Best Mutual Funds for Beginners

Choosing the best mutual funds for beginners is not a matter of finding the best performers of the day. Instead, beginners are wise to know their investment objectives and future plans and prepare for a long-term strategy.

Therefore, assuming you want to do it yourself, as opposed to using an advisor, it is wise to know which mutual fund companies have the best variety of low-cost, no-load funds. You can then go on to the fund selection from there.

Why Use No-Load Funds?

No-load funds are ideal for beginners because they are free of broker commissions and sales charges, collectively known as "loads," which are intended as payment for advisory services. If you are buying your own mutual funds, it is assumed that you have already made the do-it-yourself vs advisor comparison and have decided to go it alone with your mutual fund purchases. Therefore there is no good reason to pay fees with load funds, especially because no-load funds often provide returns superior to load funds over long-term holding periods. In different words, if you are a buy and hold investor and your investment objective (e.g. retirement) is several years or more away from now, you will likely do best with no-load funds.

Use One of the Best No-Load Mutual Fund Companies

I am assuming that you will not stop with just one mutual fund and your investment goals are long-term (more than 5 years).

Therefore you will want to consider the best no-load mutual fund companies that have a wide variety of mutual fund categories and types because you will need to continue building your mutual fund portfolio for the purposes of diversification. Some of the best no-load mutual fund companies include Vanguard Investments, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price.

Why S&P 500 Index Funds Can Be Best for Beginners

Index funds can be a great place to begin building a portfolio of mutual funds because most of them have extremely low expense ratios and can give you exposure to dozens or hundreds of stocks representing various industries in just one fund. Therefore, you can meet the initial goal of getting a low-cost, diversified mutual fund. For more on index funds, check out our Index Investing FAQ page. Again, Vanguard, Fidelity and T. Rowe Price are good mutual fund companies for index funds. You can also look at Charles Schwab.

How to Invest With Just One Fund

If you want to take the most simple route and invest a lump sum in one mutual fund, there are a few options that work best in terms of keeping costs low and diversification broad:

• Balanced Funds: Also called hybrid funds or asset allocation funds, these are mutual funds that invest in a balanced asset allocation of stocks, bonds and cash. The allocation usually remains fixed and invests according to a stated investment objective or style. For example, Fidelity Balanced Fund (FBALX) has an approximate asset allocation of 65% stocks, 30% bonds and 5% cash. This is considered a medium risk or moderate portfolio.

• Target Date Mutual Funds: As the name suggests, Target-Date Mutual Funds invest in a mix of stocks, bonds and cash that is appropriate for a person investing until a certain year. As the target date approaches, the fund manager will gradually decrease market risk by shifting assets out of stocks and into bonds and cash, which is what an individual investor would do manually themselves. Therefore, target-date mutual funds are a type of "set it and forget it" investment. For example, if you are saving for retirement and think you may retire around the year 2035, a good choice for you might be Vanguard Target Retirement 2035 (VTTHX). Then you can end your research, periodically add new money to the fund, and watch your nest egg grow as you go on about living your life!

How to Analyze a Mutual Fund

You can do find out everything you need to know at one of the best mutual fund research sites. But before you begin research, you'll want to know what features you are looking for and how to analyze a mutual fund.This includes more than just past performance. As you know, you'll want to look for no-load funds with low expense ratios, which can increase odds of acceptable future returns. These features are especially important for index funds, which are also called passively-managed funds because the fund manager is not attempting to "beat the market" but rather match an index (passively).

There are also actively-managed funds, where the fund manager is actively trying to obtain the best returns for a reasonable amount of risk. These funds will naturally have higher expense ratios because the additional research required increases the expenses of managing the fund. With actively-managed funds you will want to check manager tenure to be sure the fund manager has been at the helm for at least 3 years (and hopefully 5 years or more). This is assurance that the performance of the fund is due to the current manager and not some other person who recently retired or left the fund company to manage a different fund.

How to Build a Portfolio of Mutual Funds

Prior to buying your first mutual fund, you are wise to understand how to build a portfolio of mutual funds. This returns to the initial point of knowing your long-term plans for investing and basing your fund purchase on this plan. You can look at this as drawing and reviewing a house plan before building its foundation.

Above all keep things simple and be sure not to over-think or over-analyze mutual funds. Sometimes just getting started is the best idea. The details can work themselves out later and waiting too long to invest will begin to undermine your investment goals.

