30 dead or missing in India floods: reports

At least 30 people are dead or missing after flash floods hit southern India, reports said Saturday, with three buses washed away in one incident.

Rescue teams pulled out a dozen bodies after three buses were washed away in Andhra Pradesh state on Friday. At least 18 other people were still missing, media outlet The NewsMinute reported.

Analysts say unpredictable and extreme weather across South Asia is driven by climate change, exacerbated by damming, deforestation and excessive development.

Dozens have died since October in India after heavy rains triggered floods and landslides, and the country’s Met office said more heavy rains were expected in several southern areas on Saturday…READ ON

Resilience Of Vertebrate Animals In Rapid Decline Due To Manmade Threats

Global change is eroding life on earth at an unprecedented rate and scale. Species extinctions have accelerated over the last decades, with the concomitant loss of the functions and services they provide to human societies.

“Our study reveals a global loss of resilience across marine, freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems.”

A general assumption is that this current loss of global biodiversity is paralleled by a decrease in the resilience of ecological systems. As such, preserving resilience of ecosystems has become a major conservation objective…READ ON