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Global Climate Change Global climate change has already had observable effects on the environment. Glaciers have shrunk, ice on rivers and lakes is breaking up earlier, plant and animal ranges have shifted and trees are flowering sooner. The study – part of a five-year research project on four continents, the first to take a close look at 10 river basins - is based on data from 17 climate models used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to examine the potential effect of changing temperatures and rainfall patterns on the water flows in rivers from now until 2050. Mark Mulligan, a leading author of the study, has opined that climate models cannot predict how rainfall patterns will behave in future with a high degree of certainty: “What we do know is that we cannot be confident about hydrological stability. Some rivers could become wetter and then drier, or vice versa. The key message to countries is: ‘Become more adaptable’.” In Asia the seasonality o...

World Cancer Day 2013 By Dr Arvind Kumar Each year 4th February is observed as World Cancer Day. World Cancer Day is part of the World Cancer Campaign, which responds to the Charter of Paris adopted at the World Summit against Cancer for the New Millennium on 4 February 2000. It called for a strong alliance between researchers, health-care professionals, patients, governments, industry partners and the media to fight cancer. In 2013 the theme will be "Dispel damaging Myths and misconceptions about cancer", in particular the myth that cancer is a disease affecting rich countries - cancer affects everyone, no matter where they may be in the world! World Cancer Day is an initiative of the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC), through which we aim to help save millions of preventable deaths each year by raising awareness and education about cancer, and pressing governments and individuals across the world to take action against the disease. Currently, 7.6 mill...

World Wetlands Day (WWD) By Dr Arvind Kumar Second February each year is observed as World Wetlands Day (WWD). It marks the date of the signing of the Convention on Wetlands on 2 February 1971, in the Iranian city of Ramsar. The WWD was celebrated for the first time in 1997 and made an encouraging beginning. Over the years, government agencies, non-governmental organizations, and groups of citizens at all levels of the community have taken advantage of the opportunity to undertake actions aimed at raising public awareness of wetland values and benefits in general and the Ramsar Convention in particular. Every year the Ramsar Convention selects a theme and raises awareness on specific types of wetlands or aspects of wetland management. For 2013 the theme selected is Wetlands and Water Management . The key objective of World Wetlands Day 2013 is to raise people’s awareness of the interdependence between water and wetlands, to highlight ways to ensure the equitable shari...