Pachauri meets West Bengal Chief Minister
They discuss impact of climate change on State's ecosystem
TERI proposes setting up of climate-related research centre

Kolkata: The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) is working on a project on the Sunderbans delta, a fragile ecosystem now threatened by rising sea-levels, TERI director-general R.K. Pachauri said.

ENVIRONMENTAL disasters from climate change and destruction of ecosystems will create a surge of refugees -- 'envirogees' -- across the planet .

Maybe the buzzword will catch on faster and shed some much-needed light on what will become a serious problem, probably by the end of this or the next decade.

Climate change poses a threat to all ecosystems. In the case of the wetland ecosystem, not only will the water bodies and their economic benefits be lost; they could directly contribute to climate change by releasing a large amount of trapped greenhouse gases. That assessment from scientists taking part in the Eighth Wetlands Conference held in Brazil by INTECOL, the International Association for Ecology, will hopefully stir governments into action. It is vital that they r ecognise the gravity of the problem and act to stop the degradation, draining, and land-filling of wetlands.

The first-ever biodiversity strategy and action plan of Orissa has called for identification and documentation of critically endangered species and ecosystems of the State.

Degradation and fragmentation of the wild habitats is the consequence of all human-related perturbations which have led to loss of species, populations as well as community and even eco-systems, it said.

London: The fragile marine ecosystems of Antarctica are facing a growing risk from icebergs floating freely in coastal waters due to global warming, a research has suggested.

A group of scientists from the British Antarctic Survey (BAS) has found that while iceberg scour is a natural phenomenon, the rate of destruction is increasing as a warmer climate shrinks the winter sea ice that would otherwise lock the bergs in.
"The whole balance of the ecosystem could be affected, with consequences that are very difficult to predict,' said Dan Smale, who led the study.

Bangladesh is mainly a deltaic plain of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra river systems. However, we have some tertiary upland in the northwest and some hills and hillocks in the southeastern area. Hills, plains and river basins -- all are created naturally; unfortunately, the mankind realizes their essentiality at least after doing much harm to the natural ecosystems.