Global Weirding and Climate Whiplash

 Global weirding, also called climate weirding, is a term coined by Rocky Mountain Institute co-founder Hunter Lovins. It refers to how warming temperatures can cause all kinds of "weird" phenomena that can at times be contradictory - from hotter heat spells and droughts in some places, to colder cold spells and more violent storms, more intense flooding, forest fires and species loss in other places.

Further, as a part of global weirding, many places are experiencing climate whiplash, or extreme opposite weather conditions in the same region. Cities across the globe have experienced droughts that dry up water sources followed closely by floods that overwhelm infrastructure, destroying sanitation systems and contaminating drinking water. Places accustomed to heavy rainfall are now facing droughts, while historically arid regions now grapple with unexpected floods.

Global warming, which addresses changes in average global temperature, does not begin to convey the range of severe weather-related events and changes in weather patterns that can occur because of climate change. Depending on the trajectory of greenhouse gas emissions, average global temperatures could rise between 2°F and 11°F by the end of the century. But in one city temperatures can fluctuate more than that in a single day. That is global weirding.

About seven percent of the intensification of heavy rainfall globally is a consequence of climate change. While geographical variability of heat waves is uncertain, the rising trends in the projected intensity, frequency and duration of heat waves are unmistakable.

On the other hand, cold snaps may persist well into the end of this century. Thus, while the overall climate trend is one of warming, and heat waves are projected to intensify, extreme cold events on the average may continue to be as severe and long-lasting as they are currently.

The other aspect of the global weirding phenomenon is its impact on infrastructure, resources, species diversity and the economy. The impact of a warmer world and exacerbated extremes can be severe on both water and food security, especially in the more vulnerable parts of the world. According to the US Global Change Research Program, the consequences of climate change for the US will include stressed water resources, challenges to crop and livestock production, storm surges in coastal areas, and threats to human health.

(Sources: Northeastern University and The Week magazine)

2025 Water Aid Report on Water and Climate

In March 2025, the UK charity Water Aid released the report “Water and Climate: Rising Risks for Urban Populations”. The key findings of the report were:

• 15% of the cities examined in this report show an intensification trend, which we have termed ‘climate whiplash’, where both extreme dry and wet episodes are substantially increasing. These whiplashing extremes in quick succession can be particularly hard for communities to prepare for and recover from. These cities are found across the world, from Asia to the Middle East and Africa and the USA.
• South and Southeast Asia is a regional hotspot with a strong wetting trend. This region is experiencing an increase in wet and extreme wet climate, which increases the likelihood of extreme flooding. Many of the world’s largest cities are located in this area.
• Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa are experiencing a drying trend and are likely to face more frequent and long-lasting droughts.
• Over 20% of the cities are experiencing a reversal in their climate extremes. Approximately 13% are flipping toward a more extreme wet climate, while about 7% are flipping toward a more extreme dry climate.
• The convergence of underlying social and infrastructure vulnerabilities with these climatic patterns results in hotspots of risk in two key regions:
• South and Southeast Asia, which is experiencing increases in wet extremes.
• North and East Africa, which is experiencing increases in both wet and dry extremes.

 Water Aid has called for:

• Greater investment to tackle the water crisis: Development partners, multilateral banks and the private sector should work together to unlock investment in climate-resilient water, sanitation and hygiene systems that benefits the most vulnerable.
• Global leadership to accelerate action on water: Governments and development partners must work through the existing multilateral platforms to deliver ambitious action on climate and water, including through the UNFCCC, the G7 Water Coalition and the G20 Call to Action on Strengthening Drinking-water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Services.
• National government leadership to urgently deliver water plans: Governments in affected countries to mainstream and implement water,sanitation and hygiene measures into their national and city-level climateadaptation plans with a focus on vulnerable groups, especially women and girls.
• Prioritise the most vulnerable communities: All decision-makers to recognise overlapping vulnerabilities and prioritise the leadership and needs of women, girls and marginalised groups in climate-resilient water, sanitation, and hygiene plans.

