From Verona to Taormina, from Bosa to Ravello: a small guide for a sustainable slow tourism.
Dry lands, glacier retreat, polluted cities: India is devastated by climate change
In India, i ghiacciai dell’Himalaya sono sempre meno in grado di garantire l’acqua necessaria al sistema agricolo. E Nuova Delhi è immersa nell’inquinamento.
Melting Himalayan glaciers, drier and drier farming lands, the capital’s inhabitants exposed to toxic substances in the atmosphere: India is on track to become world’s most densely populated country and overtake China in ten years but it is dramatically dealing with the issue of climate change.
The agency AFP reported Shakil Ahmad Romshoo’s words, scientist at the University of Cachemire who studied the effects of temperature increase in the Himalayan region. Here, at least two large glaciers have disappeared over the last fifty years. Others shrinked of about 27%. A huge problem for a nation that depends on these sources for water supply: “The impact of climate change is loud and clear and this is evident from rapid shrinkage of glacier which is the storage house of water for all purpose”.
Due to glacier retreat, some farmers had to give up rice crops, which require large amounts of water. Haji Mohammad Rajab Dar, a seventy-year-old inhabitant of the Chandigam village explained that “all the snow melt on the mountains now melts away by April when we actually start needing it for agriculture. I used to get 230 to 260 sacks of rice from my fields. It is reduced to just 90 this year. So we are ruined and turning into beggars slowly”.
In October, the Dalai Lama called for the protection of Tibet, another country strongly affected by climate change: “This blue planet is our only home – he explained – and Tibet is its roof. As vital as the Arctic and Antarctic, it is the third pole”. The Tibetan huge plateau is seeing a twice as rapid temperature rise than the global average: this threatens seven large rivers in India as well as in Bangladesh, China and other neighbouring countries.
All this is caused by human activities and, in particular, by energy production. And it’s exactly because of coal plants as well as increased car traffic that a few thousand kilometers to the east of the Himalayas, seventeen million inhabitants of the Indian capital are exposed to high pollution levels. In hospitals, the number of people suffering from respiratory problems is rising and the most affected ones are children.
In the city, the amount of Pm2.5 fine dusts in the atmosphere, the most dangerous ones for the health, exceeds by fifteen times the limit set by the World Health Organisation. This problem is even more serious in the winter: between December 2014 and January 2015 the levels topped 226 mcg per cubic metre. For this reason, according to a study conducted by German Institute Max Planck, New Delhi could record the highest number of premature deaths due to air pollution by 2025.
Siamo anche su WhatsApp. Segui il canale ufficiale LifeGate per restare aggiornata, aggiornato sulle ultime notizie e sulle nostre attività.
Quest'opera è distribuita con Licenza Creative Commons Attribuzione - Non commerciale - Non opere derivate 4.0 Internazionale.
L'autenticità di questa notizia è certificata in blockchain. Scopri di più
In Europe, damages have exceeded €800 billion in 40 years. Without adaptation, we risk losing 7 per cent of GDP.
The oil giant TotalEnergies must defend itself against accusations of failing to take into account the climate consequences resulting from the use of its products.
US President Donald Trump has lifted fishing restrictions in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
From Australia to the United States, from Chile to Mozambique, and from Russia to Argentina, many countries are grappling with extreme weather conditions.
A report by Ember explains that in 2025 electricity generation from renewables (solar, wind and hydropower) surpassed that from fossil fuel sources.
The Tyler Prize, considered the “Nobel Prize for the Environment,” has been awarded to Toby Kiers, an American biologist working in Amsterdam.
Belgium is one of the countries most exposed to climate change. Dune–dikes are a solution to curb sea-level rise.
Between October 2024 and September 2025, the average temperature in the Arctic was 1.6 degrees Celsius higher than during the 1991–2020 period.