Next steps on GST

The spirit of give and take must continue to operationalise the new indirect tax regime

e Lok Sabha has duly given its assent to necessary Central legislation to operationalise the Goods and Services Tax, nearly 17 years after the government began discussions on the prospects for a unified indirect tax regime across the country. It is eyeing a July 1 rollout for the GST, which will replace the multiple Central and State-level taxes and levies that make doing business in India a compliance nightmare today. The long and winding road for this reform, punctuated by political about-turns, has had a fairly straight trajectory in recent months, following the constitutional amendments last August. The GST Council has managed to thrash out a consensus on several issues relating to the administration and the legislative provisions for the new tax system within six months. The fact that apparently intractable positions held by the States as well as the Centre on the sharing of administrative powers, for instance, have been reconciled without the Council resorting to a majority vote inspires confidence. So does the alacrity with which the Centre has moved to secure Parliament’s nod for four enabling pieces of legislation within a fortnight of the Council’s approval. State Assemblies should do the same to pass the State GST law by holding special sessions if need be.

 

For Indian businesses that have been seeking the reform, it is now time to come to terms with the fine print and embrace the tax system. The GST Council, meeting again on Friday to clear four pending sets of regulations, must sign off on which of the five GST rates will apply to different products and services. Clarity on the applicable rates will help industry alter their accounting systems, supply chains and pricing strategies. But some provisions in the GST laws have the industry in a tizzy. While the highest GST rate has been pegged at 28%, the integrated GST law has set a ceiling of 40%. Though an enabling provision, it gives the government too much leeway to alter the rate structure in coming years without seeking Parliament’s nod. Compare this to the cess ceiling of 15% on luxury cars, for instance, which are likely to see a 12% cess to start with. On several other fronts, the final laws haven’t changed much from their draft versions, despite industry red-flagging several provisions. These include the anti-profiteering clauses to curb ‘unjust enrichment’ of firms, the requirement for branch offices to register separately in each State, and treating all transactions between related parties (including head office and branch offices) as taxable. For the services sector, in particular, compliance requirements could go up multi-fold. It is still not too late for the GST Council to offer some exemptions or resist operationalising some of these provisions through the subordinate rules and regulations in order to address genuine industry grievances.

Save Girl Child Essay

Save girl child is an awareness campaign to save the girl child in India by ensuring their safety as well as to stop the crime against girl child especially female foeticide and gender inequality.

Essay on Save Girl Child

Women are the most important section of the society and equally participate in the life existence on the earth. However, regular decrease in the sex ratio of female in India because of the crimes against women, it has created the fear of total finish of women. So, it is very necessary to save girl child in order to maintain the ratio of women in India. It has been a most important topic as a social awareness in the Indian society which youths of the country must know about. In order to enhance the writing skill and knowledge of the students, teachers assign them this topic to write only paragraph or complete essay in the classroom, during exam or any competition organized for the essay writing. Following essay on save girl child are especially written for the students. They can choose any save girl child essay according to their need and requirement:

Save Girl Child Essay 1 (100 words)

Girls are equally as important as boys in the society to maintain the social equilibrium. Few years ago, there was huge reduction in the number of women in comparison to the man. It was so because of the increasing crimes against women such as female foeticide, dowry deaths, rape, poverty, illiteracy, gender discrimination and many more. To equalize the number of women in the society, it is very necessary to aware people greatly about the save girl child. Government of India has taken some positive steps regarding save girl child such as protection of women from domestic violence act 2005, ban of female infanticide, immoral traffic (prevention) act, proper education, gender equality, etc.

Save Girl Child Essay 2 (150 words)

Save girl child topic has been the focus of attention of everyone all over the India in order to improve the overall social and economic status of women. Following are some initiatives launched by the central or state government regarding save girl child:

• In order to protect the girl child, a Ladli Scheme was launched and implemented by the Delhi & Haryana Government in 2008. The aim of this scheme was controlling female foeticide as well as improving status of girl child through education and equal gender rights.
• Sabla Scheme launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development in 2011 aiming to empower adolescent girls through education.
• Dhanalakshmi Scheme was launched in 2008 by the Ministry of Women and Child Development aiming to provide cash transfer to the family of girl child after birth, registration, and immunization.
• Kishori Shakti Yojna was launched by the Ministry of Women and Child Development aiming to improve nutritional and health condition of adolescent girls.
• Sukanya Samridhi Yojana was launched to ensure equitable share to a girl child by the family.
• Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao (means save girl child and educate girl child) scheme was launched in 2015 for the welfare of women.

