Crusade Against Climte Change-By Asutosh Mishra ,JNV,Koraput

CRUSADE AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
Earth is dynamic so as its atmosphere and climate. Many a changes
took place on its lap after the inception of earth. Sometime decreasing
temperature covered most of its surface with ice on the other hand
increasing temperature melted all the ice caps and mixed it up with vast
ocean. If we peep into the 640 million years of eventful history of earth
changes are conspicuous. The moot point here is “why there is so much
fuss about the present changes in climate”?
A slight change in climate leads to far reaching consequences. The
huge animal like Dinosaur was extinct from earth surface due to such
minor changes in climate. This change was natural where as the changes of
the present are mostly man made. A scientific data revealed that the
temperature of the atmosphere increased by 0.60C in twentieth century out
RISE IN TEMPERATURE,  INCREASE IN GREEN HOUSE GASES,  MELTING OF ICE SEA LEVEL RISE,  SINKING COAST,  TSUNAMI & EARTH QUAKE,  FLOOD,  EXCESSIVE SUN STROKE , LOSS OF BIODIVERSITY FOREST,  FIRE FOOD SCARCITY,  SPREAD OF TROPICAL DISEASES EFFECTS OF GLOBAL WORMING
of which the rate of change increased by three times after seventies and it
will reach between 1.10C and 6.40C in 21st century (The Samaj, 2009). It is
interesting to note the eleven out of twelve hottest years are within 1995 to
2006. Who is responsible for this alarming increase in temperature?
Sun is the primary source of all energy on earth surface. The energy
that comes from sun is in the form of electromagnetic radiation. Our
atmosphere is transparent to these radiations but the terrestrial radiation or
the reflected sun rays from earth are absorbed by green house gases such as
Carbon Dioxide, Methane, Ozone, Nitrous Oxide, CFC etc and in turn
atmosphere get heated. This process is known as glass house or green
house effect. Rapid industrialization, modernization, globalization,
materialistic way of life etc are basis of 21st century. It gives rise to
increase in green house gases. Eight thousand years before industrial
revolution carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere was 20 PPM
(Parts Per Million) which increased to 107 PPM after 250 years from the
revolution. The annual rate of increase between 1995 and 2005 was 1.9
PPM. Likewise the concentration of Methane was 700 PPB (Parts Per
Billion) in 1750 which increased to 1745 PPB at present, Nitrous Oxide
from 270 PPB to 314 PPB and Chlorofluorocarbon increased from zero to
533 PPB (The Samaj, 2009). Rapid rise of these gases is creating the
catastrophic consequence of “Global Warming”. According to IPCC
around 90 percent of rise in temperature of earth surface after 1960s are
due to increase in these green house gases. If the carbon dioxide in the
atmosphere increased by two times the temperature on earth will rise by
30C. As the effects of other green house gases are more then carbon dioxide
the consequence can easily be inferred.
The area covered by all the glacier of earth surface is equal to five
times of the total area of India. Rise in temperature has resulted in melting
of ice and thereby increase in sea level upto 10 to 20 cm by now. If this
process continues the temperature will rise to a minimum of 20C by 2100
and sea level will rise by 1.4m and a rise of 30C in temperature will lead to
melting of all the ice and a rise of fifteen feet in sea level. One-third of total
population of earth lives within 60 KM from the coast. Along with them
the low lying densely populated islands like Maldeep, West Indies,
Srilanka will have to face the brunt of vagaries of climate. India has a coast
line of 7500 KM and a population of 7.1million living in coastal region will
be affected by increase in one meter of sea level. Rise in sea level will
increase in the water level of rivers and thereby the large cities like Venis,
Bankok, Sanghai, Kolkota, Dhaka will be in danger. According to a study
the Gangotri glacier has receded by one third km during last thirteen years.
If the glaciers recede at this rate then the rivers like Ganga, Yamuna,
Brahmaputra, Indus, Mekong will loose their existence. This will lead to
scarcity of food for fifty crores population living between Punjab to West
Bengal of India. It is also indicated by studies that the rise of 10C in
temperature will lead to decrease of five to ten percent in the yield of wheat
and overall crop yields will decrease up to thirty percent in South Asian
countries by the mid 21st century (Gautam, 2009). Likewise the rise of
1.50C in temperature and increase of two mm in precipitation may result in
decline in the yield of rice by three to fifteen percent (Senapati, 2009).
Along with this there will be frequent visit of severe flood, dangerous
drought, super cyclones, uncontrolled forest fire, spread of tropical
diseases, destruction of biodiversity, increase cases of sun stroke, tsunami
and earthquakes etc. What is to be done to mitigate this menacing problem?
The deprived section of society and under developed countries of
world will be affected most by this change. For a rise in one meter in sea
level USA will have to spend a huge amount to construct dams to check the
floods across its coast. Likewise Mumbai will have to spend 48 billion
dollar and small coastal towns like Baleswar of Orissa, will have to spend
75 million dollar (Sinha, 2007). Rich countries will be able to shoulder the
burden but what about the poor? On the other hand the rate of pollution by
developed countries is more. An estimate reveals that the contribution of
carbon dioxide to environment by USA is 18 percent, Russia 12 percent,
Brazil 10 percent, China 7 percent , India and Japan 4 percent each,
Germany and UK 3 percent individually (The Samaj, 2009). The climate of
all countries of the world is integrated with each other. Thus this problem
can be solved with the active cooperation of all the countries of the world.
Keeping this in mind the human induced climate change was opposed for
the first time since back 1979 in world climate summit. The Earth summit,
1992 and Kyoto protocol are some small steps towards this direction.
World leaders meet at the capital of Denmark, Copenhagen in December
2009 to search out the ways to solve this problem.
It is also the responsibility of each and every individual to fight
against this global problem. Small step like switching off the light, fan, TV
and other power driven gadgets when they are not in use, not using those
equipments that pollute or consume more energy, creating public
awareness, using renewable energy resources like solar, wind, biomass etc,
planting trees to celebrate occasions like birthday, not allowing polluting
industries to open in the vicinity etc can change the world to a safe place to
live in.
It is the right time now to undo the injustice done to our
environment. Delay will leads to self annihilation of mankind.
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