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Does the concept vary from season to season in the mind of the mass? By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Geologist. Total northern hemisphere is reeling under cold wave. Most part of the area is under thick cover of ice and snow. People are being killed due to severe cold waves. Lakes are freeze; leaves are drooping down due to the loads of the snow. Every where its white cover. Where there is no snow cold waves are showing impact on the population. Agriculture fields are under threat of frost bite. In India scores of people have been killed due to chilling wind and dropping of temperature. People like me are not able to understand whether we are moving towards global cooling or we are passing through major global warming period.   When ever I talk about global warming concept today people are confused. They ask questions, why you are talking about global warming when it’s too cold. They are not easily accepting the concept of warming in chilling cold. It’s totally opposite in peak warm s...

By 2050, groundwater pumping will cause a global sea level rise of about 0.8 millimeters per year. by Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Slowly but surely, the sea level continues to rise. Recent research suggests this increase is also driven by the exploitation of underground water by humans that eventually flowed into the sea. Climate change, with its associated melting ice caps and shrinking glaciers, is the usual suspect when it comes to explaining rising sea levels. But a recent study now shows that human water use has a major impact on sea-level change that has been overlooked. Science community was shocked by the claim that 42% of the sea-level rise of the past decades is due to groundwater pumping for irrigation purposes. What could this mean for the future – and is it true? Global warming is melting glaciers and causing sea levels to rise. The volume of water is also expanding because of heat. This ‘thermal expansion’ contributes significantly to the surge in the sea levels. But there ...

There is a general relationship between leaf shape and the climate. by Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi.  Fig.1 Leaf of tropical areas having drip tip for water run off. How could the shape of plant leaves indicate temperature, you ask? Surprisingly, they do so very well. There is a general relationship between leaf shape and the climate. In 1978 Jack Wolfe, of the United States Geological Survey, put the relationship on a quantitative footing. Using data for present –day forests in eastern Asia, he showed that there is a remarkable correlation between the mean annual temperature and the shapes of the leaves. The particular features of leaves that seem to be most distinctive in this regard is the nature of the leaf margin. In tropical areas, where temperatures and precipitation are high, leaves tend to be large and have smooth edges, without serrations, and they often have a narrow, elongated tip-sometimes referred to as a drip tip (Fig.1.)- that facilitates water runoff. In contrast, leave...

The disposal of nuclear waste is a pressing problem for society worldwide. By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi Geologist. 76,circular road, Ranchi , India .  Email: nitish.priyadarshi@gmail.com The nuclear disaster in Fukushima , Japan , caused many countries to rethink their appetite for nuclear power. It is also, in subtler ways, altering the fraught discussion of what to do with nuclear plants’ wastes. Harnessing the power of the atom has propelled humanity forward at an astonishing rate since the dawn of the Nuclear Age. However, the proper disposal and storage of nuclear waste leaves an incomplete equation. Nuclear waste comes from nuclear power reactors and byproducts of military-grade bombs. This waste can come in the form of spent nuclear fuel rods or even toxic sludge. Perhaps the greatest danger of nuclear energy is the long-term investment in waste disposal that will be passed to future generations. For more than 50 years, waste from nuclear power stations has been accumulating in...

Just a small experiment in my photography. This is a famous temple near Ranchi. Photo was taken by me on 21st October, 2012 evening. It seems that statue of the lions are trying to catch the moon.

Are we heading towards the same disaster? By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi The Eocene was much like the garden of Eden. 56 million years ago a mysterious surge of carbon into the atmosphere sent global temperatures soaring. In a geologic eyeblink life was forever changed. Climate change is changing the world. Either it is in the form of temperature rise or in the form of severe floods. Many times question arises in my mind whether this climate change is the out come of present human activities on the earth or it has happened in early geological ages too. Answer is “yes” climate change has occurred several times from the beginning of the earth formation. Evidences are preserved in from of rocks, sediments, and fossils. Studying the records of past climate change will fill you like reading thriller novel in which every chapter is full of suspense and thrill. Every chapter of this novel denotes different geological periods with different stories of climate change. My article is about the chapter...

They will be widespread and unpredictable. By Dr. Nitish Priyadarshi An outbreak of the Ebola virus has killed 14 people in western Uganda last month. There is no treatment and no vaccine against Ebola, which is transmitted by close personal contact and, depending on the strain, kills up to 90 per cent of those who contract the virus. In recent years, Uganda has been hit with three Ebola outbreaks, the worst of which was in 2000, when more than half of the 425 people infected died. Cases of Japanese Encephalitis (JE) has gone up to 50 in the Assam State in Eastern India . The areas mostly affected by Japanese Encephalitis are Kamrup, Sivasagar, Dhubri, Morigaon, Darrang and Nalbari. More than 400 people in northern India have died last year from encephalitis, a rare condition that causes inflammation of the brain. Around 347 people have died in Uttar Pradesh, while 54 children have died in the neighbouring state of Bihar . Cases of malaria is increasing every...