Climate Change is a significant change in temperature, wind patterns and precipitation that occurs over a long period of time. Some of these changes occur in cycles over decades, hundreds, thousands and millions of years; some could be random occurrences. These result in precipitation (rain or hail, snowfall) and wind patterns, or extreme weather events like thunderstorms, cyclones, tornados etc.
So, is there a problem?
These are all normal occurrences, even the random ones. We experience these throughout our lives. And every school going child learns that there are climate cycles that last thousands of years that give rise to the Ice Ages and their reverse. These occur due to natural processes within the climate system such as ocean circulation; other natural factors are slow changes in the Earth?s orbit around the Sun, or changes in the intensity of the Sun itself.
So what is the problem? Why have climate change and global warming suddenly become such crucial issues?
Well there may be a problem ? a huge problem. In fact, we can get rid of the 'maybe'. There is a huge problem.
In the 20th century, scientists began to detect that the Earth was warming up abnormally. They suspected that the recorded temperatures exceeded the projections for normal long term trends. And in the first decade of the new millennium the common people began to feel the effects.
Heat waves across the world, monster storms hitting coastal areas, massive tornados tearing across the countryside, rivers flooding to unprecedented levels, and debilitating droughts across vast swathes of land began to be reported from all corners of the globe.
Is this for real? Or is it that due to massive strides in telecommunication, especially the spread of audio-visual media, we were impacted by the immediacy of these events?
Well, to deal with such questions, extensive studies of these phenomena were undertaken, and over the years, in fact decades, the probability kept on increasing that yes, something unusual is happening, the earth?s atmosphere is heating up, which is causing all these problems; and that it has been happening for decades, but it is only now that we can actually experience the changes.
This is no ordinary, natural climate change. This is Human Induced climate change.
Human intervention in the industrial era accelerated Global Warming, and this has resulted in the climate change that we hear about and are now experiencing for ourselves.
What is the difference between climate change and global warming?
Both, Global Warming and the opposite phenomenon Global Cooling, result in different patterns of Climate Change. Today when we talk of Climate Change we refer to the patterns caused by human induced Global Warming. And hence, the terms "Climate Change" and "Global Warming" are used interchangeably.
And what causes Global Warming? Currently Global Warming is being caused by Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) resulting from human activity, mainly industrial development and urbanization, agriculture and changes in land-use patterns.
Climate Change will have impact us in many ways, more specifically on:
- our physical and biological environment and systems : heat and cold waves, melting of ice-cap and glaciers which will impact the plant, insect and animal life and their movements, including our own living conditions
- our water resources : its occurrence, distribution, and circulation, the way our streams and rivers will flow, the ways in which rain will fall
- our coastlines and coastal ecosystems : their distribution, fragility, and balance
- our land and agriculture : the quality of land, the food crops and thus our food security
- our rural and urban settlements
- our health : new diseases, mutations and movements of virii, pests etc.
- our industries and institutions
As it is, our water resources are already vulnerable. They are only going to get further devastated. What exactly is happening or likely to happen to our water resources? At global levels. At regional levels.
At a global level the melting ice-caps will directly result in increase in sea-levels. This would mean that the coast of every country, every continent, every island would change and the coastal populations will badly affected. Considering that the world?s highest percentages of populations live along the coast, it will result in history?s largest human migration. Where will the displaced populations go? Inwards. Creating huge pressure on already vulnerable and scarce resources
The worst affected will be the small islands, which might submerge hugely if not get entirely wiped out.
The business community and climate change
The business community does not face as much pressure as those in Western Societies in having to come to terms with the impact of climate change, especially as it is now well known, that it is the model of development chosen in our industrialization itself that is the root cause of high GHG emissions, and consequent climate change. They await policy changes from the State, and these are as yet far into the future. But there are some farsighted individuals and groups among these.
Industry may as part of its corporate social responsibility take up activites like the ones mentioned above. But in the long run, they have to deal with structural issues of the GHG emissions of their products and processes. They have to be radically overhauled. There are no signs yet of that taking place.
Civil society and climate change
Civil Society and the general public in India has not been too involved in either the understanding, or awareness building, on this issue; nor have they undertaken widespread action on mitigation, adaptation or technology development and transfer for this purpose. But all hope is not lost.
There has been significant contribution to the understanding of the equity and justice angles and its links to action. Foremost among them was the Centre for Science and Environment, at that time led by Anil Agarwal. But again, the understanding of the need to make a choice for a low-carbon path does just not occur.
Yet, there are examples of CSOs that have taken up quietly issues of mitigation, adaptation and technology transfers from the point of view of marginalized communities, expecially rural communities, that will bear the brunt of the adverse impacts of climate change, notwithstanding the inherent resilience of many of these communities.
DEO Team, INECC, Visakhapatnam , May 2008.
People Power Putsil
The story of the Micro Hydel Power Plant, built through Community Initiative, at Putsil, Orissa, India. An IRDWSI audio-visual Presentation [3 min 48 Sec ] (IRDWSI or WIDA)
Climate Resilient Development and Adaptation (ppt), An initiative of Utthan & People's Learning Centre in association with Ahmedabad Management Association, 19th June 2007
Some NGOs have begun to relate at the national level as a coalition to critically look at the government's NAPCC. The issues raised are :
- Is there a vision and sense of urgency?
- Do the missions have a coherence and integration into a holistic action plan?
- Does it holistically look at all ecosytems?
- Is there an appreciation of grassroots capability and involvement?
- Does it raise more questions than it provides direction?
These NGOs have begun to look at the Energy, Agriculture and Water related missions in-depth to provide alternative inputs and targets to strengthen the NAPCC, and the larger question of an equitable, low-carbon path to development. Many more need to join in this effort. Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), Greenpeace India, Development Alternatives, Indian Network on Ethics & Climate Change (INECC)
These initiatives need support, and this is forthcoming from a few Resource Agencies from the North. We need larger support from domestic Resource Agenices. These are early days yet, and there is much to be done, - and done right away.
India's scientific community
The scientific community in India has been in the forefront of the effort to understand the link between development and climate change. But at the local and regional level, there is a need for academicians and reasearchers to bring to the local communities their expertise and understanding of climate change.
Dr Pachauri, the Chairperson of the IPCC, is from The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI). Other scientists from eminent organisations like the Indian institute of Science(IISc), the IITs, etc have all contributed to the national effort to participate in this scientific venture. Dr Pachauri, together with Al Gore, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008.