns have changed compared to the before 1960 (pre-industrial period). By now the temperature has risen by approximately 1°C. The atmospheric heat-retaining constituents have been raised by human-induced activities. It is influencing the composition of the atmospheric gases and water vapour leading to tropospheric energy budget imbalance affecting atmospheric pressure systems. Increased atmospheric warming leads water holding capacity to rise. Such changes insinuated contrasting phases: decreased (increased) temperature- increased (decreased) precipitation in the last century. Mechanisms of these in- and out- phases are investigated. In the total four (two colder-wet and two warmer-dry) global conditions are observed. These time slices indicate a gradual increase in global temperature and a decrease in precipitation. Clausius-Clapeyron relation suggests abrupt warming and increased water vapour pressure in recent decades. In addition, the global climate system is shifting towards abnormal warm-wet or warm-dry conditions. Further, contrasting changes in global precipitation have been seen, in particular after 1960 (post-industrial period). It is significantly noted that there has been a global contrasting temperature-precipitation phase mechanism in the last century.