Cyclone Laila Hits Normal Life in Andhra Pradesh

Cyclone Laila is named by Pakistan. The cyclones originating in the Indian Ocean are named by eight countries north of the ocean - India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Myanmar, Oman and Thailand which has been intensifying. ...And it's expected to hit the coast of the state overnight - or tomorrow morning.

Cyclone Laila at the doorstep

Acid Rain and its Effect

Acid rain was first noticed in Scandinavia in the 1950s when large numbers of freshwater fish died. research showed that the water in which these fish had lived contained more than average amount of Acid. Later it was discovered that this extra Acid had been carried by rain, hence the term Acid rain. The Acid is formed in the air from sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NOx) which are estimated by thermal power stations, industry and motor vehicles. These gases are either carried by prevailing winds across seas and national frontiers to be deposited directly into the earths surface or are converted in to acids which then fall to the ground in the rain.

Acid rain is measured using a scale called "pH." The lower a substance's pH, the more acidic it is. Pure water has a pH of 7.0. Normal rain is slightly acidic because carbon dioxide dissolves into it, so it has a pH of about 5.5. As of the year 2000, the most acidic rain falling in the US has a pH of about 4.3.

Acid rain causes acidification of lakes and streams and contributes to damage of trees at high elevations. For examples are:

** Acid deposition changes the chemistry of the environment. It affects water bodies such as ponds and lakes, river and streams, and bays and estuaries by increasing their acidity, in some cases to the point where aquatic animals and plants begin to die off.The acidity of lakes has increased large concentrations kill fish and plant life.

** Acid deposition damages vegetation as well.An increase in the acidity of soils reduces the number of crops that can be grown.

** Forests are being destroyed as important nutrients (calcium and potassium) are washed away (leached). These are replaced by manganese and aluminum which are harmful to root growth.In time the trees become less resistant to drought, frost and disease, and shed their needless.

** Water are more acidic and this could become a future health hazard. For example, the release of extra aluminum has been linked to Alzheimer's disease.

** Acid deposition damages man-made structures as well; marble,limestone, sandstone are susceptible to damage from acid deposition, as are metals, paints, textiles and ceramics. Repairing the damage caused by acid rain to buildings and monuments costs millions of dollars per year. The Acropolis in Athens and the Taj Mahal in India have both deteriorated rapidly in recent years.

Cyclone Laila weakens India’s coast

A severe cyclone packing winds of 110 kilometres (70 miles) an hour hit India's southeast coast on Thursday as tens of thousands of people evacuated their homes fearing major damage.

Cyclone Laila slammed into the state of Andhra Pradesh 50 kilometres southwest of the city of Machilipatnam, the Indian Meteorological Department said, forecasting a sea surge and disrupted power and communication lines.

As heavy rain and strong gales battered the coast, state authorities said at least 40,000 people had been evacuated from low-lying areas.The armed forces were drafted in to help the evacuation efforts after Andhra Pradesh's chief minister K. Rosaiah called Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to request extra assistance."We have had no power supply since yesterday," Ramulu, a middle-aged resident of Balajinagar town, told the TV5 local news channel.

"The municipal authorities are just not bothered about people's plight," he said. "We have formed our own teams to clear the roads of fallen trees and electric poles."
The meteorological department described the cyclone as "severe" and forecast extremely heavy rainfall in places during the afternoon and into Friday.Its latest warning also predicted that a "storm surge" of up to two metres above the regular tide was likely to inundate parts of Andhra Pradesh as the cyclone moved up the coast."Cyclone Laila has made landfall and will take four hours for the entire system to cross," V. Prasad Rao, director of the cyclone warning centre in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam, told AFP. "The impact will last for 12 hours."

Large trees were uprooted and some cars damaged by gusts of wind that touched 120 kilometres an hour, television pictures showed.All fishermen were ordered to stay on shore due to "very rough" sea conditions, and the Press Trust of India news agency said Reliance Industries had suspended crude oil and gas production in the Bay of Bengal as a precaution.

State disaster officials said that besides existing cyclone shelters, schools and community halls were serving as relief camps to evacuees.Three people were killed when a shed collapsed during heavy winds in Andhra Pradesh, while a fisherman drowned in rough sea in neighbouring Tamil Nadu state. Local reports put the total death toll at between 14 and 17.