Save Girl Child Essay 3 (200 words)

Save girl child is a most important social awareness topic now-a-days regarding the saving of girl child all through the country. There are various effective measures following which girl child can be saved to a great extent. There is huge level of poverty in the society which is the big reason illiteracy and gender inequality in the Indian society. So, education is the vital element to reduce poverty and gender discrimination as well as improve the status of girl child and woman in the Indian society. According to the statistics, it is found that female literacy is decreasing continuously in Odisha where girl child do not have equal access to the education and other activities.

Education is deeply linked to the employment. Low education means low employment which leads to the poverty and gender inequality in the society. Education is the most effective step forward to improve women status as it makes them financially independent. Save girl child step is taken by the government to ensure the equal rights and opportunities for women in the society. Bollywood actor (Parineeti Chopra) has been an official brand ambassador of the recent scheme of PM for save girl child (Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao).

Save Girl Child Essay 4 (250 words)

Introduction

The status of girls in the Indian society has been greatly debated for many years. Girls are generally believed to be involved in the cooking and playing with dolls while boys to be involved in the education and other physical activities from the ancient time. Such old beliefs of men have simulated them for violence against women which resulted in the continuous decrease in the number of girl child in the society. So, there is a big need to save girl child in order to equalize the ratio of both as well ensure the development of country.

Effective Steps regarding Save Girl Child

Following are the various effective steps to save girl child:

• The position of girl child in Indian society is backward since ages because of the extreme desire of parents for the boy-child. It has created gender inequality in the society and has been very necessary to remove by bringing gender equality.
• Extreme poverty in the society has created social evil against women as dowry system which worsens the situation of women. Parents generally think that girls are only to spend money that’s why they kill girl child before or after birth in many ways (female infanticide, dowry deaths, etc). Such issues need to be removed urgently in order to save girl child.
• Illiteracy is another issue which can be removed through proper education system for both genders.
• Empowering women is the most effective tool to save girl child.
• People should be aware through some effective campaigns regarding save the girl child.
• A girl child is unsafe inside as well as outside the mother’s womb. She has fear in many ways all through the life with the men whom she gives birth. She is ruled by the men whom she gives birth and it is totally the matter of laugh and shame for us. Education is the best tool to bring revolution of saving and respecting a girl child.
• A girl child should be given equal access and opportunities in every field.
• There should be safety and security arrangement for girls at all the public places.
• Family members of a girl child can be better target to make save the girl child campaign successful.

Conclusion

Save girl child is not taken by the people as topic only, it is a social awareness which should be taken very seriously. People should save girl child and respect girl child as they have power to create a whole world. They are equally needed for the growth and development of any country.

Save Girl Child Essay 5 (300 words)

Introduction

Girls have been the victim of many crimes in India for years. The most fearful crime was female foeticide in which girls were killed in the womb of mother after sex determination through ultrasound. Save the girl child campaign has been launched by the government to end the gender-selective abortions of female fetus as well as other crimes against girl child.

Effects of Female Foeticide on Girl Child Ratio Reduction

Female foeticide was one of the most fearful acts through sex-selective abortion in the hospital. It was developed in India by the people’s more interest in the boy child than the female child. It has reduced the girl child sex ratio in India to a great extent. It was made possible in the country because of the Ultrasound technology. It took a form of giant demon because of the gender discrimination and inequality for girls in the society. A huge reduction in the female sex ratio was noticed after the national census of 1991. Then it was declared as a worsening problem of the society after the national census of 2001. However, reduction in female population was continued till 2011. Later, this practice was banned strictly by the government in order to control the ratio of female child. In Madhya Pradesh, the ratio was 932 girls/1000 boys in 2001 however reduced to 912/1000 in 2011. It means, it still continues somewhere and may be it reduced to 900/1000 by 2021.

Role of Beti Bachao Beti Padhao awareness Campaign

Beti Bachao, Beti Padhao is a scheme which means save the girl child and educate the girl child. This scheme was launched by the government of India on 22nd of January in 2015 in order to generate awareness for girl child as well as improve the welfare of women. This campaign was launched by organizing some activities such as large rallies, wall paintings, television commercials, billboards, short animations, video films, essay writing, debates, etc in order to aware more people of the society. It also involved some famous celebrities for more awareness. This campaign is supported by the various government and non-government organizations in India. This scheme has played a great role in spreading awareness regarding save girl child all over the county as well as improving the status of girl child in the Indian society.

