The Global warming - How bad it is for India

tarun | Last updated: 20 June 2007

Save Share

Quick Summary

Global warming poses an immediate threat to India, with critical water sources like the Ganges and Brahmaputra rivers at risk of drying up by 2035 due to melting Himalayan glaciers. Although India's per capita greenhouse gas emissions are significantly lower than those of developed nations, the country will face severe consequences, including reduced crop productivity and coastal submergence. To prevent catastrophic temperature rises, global emissions must be drastically reduced.

The fact that it is the first time that I am using the channel to write about some thing which has nothing to do with taxation , itself implies the seriousness of the issue and how it concerns us all . It is good that people of stature of Amitabh Bachchan takes the cudgel to spread its awareness .Its time to act as precious time has been long lost . We can hardy afford any skepticism , very less for any farther debate on the issue. The stark naked truth is that first measure impact will hit in less than 8 years and it will hit India first if we don't act now.

Can we afford to disbelief what world scientists have to say that the Ganges and the Brahmaputra will both dry up by the year 2035. Our enviable growth rate of economy and fast pace of industrialization also contribute towards global warming triggered by greenhouse effect. Atmosphere have been rising because of industrialization and deforestation, that rising global temperatures will melt polar ice caps thus causing sea levels to rise the situation is particularly far more serous for India because of our dependence to great Himalaya .Climate change is melting the Himalayan glaciers, which feed rivers in northern India The effects of global warming on India vary from the submergence of low-lying islands and coastal lands to the melting of glaciers in the Indian Himalayas, threatening the volumetric flow rate of many of the most important rivers of India and South Asia.

The UN panel says world emissions would have to fall 50-85% by 2050 in order to achieve the goal of limiting temperature rises to 2-2.4°C (3.6- 8.6°F) above pre-industrial levels. Concerned about the debilitating effects of epidemics and all-round natural catastrophes caused by global climate change, environmentalists are squarely blaming the rapid pace at which fuel is being burnt for energy for this sordid state of affairs.

Shrinkage of Himalaya is in itself a huge issue among world environmentalists who predicted that great Himalaya can shrink from its 500000 sq km to 100000 in another 25 years time if the temperature keep rising at the exiting rate. This has been predicted by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a UN panel of scientists.

Who is to blame ? Average Indian produces around a 10th of the greenhouse gases of the average European and a 20th of the average American. Most evidence points to prior industrialization and greenhouse gas emissions as being the cause and the major contributors to the greenhouse effect thus far are the developed nations. India's contribution to global warming is very little. And yet, we will be among the first to suffer its effects, as the change in climate will decrease crop productivity near the equator but actually increase it in the temperate regions.

How bad is it ?

Well the study reveals that in the last 100 years or so the average temperature of our planet has increased by 0.76 centigrade, and its temperature now is regarded as the highest in history. Now we are already past past the safe limit as the current level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere stands at 459 ppm of carbon dioxide equivalent (the actual concentration of CO2, corrected to include the effect of other greenhouse gases). According to the Meinshausen study, if atmospheric greenhouse concentrations are maintained at 450 ppm, the probability of global temperature rise crossing 2 C reaches unacceptable levels (> 50%). The current EU target is 550 ppm - at that level, we will be looking at a rise of around 3 C which is quite alarming.

So we should all do our bit and spread the word - Time has come to fight for our own existence .

Tarun Majumder
indaitnaxsolutions.com

FAQ :

Global warming is melting the Himalayan glaciers that feed northern India's rivers, threatening to dry up both the Ganges and the Brahmaputra by the year 2035.

If temperatures continue to rise at the current rate, the Himalayas could shrink from 500,000 square kilometers to 100,000 square kilometers within 25 years.

India's contribution is very small; the average Indian produces about one-tenth of the greenhouse gases of an average European and one-twentieth of an average American.

Climate change is expected to decrease crop productivity near the equator, which directly impacts India, while actually increasing productivity in temperate regions.

The current level of greenhouse gases stands at 459 ppm of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is already past the safe limit of 450 ppm.