The cyclone, which weakened during the day, is forecast to move north along the coast through Orissa and West Bengal states after making land.India and Bangladesh are hit regularly by cyclones that develop in the Bay of Bengal between April and November, causing widespread damage to homes and fields.

Increasing Temperature changes global Atmosphere

The effects, or impacts, of Increasing Temperature causes climate change which may be physical, ecological, social or economic. Evidence of observed climate change includes the instrumental temperature record, rising sea levels, and decreased snow cover in the Northern Hemisphere.Some impacts from increasing temperatures are already happening.

Ice is melting worldwide. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice. Numbers of Penguins on Antarctica have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.

Sea levels are rises unexpectedly between 7 and 23 inches (18 and 59 centimeters) by the end of the century. Between 1993 and 2003, the rate increased above the previous period to 3.1 [2.4 to 3.8] mm/yr. and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters).

Hurricanes like Katrina and other storms are likely to become stronger.Floods and droughts will become more common. Rainfall in Ethiopia, where droughts are already common, could decline by 10 percent over the next 50 years.

Fresh water will be less available. If the Quelccaya ice cap in Peru continues to melt at its current rate, it will be gone by 2100, leaving thousands of people who rely on it for drinking water and electricity without a source of either.Varieties diseases will spread.Such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.

Ecosystems will change. According to Wildlife research scientist Martyn Ob bard found that since the mid-1980s, with less ice on which to live and fish for food, polar bears have gotten considerably skinnier. A similar pattern has found in Hudson Bay by Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling.  He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will as well.

greenhouse gases effects In Earth's atmosphere

In Earth's atmosphere there are many environmental problems coming from the increase concentration of greenhouse gases. As ABC NEWS reported by Jeff Rubin, there are many signs indicate that we have begun changing Earth's climate: glaciers and polar ice caps appear to be melting,increased water vapor in the atmosphere, floods and droughts coming more severe, and sea level rising continuously, on average, between 4 and 10 inches since 1990(www.abc.com/sections/us/global106.html). For global warming we are already began to see more flooding, more droughts. According to Jane Lubchenco if this situation is continuing we must see 2 foot rising sea level by 2100 and this level will continue to rise 2 or 3 feet per century, for 1000 years.

These rises in sea level cause coastal lands to be washed under the ocean as a result increase the
salinity of freshwater throughout the world. Increased humidity and Warmer water may encourage tropical cyclones, and changing wave patterns could produce more tidal waves and strong beach erosion on the coasts.

The greenhouse effect is the rise in temperature due to the presence of greenhouse gases. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere behave much like the glass panes in a greenhouse. Sunlight enters the Earth's atmosphere, passing through the blanket of greenhouse gases. As it reaches the Earth's surface, land, water, and biosphere absorb the sunlight’s energy. Once absorbed, this energy is sent back into the atmosphere. Some of the energy passes back into space, but much of it remains trapped in the atmosphere by the greenhouse gases, causing the lower atmosphere to warm.

The greenhouse effect is important. The Earth would not be warm enough for humans to live without the greenhouse effect. But if the greenhouse effect becomes stronger, it would be harmful for us and it could make the Earth warmer than usual. Even a little extra warming may cause problems for humans, plants, and animals.

Global Temperature Changes Rapidly

The earth is warming up continuously. In the past 30 years Global surface temperature has increased ˜0.2°C per decade due to global warming. The temperature in 1998, on the contrary, was lifted 0.2°C above the trend line by a “super El Niño”, the strongest El Niño of the past century. Record, or near record, warmth in 2005 is notable, because global temperature did not receive a boost from an El Niño in 2005.

The National Geographic Channel aired a documentary in Britain on August 9, 2003 titled What’s up with the weather. It noted that the levels of carbon dioxide for example, were currently at their highest levels in the past 450,000 years.


If we turned to conclusion that global warming is a real climate change, not an artifact due to measurements in urban areas, is confirmed by surface temperature change inferred from borehole temperature profiles at remote locations, the rate of retreat of alpine glaciers around the world, and progressively earlier breakup of ice on rivers and lakes (10). The geographical distribution of warming

Global Warming is Changes The Earth System

Earth is a dynamic place. But recently scientists have been noticing,Global warming changes the Earth system due to way land is used and pollution. These changes are changing the regular patterns of the system.

