Month: September 2025

NEW DELHI – The Communist Party of India (Marxist), or CPI(M), has called on the Union government to declare the devastating floods and landslides in North India a "national disaster." The party released a statement on Saturday expressing "deep concern" over the widespread devastation affecting multiple states. The CPI(M) highlighted the severe impact on Punjab, where all 23 districts have been declared flood-hit. According to the party, the floods have affected over 400,000 people and submerged approximately 300,000 acres of crops. Other states, including Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu and Kashmir, are also reeling from the heavy rains, with Himachal Pradesh reporting over 320 deaths. The party criticized the BJP-led government for its "inadequate response" to the calamity. ...

WASHINGTON – In a new effort to enhance hurricane prediction, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has launched a fleet of miniature, uncrewed surface vehicles (USVs) called C-Stars. In collaboration with the University of Southern Mississippi and the U.K.-based robotics company Oshen, NOAA deployed five of these four-foot-long robots off the U.S. Virgin Islands on August 31, with two more on standby in Mississippi for potential storms in the Gulf of Mexico. The C-Stars are designed to collect real-time data at the critical interface where the ocean meets the lower atmosphere—the key to understanding how hurricanes intensify. "If these miniature uncrewed surface vehicles prove reliable, they could become a critical piece of NOAA’s hurricane observing system in the ...

HYDERABAD – Water reservoirs in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh have reached their highest levels in two decades, thanks to an unseasonably strong monsoon. According to recent data from The Hindu and the Andhra Pradesh Water Resources Information and Management System (APWRIMS), the state’s major and medium reservoirs are at 85.49% of their total capacity as of September 7, 2025. This marks a significant increase from the 73.55% storage recorded at the same time last year. The robust inflows have been primarily driven by a series of low-pressure systems and upper-air circulations from the Bay of Bengal, which have brought heavy rainfall to the state, particularly during August. While the water levels in reservoirs across neighboring states like Karnataka, Telangana, Maharashtra...

A new global study has found that extreme weather events like severe heat and floods can both increase migration for some groups while simultaneously trapping others in place. Published in Nature Communications, the research found that age and education are the key factors determining who is most likely to move in response to climate shocks. A "Double Penalty" for the Vulnerable The study, led by Hélène Benveniste of the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability, reveals a "double penalty" for some populations. The people who are most exposed to the negative impacts of climate change and have the least resources to adapt are also the least likely to be able to migrate. The researchers analyzed over 125,000 cases of cross-border migration and more than 480,000 within-country moves, c...

Fast-forming and difficult to detect, small glacial lakes are proving to be more hazardous than previously thought, causing devastating and unpredictable floods across the Hindu Kush Himalayan region. Recent disasters, including a deadly flood in July 2025 on the Nepal-China border, have highlighted that the impact of a glacial lake outburst flood (GLOF) cannot be predicted based on lake size alone. These smaller supraglacial lakes, which form on the surface of glaciers, are dynamic and often go unnoticed, posing a significant risk to downstream communities. The New Hazard of Small Lakes Traditionally, large, well-established glacial lakes were considered the primary flood risk. However, recent events demonstrate a shift. In July 2025, a newly formed, small glacial lake on the Purepu...

WASHINGTON – As wildfires increasingly encroach on urban areas, a new report highlights a critical gap in traditional wildfire risk modeling. For decades, these models have focused on how fire spreads through natural vegetation like forests and grasslands. However, recent urban fire disasters in Lahaina, Hawaii, and Los Angeles have exposed a need for next-generation models that can accurately predict how fires spread from home to home. Wildfire models primarily reflect fire behavior in natural settings and do not yet fully account for the complex factors of the built environment. According to a report from Headwaters Economics, in partnership with Pyrologix and the U.S. Fire Administration, the intense heat, embers, and debris from burning structures and vehicles are driven by local fa...

SYDNEY – Scientists have developed a groundbreaking biosensor using modified bacteria to quickly and affordably detect microplastics in water, a significant step toward addressing the global plastic pollution crisis. The world generates around 400 million tons of plastic waste each year, with microplastics now found in nearly every corner of the environment. The new sensor, detailed in a recent study, uses modified bacteria that are sensitive to microplastic particles. When the bacteria were added to filtered seawater samples, the water's fluorescence intensity indicated a microplastic concentration of up to 100 parts per million. Raman spectroscopy further confirmed that a portion of these particles were biodegradable plastics. "Our biosensor offers a fast, affordable, and sensitive...

SYDNEY – Buying a home in Australia is a high-stakes decision, yet many households are doing so without a clear understanding of a property's exposure to climate-related risks, particularly flooding. A new analysis highlights that Australia is a significant outlier among comparable countries for not making property-level flood risk data easily accessible to the public, despite this information already being used by the insurance industry to set premiums. Flooding is a growing and financially damaging problem in Australia. Experts say a property's flood risk is a complex interplay of topography and hydrology, and this information is often hidden from the public. While resources like Queensland's Property Level Flood Information Portal exist, they are fragmented and not available nationwi...

LEH – The cold desert region of Ladakh has experienced an unprecedented weather event, with Leh recording its highest monthly rainfall in 52 years during August 2025. The Meteorological Centre Leh reported a staggering 80.2 mm of rain, a figure that nearly doubles the previous record and has led to widespread flash floods, soil erosion, and infrastructure damage across the region. The continuous and intense downpour is a stark deviation from the area's typical arid climate. According to Sonam Lotus, director of the Meteorological Centre Leh, the recent rainfall was a combined effect of strong monsoon currents and moisture from western disturbances. While the region is accustomed to some rainfall during the monsoon months of July and August, the intensity this year has been "unusually hi...

ADDIS ABABA – The second UN Climate Week of 2025 (CW2), currently underway in Addis Ababa, is working to elevate Africa's climate priorities and challenges onto the global stage. The event, which runs from September 1-6, is a key platform for preparing for the upcoming Africa Climate Summit (ACS2) and the 30th UN Climate Change Conference (COP30) in Belém, Brazil, later this year. Organized by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Ethiopian government, CW2 focuses on a range of critical issues, including finance for climate adaptation, forest action, and agriculture. Organizers stated that the week’s purpose is to "unlock financial resources" and "facilitate further climate actions" that are tailored to Africa's development context. Mensur Desse, ...