The novel titled Return to Almora follows a character called Sanjay Nath, who, like Pachauri is an environmentalist and former engineer in his sixties.

The controversial book mingles lectures on climate change with descriptions of sexual encounters.

The publication was released in Mumbai by Mukesh Ambani – India’s richest man and the head of the oil and gas conglomerate Reliance Industries, the largest private Indian company.

Reliance has close links to Dr Pachauri’s The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), and has received environmental awards from it, including one for its work on HIV/Aids in 2007.

Ambani who has also been on the steering committee of TERI’s Centre for Research on Energy Security reportedly released the book to highlight climate change.

For the Delhi launch refreshments were sponsored by BP India.

Several environmental groups consider it unwise for a co-winner of the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize to accept personal favours from energy industry giants.

Dr Pachauri is already facing calls to resign after the IPCC was forced to correct mistakes in its 2007 report, including a prediction that Himalayan glaciers in India and Nepal could disappear by 2035.

The release of his book is highlighting links between TERI and large corporations, including big polluters.

TERI is a not-for-profit company that works “towards global sustainable development” and advises the Indian Government and gives awards for environmental excellence.

It also does consultancy work for corporations such as Coca-Cola and India’s National Hydroelectric Power Corp (NHPC).

Dr Pachauri defended his relationship with such companies, stating that there is no conflict of interest. Environmental activists don’t agree claiming that the IPCC leader should draw clearer lines between his personal interests including his book’s sponsors and the IPCC authority.

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The phenomenon is expected to persist for next four months increasing the chance of drier conditions for eastern side of the Australian continent while increasing the planet’s overall temperature.

David Jones, head of climate analysis at Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology, said every El Nino was different.

‘It (El Nino) has really cranked up a gear,” he said. ”It has gone from being marginal into what is a significant El Nino event.”

The central Pacific has heated up to a level not observed since the El Nino of 2002, with a huge wave of warm water moving eastward.

On average, water surface temperatures near the equator are two degrees above normal, but the temperature of some waters deeper down are six degrees higher than usual.

The fact this year had strengthened early means that drier than normal conditions are now expected for Australia’s southeast Queensland and much of NSW until at least the end of January.

El Nino events occur about every two to five years and the last ones, in 2002 and 2006, were associated with very dry conditions in Australia.

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EL NINO CAUSED FLORIDA TORNADO

East Timorese President Jose Ramos-Horta said the spill is the responsibility of the Australian Government and the Thai company that owns the platform.

Dr Ramos-Horta called on Australian environmental groups to help assess if the spill has caused any damage to East Timor’s maritime area and said he will seek compensation for any negative effects to his country’s environment.

The Montara oil rig, which is 250 kilometres from East Timor’s coastline, was expelling 400 barrels of oil a day for two months until the leak was recently plugged.

Indonesian fishermen have given reports of a slick appearing at their fishing grounds and some of them have had no catch as a result.

The Australian Government claims only small patches of “weathered oil” have gone into Indonesia’s economic zone, and that was about 100 kilometres from Roti.

The confirmed death toll of birds affected by the spill is now at 19.

The Federal Government appointed a former Environment Department secretary David Borthwick to head a commission of inquiry into the oil spill.

The company behind the rig, PTTEP Australasia, said it welcomed the opportunity for the facts to be placed on the public record.

Federal Resources Minister Martin Ferguson said the inquiry was about getting to the bottom of the cause of the incident and the manner in which it was handled.

“It’s clearly now our responsibility to work with industry to assess the cause or causes of the incident and also make any necessary changes to the regulatory environment in Australia to try and avoid similar incidents in the future.”

But Greens Senator Rachel Siewert is concerned Borthwick does not have any judicial or investigative experience.

She said the Government must guarantee the inquiry will be conducted in public.

“Under the terms of reference and the process set up, it could be entirely done behind closed doors,” she said.

“We don’t think that’s adequate so we’re seeking an absolute commitment that there will be a public inquiry.”

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Oil spill in East Timor finally plugged

That’s the conclusion drawn from the latest batch of exoplanets found in a comprehesive sweep of outer space.

All new 32 planets discovered with the lattest observatory technology aren’t capable of supporting Earth-like life forms,

 So far science has discovered 75 exoplanets in 30 different planetary systems.

The search for small planets – those with a mass of a few times that of the Earth known as super-Earths and Neptune-like planets – have already covered a distance of over 100,000 light years of outer space.

Some 24 of the discovered exoplanets have a mass below Earth’s, and most new low-mass candidates reside in multi-planet systems, with up to five planets per system.

The Geneva Observatory has been able to measure the back-and-forward motions of stars by detecting small changes in a star’s radial velocity.

Such precision is crucial for the discovery of exoplanets and the radial velocity method, which detects small changes in the radial velocity of a star as it wobbles slightly under the gentle gravitational pull from an (unseen) exoplanet.

One exoplanet or “super Earth” was found to be a lava-covered world with density similar to that of the Earth’s, but was devoid of life.

The latest observations have given astronomers a greater insight into the diversity of planetary systems and help explain how they can form.

Scientists found three exoplanets around stars that are metal-deficient.

Such stars are thought to be less favourable for the formation of planets that form in the metal-rich disc around the young star.

However, planets up to several Jupiter masses have also been found orbiting metal-deficient stars, setting an important constraint for planet formation models.

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 Scientists at the University of Alabama-Huntsville (UAH) report that temperatures were over 1F degree above average. And for the planet as a whole, it was the second-warmest September since 1978.

 El Nino, a periodic natural warming of the tropical Pacific Ocean, is primarily to blame, according to  John Christy, professor of atmospheric science at UAH.

 Normally, warming in the atmosphere during an El Nino is linked to rising sea-surface temperatures in the equatorial Pacific.

 But atmospheric temperatures this September were significantly warmer than might have been predicted based on sea-surface temperatures.

 The warmest land areas in September included northern and southeastern Asia, Africa, Antarctica, Australia, the Philippines, Canada, and the Arctic.

 One of the world’s few cooler-than-average spots was the central USA.

 The unusually hot September comes on top of NASA announcement that the planet’s combined land and sea temperature for the first 8 months of this year was the 5th warmest on record.

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