Earth system are changing in many different ways. Materials are moving around the Earth system.Rocks form and reform through the rock cycle. Water flows through the water cycle. Elements are moving between living and nonliving parts of the Earth system through bio geochemical cycles like the carbon cycle and nitrogen cycle. Ocean Motion and the atmosphere have an impact on the Earth system too.

How the parts of the Earth System are affecting and how they impact climate, Scientists are also studying that.When aspects of the system are changed the Earth reacts because of warming.Some reactions shrink the amount of warming while other reactions lead to even more warming. These reactions are called feedbacks.

Reactions of the Earth system that shrink the impacts of a change are called negative feed backs and Reactions that exaggerate the impacts are called positive feed backs.

Analysing the negative and positive feedbacks of the Earth system is an area of active research in climate science. How climate will continue to change in the future, new information about feedbacks into climate models will allow us to better predict.

Animals are Effected from Global Warming

Animals are essential to maintain the circle of life and the food chain. It is just not the animals alone, insects, reptiles, and the aquatic life are all interdependent on each other, and on the plants and humans as well.

The greenhouses gases effects on earth. It helps to keep the Earth warm, and this is the reason why life on Earth has existed, and still thrives. However, with an increase in the gases like carbon dioxide, ozone, nitrous oxide, methane and water vapor in the atmosphere, as a fallout to growing environmental pollution; industrial, domestic, and loss of vast stretches of grassland and rain forest, Earth has gotten nearly 14% hotter than what it used to be 50 years ago, with 2005 being recorded as the hottest year ever. Besides humans and plants, global warming effects on animals is a cause of concern.

Video explaining how global warming is effecting all natural things and animals

Global Warming is affecting animals and habitats

As global warming causes climate change, many great deserts like the Sahara, are no longer able to sustain their animal population.


Loss of habitat is most vividly seen in the Arctic, where global warming is melting the glaciers, pushing the polar bears into extinction. The melting glaciers have caused water levels to rise in many oceans, threatening to drown many tropical islands and forests, that teem with animal life.

The Gulf war oil spills, along with oil tanker spills, have devastated a large number of aquatic life. The pictures of dead fishes covered in oil on many beaches, is a sad reflection of the future that lies in store for them. Changes in weather patterns and coastlines affect the food patterns of most aquatic creatures.

Global warming spreads diseases

Climate change accelerates the spread of disease primarily because global warming causes extreme weather and melts glaciers and causes sea level rises. Global warming temperatures enlarge the geographic range in which disease-carrying animals, insects and microorganisms--as well as the germs and viruses they carry--can survive.

For example, mosquitoes carrying dengue fever. using dwell at elevations no higher than 3,300 feet, but because of warmer temperatures they have recently been detected at 7,200 feet in Colombia’s Andes Mountains. According to biologist, malaria-carrying mosquitoes at higher-than-usual elevations in Indonesia in just the last few years. These changes happen not because of the kinds of extreme heat we’ve experienced in recent months, but occur even with minuscule increases in average temperature.

How mosquitoes carrying dengue fever to human body

Bird flu disease is an another example that is likely to spread more quickly as the Earth warms up. But for a different reason: A United Nations study found that global warming is contributing to an increased loss of wetlands around the world. This trend is already forcing disease-carrying migrating birds, who ordinarily seek out wetlands as stopping points, to instead land on animal farms where they mingle with domestic poultry, risking the spread of the disease via animal-to-human and human-to-human contact.

All the news is not good for less developed parts of the world either. According to scientist research,they have found that more than two-thirds of waterborne disease outbreaks (such as cholera) follow major precipitation events, which are already increasing due to global warming.

Melting Arctic sea ice could change global structure

Ice Melting Fast Global Warming Potential Sea Level Rise of 70 Metres

Melting Arctic sea ice could change this pattern, or stop it altogether.Recent research shows that
Arctic sea ice is melting faster than expected. As the Earth continues to warm and Arctic sea ice
melts, the influx of freshwater from the melting ice is making seawater at high latitudes less dense. In fact, data shows that the North Atlantic has become fresher over the past several decades. The less dense water will not be able to sink and circulate through the deep ocean as it does currently. This will disrupt or stop the Global Ocean Conveyor. Scientists estimate that, given the current rate of change, the Global Ocean Conveyor may slow or stop within the next few decades.