Conclusion

Each and every citizen of the India must follow all the rules and regulations made for saving the girl child as well as improving the position in the society. Girls should be considered as equal as boys by their parents and given same opportunities in all the working areas.

Save Girl Child Essay 6 (400 words)

Introduction

The existence of human race on the earth is impossible without the equal participation of both, man and woman. Both are equally responsible for the existence of human race on the earth as well as growth and development of any country. However, there is no doubt in saying that a woman is more necessary than man as without her we cannot think about the continuation of human race as she gives birth to human. So, girl children are not killed, they should be saved, respected and given equal opportunities to go ahead. They are the source of root creation and help in shaping destiny of civilization. However, women have been the victim of female foeticide, rape, sexual harassment, dowry deaths, etc in her own shaped civilization. How shame is this!

Why to Save Girl Child

A girl child should be saved by people in the society for various reasons:

• They are not less capable than boys in any field and give their best.
• Female foeticide is illegal crime since 1961 and has been banned in order to stop sex-selective abortions. People should follow all the rules very strictly made to save girl child.
• Girls become more obedient than boys and have been proved less violent and arrogant.
• They have been proved much responsible for their family, job, society or country.
• They become much caring to their parents and devoted to their job.
• A woman can be a mother, wife, daughter, sister, etc. Every man should think that his wife is daughter of another man and his daughter would be a wife of another man in future. So, everyone must respect a woman in any form.
• A girl performs her both duties personal as well as professional very loyally which makes her extra special than boys.
• Girls are the ultimate reason of existence of human race.

Steps taken by Government to Save Girl Child

There are various steps taken by the Indian government regarding save the girl child and educate the girl child. The most recent initiative regarding this is Beti Bachao Beti Padhao which is very actively supported by the Government, NGOs, corporate groups, and human rights activists and NGOS. Various social organizations have helped the campaign by building toilet at girl schools. Crimes against girl child and women are big obstruction in the way of India’s growth and development. Female foeticide was one of the big issues however have been banned by the government by the stoppage of ultrasound for sex determination, scan tests, amniocentesis, etc in the hospitals. Government has taken this step to let people know that a girl child is not a sin in the society however; she is a nice gift by God.

Conclusion

A girl child should not be killed, hated or disrespected. She should be saved, loved and respected for the betterment of society and country. She is as equal participant in the development of country as boys.

Related Information:

Speech on Save Girl Child

Slogans on Save Girl Child

Essay on Female Foeticide

Essay on Women Empowerment

Essay on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

National Girl Child Day

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao awesome article

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Essay

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is a scheme of Indian government to promote save girl child and educate girl child among people and improve the welfare services for women.

Essay on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

We have provided essay on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, a scheme launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in order to help students as they generally get assigned in their schools for writing essay on the social schemes. All the Beti Bachao Beti Padhao essay are written using very simple words under various words limit according to the class standard of students. Essay or paragraph writing competitions have been very common in the schools in order to improve student’s writing skill.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Essay 1 (100 words)

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is a government social scheme launched by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi in order to address the gender imbalance and discrimination against girl child in the Indian society. This scheme was launched by the Prime Minister on 22nd of January in 2015 at Panipat, Haryana on Thursday. This scheme is to aware people about the importance of girls in the society. It is to increase awareness among common people to save the lives of girl child by completely removing the female foeticide. People should celebrate the birth of their girl child and educate them with full responsibility as they do for their boy child.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Essay 2 (150 words)

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (means save the girl child and educate the girl child) is a scheme launched by the government of India in the month of January in 2015. The purpose of launching this scheme was generating awareness as well as improving the efficiency of welfare services for women and girl child in the Indian society. The initial capital required for initiating this scheme was Rs 100 crore. The launch of this was very much required as according to census data of 2001, child sex ratio of age group 0-6 years was 927 girls/1000 boys in our country. It was seen a huge drop in the sex ratio 918 girls/1000 boys in 2011.

