Global warming will likely impact the flow of major Himalayan rivers like the Ganga (Ganges), Brahmaputra and the Indus, the United Nations has warned.

Speaking at an event on the International Year of Glaciers’ Preservation, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said that major Himalayan rivers like the Indus, the Ganges and Brahmaputra will feel the impact of glaciers and ice sheets continuing to recede over the coming decades and will have their flow reduced, majorly.

He said the world has already seen how Himalayan melts have worsened flooding in Pakistan, adding that rising sea levels combined with saltwater intrusion will decimate large parts of these huge deltas.

Guterres stressed on the critical importance of glaciers—which today cover 10 percent of the earth’s surface— for life on earth as the massive ice bodies carved out landmasses for human sustenance over millennia

The UN chief expressed concern over human activity driving the planet’s temperature to dangerous new levels and “melting glaciers are the canary in the coalmine”.

Antarctica is losing an average of 150 billion tons of ice mass every year while the Greenland ice cap is melting even faster – losing 270 billion tonnes per year.

Read Also: 2 drunk passengers abuse crew, co-passengers in Dubai-Mumbai IndiGo flight, arrested

In Asia, 10 major rivers originate in the Himalayan region, supplying freshwater to 1.3 billion people living in its watershed.

Antonio Guterres was speaking at the event held on the margins of the UN 2023 Water Conference – formally known as the 2023 Conference for the Midterm Comprehensive Review of Implementation of the UN Decade for Action on Water and Sanitation (2018-2028) – currently underway at UN Headquarters.

The conference which is co-hosted by Tajikistan and the Netherlands will result in a summary of proceedings from the UNGA President that will feed into the 2023 session of the UN High-level Political Forum on Sustainable Development.

A day before the UN Water Conference, the ‘United Nations World Water Development Report 2023: partnerships and cooperation for water’ published by the UN Education, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said that around 80% of people living under water stress lived in Asia; in particular, northeast China, as well as India and Pakistan.

2 drunk passengers abuse crew, co-passengers in Dubai-Mumbai IndiGo flight, arrested

All That Breathes releases in India: Where and when to watch?

Elon Musk’s SpaceX is looking for its first orbital launch to reach Mars via spacecraft. The billionaire founder, who has revolutionised commercial space travel, has now released a simulation of what the journey to Mars will look like.

This will be real in our lifetime, Musk tweeted after releasing the Martian simulation.

Last week, the billionaire had released the details about the development of Starship, the world’s most powerful rocket ever built.

Standing alongside the 390-foot (119-meter) rocket at SpaceX’s Texas spaceport, Musk had also said let’s make this real! This is really some wild stuff here. In fact, hard to believe it’s real.

In September 2019, Musk had announced that SpaceX aimed to fly people to Mars by 2024. The Starship spacecraft will be capable of carrying about 100 people at a time and the company aimed to launch its first orbital test flight within the next six months, Musk had also said during his presentation.

Elong Musk has estimated that the Starship launch could wind up costing less than $10 million.

From the beginning of the year 2022, the SpaceX has been ramping up operations with its workhorse Falcon-9. The company has also been launching Starlink constellations and cargo to the International Space Station.

Stephen Hawking the legendary scientist and theoretical physicist would be celebrating his 80th birth anniversary. To mark the special day, search engine company Google paid tribute to the English cosmologist and author with a two and half minutes long animated video on their homepage.

Born in Oxford, England, Stephen Hawking was fascinated by the universe from a very young age. However, Hawking was diagnosed with a rare disease named neurodegenerative when he was just 21 years old. The disease slowly forced him to sit on a wheelchair. As the time passed, he started losing his voice and after a while he lost his speech. Therefore, he started to communicate through a speech generating device, which was invented by himself. Google describes the legendary scientist as ‘one of history’s most influential scientific minds’.

Hawking is mainly known for his theories on black holes. He revolutionized the modern physics with his theories on origins and mechanics of the universe. His intellectual and curiosity about new things, earned him a nickname Einstein.

In 1965, Hawking defended his PhD thesis on ‘Properties of Expanding Universe’ at the Cambridge University. The revolutionary theory presented that space and time originated from a singularity.

Here are some of the best quotes by Stephen Hawking

1. One, remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet. Two, never give up work. Work gives you meaning and purpose and life is empty without it. Three, if you are lucky enough to find love, remember it is there and don’t throw it away.
2. Quiet people have the loudest minds.
3. Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change.
4. The victim should have the right to end his life, if he wants. But I think it would be a great mistake. However bad life may seem, there is always something you can do, and succeed at. While there’s life, there is hope.