The water in the Global Ocean Conveyor circulates because of differences in water density. Seawater moves through the Atlantic as part of the Global Ocean Conveyor, the regular pattern by which seawater travels the world’s oceans. In the North Atlantic, the differences in water density are mainly caused by differences in temperature. Colder water is denser than warmer water. Water heated near the Equator travels at the surface of the ocean north into cold high latitudes where becomes cooler. As it cools, it becomes denser and sinks to the deep ocean. More warm surface water flows in to take its place, cools, sinks, and the pattern continues.

Global warming may causes the disruption to ocean circulation. It could cause cooling in Western
Europe and North America. The ocean currents carry warmth from the tropics up to these places, so they are a bit milder. If the Global Ocean Conveyor were to stop completely, the average temperature of Europe would cool 5 to 10 degrees Celsius.

This would not be the first time that the Global Ocean Conveyor was halted. There is evidence from sedimentary rocks and ice cores that it has shut down several times in the past and those shut downs have caused changes in climate. One of the most well-known, the Younger Drays Event, happened about 12,700 years ago and caused temperatures to cool about 5 C in the region.

Today's Effects of Climate Change

How much warming has happened? Approximately Over 100 years ago, worldwide people began burning more coal and oil for homes, factories, and transportation. Burning these fossil fuels releases carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. These added greenhouses gases have caused Earth to warm more quickly than it has in the past.

Scientists from around the world with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) tell us that during the past 100 years, the world's surface air temperature increased an average of 0.6° Celsius (1.1°F). This may not sound like very much change, but even one degree can affect the Earth. Below are some effects of climate change that we see happening now.

Sea level becomes rising. During the 20th century, due to melting glacier ice and expansion of warmer seawater, Sea level rose about 15 cm (6 inches) . According to Models prediction that sea level may rise as much as 59 cm (23 inches) during the 21st Century, threatening coastal communities, wetlands, and coral reefs.

Arctic sea ice is melting. Melting ice may lead to changes in ocean circulation. Plus melting sea ice is speeding up warming in the Arctic.

Heavier rainfall is the main cause for flooding in many regions. Warmer temperatures is the reason to more intense rainfall events in some areas. This can cause flooding.

Sea-surface temperatures are warming. Last few decades,Warmer waters in the shallow oceans have contributed to the death of about a quarter of the world's coral reefs.Many of the coral animals died after weakened by bleaching, a process tied to warmed waters.



Ecosystems are changing. As temperatures warm, Species that are particularly vulnerable include endangered species, coral reefs, and polar animals.

Climate Change causes sea level rise

Climate change is a change in the statistical distribution of weather over periods of time that

range from decades to millions of years.It can be a change in the average weather or a change

in the distribution of weather events around an average (for example, greater or fewer extreme

weather events). Climate change may be limited to a specific region, or may occur across the

whole Earth.

Global sea level change for much of the last century has generally been estimated using tide

gauge measurements collated over long periods of time to give a long-term average. More

recently, altimeter measurements — in combination with accurately determined satellite orbits

— have provided an improved measurement of global sea level change.

Current sea level rise has occurred at a mean rate of 1.8 mm per year for the past century, and

more recently, during the satellite era of sea level measurement, at rates estimated near 2.8 ±

0.4 to 3.1 ± 0.7 mm per year (1993-2003). Current sea level rise is due significantly to global

warming, which will increase sea level over the coming century and longer periods. Increasing

temperatures result in sea level rise by the thermal expansion of water and through the

addition of water to the oceans from the melting of continental ice sheets.At the end of the

20th century, thermal expansion and melting of land ice contributed roughly equally to sea

level rise, while thermal expansion is expected to contribute more than half the rise in the

upcoming century.

Climate change and increased atmospheric temperatures are predicted to cause a significant rise

in sea level over the next 100-200 years. Scenarios that take into account rapid melting of the

Greenland Ice Sheet and West Antarctic Ice Shelf warn of sea level rise of greater than 20 ft

(6 meters) over the next couple centuries.

This animation shows what that level of rise would (which will happen over a long period of

time) might look like over a couple seconds.

It uses very course scale global elevation data to visualize a rising sea affect and should NOT

be considered highly accurate.