India was ranked 41st among 195 countries worldwide by the UNICEF in 2012 that’s why the scheme for girls was very necessary to aware people about the safety of women all over India. This scheme also make a call to people to eradicate female foeticide.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Essay 3 (200 words)

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao programme is a nationwide scheme launched purposefully to address the issue of decreasing girl child ratio in the society as well as empowering girl child in the country. This scheme was successfully launched by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 22nd of January in 2015 at Panipat, Haryana. This scheme is to make people aware of the importance of girl child in the Indian society as well as bring some positive changes in the people mindset towards girl child. People in the Indian society have very rude mindset about the girl child. They think that girls are like burden in their life who only need to take whole life from their parents or husbands and never give.

However, it is not true, girls occupy almost half population of the world so they are half responsible for the existence of life on the earth. Less importance of girl child in the human society is causing suspense of life existence on the earth as where there is no women, no new birth would be. The continuous decrease in the ratio of girl child per boy child is clearing this issue very well. So, this scheme has been launched by keeping in mind to prevent sex determination, female foeticide, save girl child, ensure safety of girl child, as well as provide quality education to them.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Essay 4 (250 words)

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme is a government scheme launched by the Prime Minister of India in the month of January in 2015. This programme was launched to make some positive changes in the Indian society in status of girl child. There are many restrictions for the girl child in the Indian society which hinders the proper growth and development of the girl child. This scheme hinders the practice of female foeticide, girl child insecurity, sex discrimination, etc against girl child. People’s mindset for women has been more worse in the modern time than the people of 18thcentury”. While launching the programme prime minster said that, Indian people have common belief for girls that they are the property of someone else other than their parents. Parents think that only boys are their property as they have to look after them in the old age however girls have to go another place to care her in-laws.

Such thinking of people of 21st century about girls is really embarrassing and need to be eradicated from the people’s mind for giving the full rights of girl child from birth.

The condition of girl child was much worse in the last decades as female foeticide was getting practiced to a great extent. Girl children were killed in the mother’s womb through proper detection techniques before birth. This practice was in vogue to reduce the number of girl child as well as avoid the responsibility of a girl child. Haryana was chosen as the best place to launch the scheme as Mahendragarh district in Haryana has the worst sex ratios of girl child in the country (775 girls/1000 boys).

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Essay 5 (300 words)

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao is a government scheme launched by the PM Narendra Modi on 22nd of January on Thursday, at Panipat, Haryana. This scheme has been launched by keeping in mind the drastic condition of girl child in the Indian society. According to the statistics, the ratio of girl child per male child (of age group 0-6 years) was 945/1000 in 1991 whereas it remains only 927/1000 in 2001 and again reduced to 918/1000 in 2011. If we see the census report we see that the ratio of girl child is decreasing continuously per each decade. It is a danger sign related to the possibility of life on the earth. If nothing is applied positively on urgent basis to reduce such type of issues against girls, surely there would be a day without women and new births.

Keeping in mind this bad figure of girl child in the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched the scheme Beti Bachao Beti Padhao. It is a very effective scheme aims to improve the number of girl child, save girl child, eradicate female foeticide, give them proper security and education, personal and professional development, etc all over the country. This scheme has been implemented in 100 selected districts of the country (by the joint initiative of ministry of Human Resource Development and Health and ministry of Women and Child Development) through a national campaign in order to cover all the states and UTs. There are some positive aspect that this scheme would be proved as a great start to remove social issues against girl child. We hope that there would be a day when no girl child would be killed, uneducated, insecure, raped, etc because of socio-economic reasons. Hence, Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme is aimed to make girls independent both socially and financially by reducing the sex discrimination all over the country.

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Essay 6 (400 words)

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched a scheme for girls named Beti Bachao Beti Padhao in order to save the girl child and educate the girl child all over the India. The programme was launched on 22nd of January, Thursday in 2015 at Panipat,. This scheme was launched especially in Haryana as this state has lowest female sex ratio (775 girls/1000 boys) all over the country. It has been effectively implemented in hundred districts across the country to improve the status of girls. 12 districts (Ambala, Kurukshetra, Rewari, Bhiwani, Mahendergarh, Sonepat, Jhajjar, Rohtak, Kaithal, Panipat, Karnal, and Yamuna Nagar) have been chosen from the Haryana state itself because of having low child sex ratio.