Central Groundwater Board releases the 2024 Annual Groundwater Quality report

The Central Groundwater Board released the 2024 Annual groundwater Quality report in December 2024. This report presents the findings from the nationwide groundwater quality monitoring exercise based on a standardized methodology, following the newly established Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB). Implemented across India in 2023, this uniform approach aims to establish a comprehensive baseline for groundwater quality, enabling targeted interventions to address emerging concerns.
 
Monitoring and Baseline Establishment: A total of 15,259 groundwater monitoring locations were selected nationwide to assess groundwater quality. These sites form the foundation for future evaluations, offering a clear baseline for ongoing monitoring efforts. To examine trends, 25% of the wells, identified as vulnerable to contamination based on BIS 10500 standards, were chosen for detailed analysis. Groundwater quality was sampled at 4,982 trend stations during pre-monsoon and post-monsoon periods to assess the impact of seasonal recharge on groundwater quality.
The objective of this report was to look into a wide spectrum of inorganic water quality parameters in groundwater used for drinking and agriculture purpose. These parameters consist of physico‐chemical parameters and trace elements.
 

Findings

Significant concerns have emerged from the analysis, particularly the high concentrations of nitrate, fluoride, arsenic, and iron in groundwater. Almost 20% of the samples exceeded the permissible limit for nitrate, while 9.04% of samples had fluoride levels above the limit. Arsenic contamination was found in 3.55% of samples.

Regional Variability and Seasonal Trends: Groundwater quality varies considerably across India. In certain states such as Arunachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Meghalaya and Jammu and Kashmir, 100% of the water samples met the BIS standards. In contrast, states like Rajasthan, Haryana, and Andhra Pradesh faced widespread contamination. Interestingly, the monsoon season showed some improvement in water quality, particularly in areas affected by high electrical conductivity (EC) and Fluoride. Post-monsoon, a modest reduction in EC levels and Fluoride was observed in some regions, indicating that monsoon recharge can temporarily improve water quality by diluting salts. However, certain districts such as Barmer and Jodhpur (Rajasthan) showed a rising trend in EC levels, signalling a deeper issue of groundwater salinization.

Hydrochemical Facies and Salinization: In terms of cation chemistry, calcium dominates the ion content, followed by sodium and potassium. For anions, bicarbonate is the most prevalent, followed by chloride and sulfate. This cation-anion distribution further highlights the role of bicarbonate in contributing to high alkalinity levels, which can exacerbate sodicity when coupled with high sodium concentrations. States like Rajasthan and Gujarat face high chloride concentrations due to the natural hydrochemical processes at play and Na-Cl type formations are prevalent. Over long periods, the aquifers have undergone repeated cycles of wetting and drying. During these cycles, highly soluble Na-Cl salts become concentrated in the aquifers. When groundwater levels drop, these salts become encrusted in the alluvium bed. Upon precipitation or recharge during the monsoon, these encrusted salts re-dissolve into the groundwater, enriching the chloride concentration and contributing to the increasing salinity levels.

Nitrate Contamination: States like Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Maharashtra have some of the highest incidences of nitrate contamination, with over 40% of water samples exceeding the permissible limit. This is primarily linked to agricultural runoff and overuse of fertilizers.

Fluoride Contamination: Fluoride concentrations exceeding the permissible limit are a major concern in Rajasthan, Haryana, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Although the monsoon season led to some improvement in fluoride levels in these states, the overall contamination levels remain alarmingly high.

Arsenic contamination: Elevated arsenic levels (>10 ppb) were found in several states, particularly in the floodplains of the Ganga and Brahmaputra rivers. This includes regions of West Bengal, Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Assam, and Manipur, as well as areas in the Punjab, and Rajnandgaon district in Chhattisgarh.

