In the last year, young people have seen more climate events happening than elders might have experienced in the last couple of decades. So, it is no surprise that 2021 has been declared the 5th hottest year on record.

Held as usual a few days before COP (October 28-31 last year), this youth conference is the biggest so far, with thousands of participants having registered from over 140 countries. This is leaps and bounds ahead of the few hundred participants that would attend the conference a decade ago. The sixth edition of the conference, for instance, held in Cancun, Mexico in 2010, saw just 500-odd attendees. The main agenda of the youth conference this year, as per Heeta Lakhani...

Carbon is a chemical element found widely in the universe. It is the basis of our life. But what about ‘blue carbon’?

Honeybees are an integral part of mountain farming in Himachal Pradesh. They are a source of income, nutrition, and medicine for mountain communities. These tiny superorganisms help in the pollination of plants, which increases the productivity of crops and maintains the biodiversity of the region.Traditionally, farmers in Himachal Pradesh keep the indigenous honeybee called...

Between 1891 and 2020 only 50 cyclones have formed in September in the Indian subcontinent. They are mainly formed in October and November -the main cyclone regenerating months. Since cyclones started getting officially monitored in 1975, only 11 have formed in September – 6 in the Bay of Bengal and 5 in the Arabian Sea. But cyclone ‘Gulaab’ has achieved the rare feat of forming over both. Watch the video to know how and why.

On September 1, 2021, New Delhi recorded the highest single-day rainfall in about 2 decades—112.1mm. The highest rainfall recorded in the national capital is 172.6mm on September 16, 1963. The city received rainfall just as schools had reopened 17 months after COVID restrictions. The rainfall led to water-logging in several parts of the city leading to severe traffic jams. On average, Delhi receives 125.1mm of rainfall in September every year.

Rainfall is probably the most common natural weather event on this planet. But it is not that common when it comes to the ice sheets of Greenland, where temperatures seldom cross the freezing point. But on August 14, 2021, something unprecedented happened. The Summit of Greenland, which is the highest point of its ice sheets, received rain for the first time in recorded history.

1,697 people killed in India after being struck by lightning between March 2020 and April 2021. Lightning strikes kill more people than cyclones, earthquakes and floods every year. As the Earth heats up, the number of extreme weather events like heat waves and thunderstorms are also increasing. Warming adds to moisture levels in the atmosphere not just in coastal areas but also the Arctic and Antarctic regions.

When we think about biodiversity, we usually think only of animals, birds, insects and plants. We forget that fungi are also biodiversity. According to Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew in the UK, fungi are ‘distinctive organisms that digest their food externally by secreting enzymes into the environment and absorbing organic matter... 

On July 1, 2021, Delhi experienced a heatwave, when the maximum temperature rose to 43.5°C. At the same time, Ganganagar, in west Rajasthan, reported India's highest temperature of 44.5°C. Some pockets of Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Delhi, north Rajasthan and west Uttar Pradesh still continue to face heatwave conditions. This issue is now prevalent world over. But the world is not only getting hotter but also wetter or more humid.