This WMO annual survey on weather and climate change provides evidence that the period, 2000

The year 2009 is likely to rank in the top 10 warmest on record since the beginning of instrumental climate records in 1850, according to WMO. Finds that the decade of the 2000s (2000

Ananya Dutta

KOLKATA: Kolkata has been ranked as the fourth most vulnerable among 11 major coastal cities in Asia that are threatened by climate change as it is

Kolkata is the fourth Asian city that is most vulnerable to the effects of climate change according to this latest WWF report. Dhaka, Manila and Jakarta top this ranking of 11 most climate vulnerable Asian cities and are followed by Phnom Penh, Ho Chi Minh and Shanghai.

Calcutta figures high on the list of Asian cities most vulnerable to climate change in a report to be released on Thursday by WWF-International in Gland, Switzerland.

A twister that blew across the Bulathsinhala area in Kalutara last night damaged at least 103 houses.

The Disaster Management Center said that 89 houses have been completely destroyed and others were partially damaged.

Global climate change will have inevitable consequences and implications for the humanitarian community. Although specific outcomes are unclear, it is certain that the world will experience significant transformations in the next 20 years, and that currently vulnerable populations will be among those most affected.

Climate change is without doubt one of the foremost and most profound threats to environmental security and basic human rights, and its effects are already being observed across the globe. For human populations, the impacts are considerable, with an estimated 325 million people adversely affected, and 300,000 deaths each year.

For more than 40 years, Earth has been sending out distress signals. We have responded through staging processions on Earth days, holding seminars, passing environmental laws and forging a few international treaties, like in the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janiero.

Floods, storms, drought and other climate-related natural disasters drove 20 million people from their homes last year, nearly four times as many as were displaced by conflicts, a new UN report said on Tuesday. The study tried to quantify for the first time the number of people forced to flee their homes because of climate change.

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