In order to improve the status of girls and give them importance, Haryana Government celebrates an event named Beti ki Lohri on January 14. The purpose of launching Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme is to make girls independent socially and financially using their proper rights and higher education. It helps in improving the awareness among common public and improving the efficiency of welfare services given to women. If we have a sight on latest census report of 2011, we see a continuous decrease in the female child sex ratio (of age group 0-6 years) from last some decades. In 2001, it was 927/1000 whereas in 2011 it remains only 919/1000. There is huge reduction in the number of girls is because of the practice of aborting female fetus after sex determination through modern diagnostic tools in the hospitals. This bad practice came into existence because of the gender discrimination in the society.

And, after birth of a girl child, she has to face another type of discrimination in terms of education, health, nutrition, safety, rights, and other needs of the girl child. We can say that women were dis-empowered instead of being empowered. In order to empowering women and give them their full rights right from their birth government of India has launched this scheme. Empowering women brings all around progress especially in the family and society. Beti Bachao Beti Padhao scheme is the way to achieve positive changes in the human negative mindset for girls. This scheme may make a call to people to end the discrimination between sons and daughters and work as a key to end female foeticide. While launching the scheme, PM reminded to the whole medical fraternity that the purpose of medical profession is to save lives and not finish lives.

More on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao:

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao Scheme

Speech on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

Slogans on Beti Bachao Beti Padhao

Slogans on Save Girl Child

Global warning: climate sceptics are winning the battle

Climate sceptics are winning the argument with the public over global warming, the world's most celebrated climate scientist, James Hansen of NASA, said in London yesterday.

It is happening even though climate science itself is becoming ever clearer in showing that the earth is in increasing danger from rising temperatures, said Dr Hansen, who heads NASA's Goddard Institute of Space Studies, and is widely thought of as "the father of global warming" – his dramatic alert about climate change in US Senate hearings in July 1988 put the issue on the world agenda.

Since then he has been one of the most outspoken advocates of drastic climate action, and yesterday he also publicly criticised Germany's recent decision to abandon its new nuclear power programme, formerly a key part of German climate measures, in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan earlier this year.

"I think it was a big mistake," he said. "And I think the Prime Minister [German Chancellor Angela Merkel] knows that, as she's a physicist, but I think the political reality is she couldn't stay in office if she expressed that opinion."

In a briefing at the Royal Society , Dr Hansen, pictured, was frank about the success with public opinion of what he termed "the climate contrarians", in effectively lessening public concern about global warming. He said: "They have been winning the argument for several years, even though the science has become clearer.

"There's been a very strong campaign by those who want to continue fossil fuel 'business as usual', and the scientific story has not been powerful enough to offset that push."

Part of the problem, he said, was that the climate sceptic lobby employed communications professionals, whereas "scientists are just barely competent at communicating with the public and don't have the wherewithal to do it."

The result was, he said, that in recent years "a gap has opened between what is understood about global warming by the relevant scientific community, and what's known by the people who need to know – and that's the public. However there's nothing that has happened to reduce our scientific conclusion that we are pushing the system into very dangerous territory, in fact that conclusion has become stronger over that same time period."

Asked if anything might re-alert the public to the dangers of climate change, Dr Hansen said: "Mother Nature."

Significant climatic "extreme events" were now occurring over 10 to 15 per cent of the planet annually, whereas between 1950 to 1980 they occurred over less than 1 per cent. He added: "So in places like Texas this year, Moscow last year, and Europe in 2003, the climate change is so big that they are undeniable. Within 10 to 15 years they're going to occur over 15 to 20 per cent of the planet, so people have to notice that the climate is changing."

Burning issue: Hansen's evidence that the world is hotting up

Texas, summer 2011

The US state this year has had its driest summer since record-keeping began in 1895, with 75 per cent of the state classified as "exceptional drought", the worst level. Shortages of grass, hay and water have forced ranchers to thin their herds – where this cow died, in the San Angelo area, there has been less than three inches of rain.

Moscow, August 2010

Russia experienced its hottest-ever summer last year – for weeks, a large portion of European Russia was more than 7 °C (12.6 °F) warmer than normal, and a new national record was set of 44 °C (111 °F). Raging forest fires filled Moscow with smoke, forcing the cancellation of air services and obliging people to don face masks.

Northern Europe, 2003

Shrivelled French grapes at the end of Europe's hottest summer on record, in 2003. The heatwave led to health crises in several countries and more than 40,000 people are thought to have died. Britain experienced its first (and so far only) 100+ F air temperature – 101.3°F (38.5°C) recorded at Brogdale, Kent, on 10 August.