Uranium Contamination: A notable concern in the groundwater quality report is the elevated levels of uranium in several regions. 42% of samples with uranium concentrations exceeding 100 ppb came from Rajasthan, and 30% from Punjab, indicating regional hotspots of uranium contamination. Moreover, groundwater samples with uranium concentrations greater than 30 ppb were clustered in areas identified as over-exploited, critical, and semi-critical groundwater stress zones, such as Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka. This overlap points to the exacerbating effect of over-exploitation and deepening water levels on uranium contamination in these regions.
 

India State of Forest Report 2023 Released

On December 21, 2024, the Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav, released the ‘India State of Forest Report 2023 (ISFR 2023). The ISFR is brought out by the Forest Survey of India (FSI) on a biennial basis since 1987. FSI carries out in-depth assessment of the forest and tree resources of the country based on interpretation of Remote Sensing satellite data and field based National Forest Inventory (NFI), and the results are published in the ISFR. The India State of Forest Report 2023 is 18^th such report in the series.

 

The report contains information on forest cover, tree cover, mangrove cover, growing stock, carbon stock in India’s forests, instances of forest fire, Agroforestry, etc. To present a detailed picture of the forest health at country level, special thematic information on forest cover and important characteristics of forests have been reported in the ISFR. As per the present assessment, the total Forest and Tree cover is 8,27,357 sq km, which is 25.17 percent of the geographical area of the country. The Forest Cover has an area of about 7,15,343 sq km (21.76%) whereas the Tree Cover has an area of 1,12,014 sq km (3.41%).

 

MAJOR FINDINGS

• The Forest and Tree cover of the country is 8,27,357 sq km which is 25.17% of the geographical area of the country, consisting of 7,15,343 sq km (21.76%) as forest cover and 1,12,014 sq km (3.41%) as tree cover.
• As compared to the previous assessment of 2021, there is an increase of 1445 sq km in the forest and tree cover of the country which includes 156 sq km increase in the forest cover and 1289 sq km increase in tree cover.
• Top four states showing maximum increase in forest and tree cover are Chhattisgarh (684 sq km) followed by Uttar Pradesh (559 sq km), Odisha (559 sq km) and Rajasthan (394 sq km).
• Top three states showing maximum increase in forest cover are Mizoram (242 sq km) followed by Gujarat (180 sq km) and Odisha (152 sq km).
• Area wise top three states having largest forest and tree cover are Madhya Pradesh (85,724 sq km) followed by Arunachal Pradesh (67,083 sq km) and Maharashtra (65,383 sq km).
• The top three states having largest forest cover are Madhya Pradesh (77,073 sq km), Arunachal Pradesh (65,882 sq km) and Chhattisgarh (55,812 sq km).
• In terms of percentage of forest cover with respect to total geographical area, Lakshadweep (91.33%) has the highest forest cover followed by Mizoram (85.34%) and Andaman & Nicobar Islands (81.62%).
• The present assessment also reveals that 19 states/UTs have above 33%  of the geographical area under forest cover. Out of these, eight states/UTs, namely Mizoram, Lakshadweep, A&N Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Meghalaya, Tripura, and Manipur have forest cover above 75%.
• The total mangrove cover is 4,992 sq km in the country.
• The total growing stock of India’s forest and trees outside forests is estimated as 6430 million cu m, of which 4479 million cu m is inside the forests and 1951 million cum outside the forest area. There is an increase of 262 million cu m of total growing stock as compared to the previous assessment which includes an increase of 91 million cu m inside the forest and 171 million cu m outside the forest area.
• In the present assessment total carbon stock in country’s forest is estimated to be 7,285.5 million tonnes. There is an increase of 81.5 million tonnes in the carbon stock of country as compared to the last assessment.
• Regarding status on achievement of target under NDC related to carbon sequestration, the current assessment shows that India’s carbon stock has reached 30.43 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent; which indicates that as compared to the base year of 2005, India has already reached 2.29 billion tonnes of additional carbon sink as against the target of 2.5 to 3.0 billion tonnes by 2030.