Posted On: 2021-12-10 16:16:20
Contemporary climate change includes Global warming caused by humans and the natural weather pattern changes of earth. Climate changes have kept changing in previous periods, but the current changes are more rapid than any known events in Earth's history. The changes and the developments are causing a lot of damage to the existing climate. Temperatures have risen about twice as fast as the global average. Deserts are expanding, on the ground. Heat waves and wildfires are becoming more common, claiming more than 1000s of innocent lives including animals, birds and humans in the recent past.
The Arctic has contributed to melting permafrost, glacial retreat and sea ice loss with the increasing warming. Higher temperatures are also causing more extreme storms and other weather extremes. In places such as coral reefs, mountains, and the Arctic, many species are forced to migrate or become extinct, as their environment changes. There are now 41,415 species on the IUCN (International Union for Conservation of Nature) Red List, and 16,306 of them are endangered species threatened with extinction. This is up from 16,118 last year, 2020. This includes both endangered animals and endangered plants. With food and water scarcity, increased flooding, extreme heat, more disease, and economic loss people are threatened with rapid climate change. Human Migration can also be driven by this. The World Health Organization calls this Climate Change the greatest threat to global health in the 21st century. Even if efforts to minimise future warming are successful, some effects will continue for centuries. These include sea-level rise, and warmer, more acidic oceans, unseasoned rainfalls, cyclones.
On record 2019 was the second warmest year and the end of the warmest decade (2010- 2019) ever recorded. As per 2019 records Carbon dioxide (CO2), levels and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere rose to new levels contributing majorly to climate change. Every country on all continents is getting affected by climate change. It is disrupting national economies and affecting lives and if not done anything to control it, this constant change will claim millions of lives. Weather patterns are changing, sea levels are rising, and weather events are becoming more extreme. About 6 percent of greenhouse gas emissions dropped in 2020 due to travel bans and economic slowdowns resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, but this improvement was only temporary. Climate change is not on pause. Once the globe begins to recover from the pandemic, emissions are expected to return to higher levels. Urgent action is needed to address both the pandemic and the climate emergency in Saving lives and livelihoods.
As per "downtoearth" reports, India’s commitment to achieving Net Zero emissions by 2070 is akin to not just walking the talk on the climate crisis, but running the talk. At the 26th Conference of Parties (CoP26), Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi declared a five-fold strategy — termed the Panchamrita — to achieve this feat. These five points include:
- India will get its non-fossil energy capacity to 500 gigawatts (GW) by 2030
- India will meet 50 per cent of its energy requirements from renewable energy by 2030
- India will reduce the total projected carbon emissions by one billion tonnes from now onwards till 2030
- By 2030, India will reduce the carbon intensity of its economy by less than 45 per cent
- So, by the year 2070, India will achieve the target of Net Zero
Because India has not been a historical contributor to greenhouse gas emissions — from 1870 to 2019, its emissions have counted up to a little 4 percent of the global total. India’s climate change targets are laudable and put the ball firmly in the court of the already rich world to now show that they mean business.
India is criticized harshly as it is the world’s third-highest polluter in 2019, but its scale of emissions, 2.88 CO2 gigatonnes (Gt) as compared to the highest polluter (China at 10.6 Gt) and second highest (the United States at 5 Gt), are not comparable, not even by a stretch. We have millions of people, who are dependent on fuels that generates greenhouse gas emissions who have to be provided with renewable energy sources.
So, from every angle, we did not have to take these international targets to decrease our carbon emissions. This is why it is not just a challenge to reach for India but also a challenge for the world to follow suit. With a population of 1.3 billion people and rapidly growing, our economy is heavily dependent on coal and oil, its emissions are on a steep upward course unless action is taken to curb them. With these constant changes, India would become too hot for life.
Temperature Rise Over India
India’s average temperature has risen by around 0.8°C during 1901–2019. At 43.5 degrees Celsius, Delhi recorded the highest temperature of the year, 2021. This rise in temperature was mainly on account of GHG-induced warming, partially offset by forcing due to anthropogenic aerosols and changes in LULC. By the end of the twenty-first century, the moderate temperature over India is projected to rise by approximately 4.4°C relative to the recent past (1976–2005 average). By the end of the twenty-first century, the frequencies of occurrence of hot days and warm nights are projected to increase by 55% and 70%, respectively. Coastal areas of India like Mumbai to the west, Tamil Nadu and Kerala to the south, Odisha, West Bengal to the East are known as Red zones which indicate lands that will be lost due to rising tides, with the presumption that the spike in temperature has melted the polar regions, adding two metres to ocean levels.
The frequency of summer (April–June) heat waves over India is projected to be 3 to 4 times higher by the end of the twenty-first century, as compared to the 1976–2005 baseline period. The average duration of heatwave events is also projected to roughly double, but with a substantial spread among models. In answer to the combined rise in surface temperature and humidity, amplification of heat stress is predicted across India, particularly over the Indo-Gangetic and Indus river basins.
Indian Ocean Warming
Over the period of 1951–2015, sea surface temperature (SST) of the tropical Indian Ocean has risen by 1°C on average and is markedly higher than the global average SST warming of 0.7°C. Ocean heat content in the upper 700 m (OHC700) of the tropical Indian Ocean has also exhibited an increasing trend over the past six decades (1955–2015), Notably, an abrupt rise is observed within the past two decades (1998–2015). If the Indian Ocean persists to warm faster than the global average, sea levels would begin rising faster. Unlike some oceans, most sea-level rise in the Indian Ocean is caused by warming, because water expands in volume when it warms and not so much due to the melting of glaciers and ice. But there is anticipation around the melting of ice sheets, such as the Greenland ice sheet, that contributes to global mean sea-level rise.
Changes in Rainfall
The summer monsoon showers (June to September) over India has declined by about 6% from 1951 to 2015, with notable decreases over the Indo-Gangetic Plains and the Western Ghats. Instead, unseasoned rainfalls, showers, Summer rains, December rains, are happening all over the country.
On September 30, this year’s monsoon season officially ended. India received 75% of its annual rainfall during the June-September monsoon. A Hindustan Times analysis of the India Meteorological Department’s (IMD) database puts this year’s total monsoon rainfall at 876.8mm. Over central India, the frequency of daily rainfall extremes with rainfall intensities exceeding 150 mm per day increased by about 75% during 1950–2015. There has been a shift in the recent period toward more frequent dry spells (27% higher during 1981–2011 relative to 1951–1980) and more intense wet spells during the summer monsoon season. The frequency of localized heavy precipitation happenings has increased worldwide in response to increased atmospheric moisture content. With continued global warming and anticipated reductions in anthropogenic aerosol emissions in the future.
On 17th Oct, 2021, more than 26 people were killed in floods in southern India after heavy rains caused rivers to overflow, cutting off towns and villages. Torrential rainfall in Uttarakhand reported at least 42 rain-related deaths in one day. More than 200 people have died in devastating floods across India and Nepal after some of the heaviest unseasoned rainfall in over a century triggered flash flooding and landslides. More than 10000 families were affected by these monstrous rains. Rescue and relief operations are still being carried out but without these basic needs, it is difficult to provide relief to the locals affected. Between 1983 and 1992, India's loss due to damaged crops in floods was Rs 11,773.37 crore, but the loss due to damaged public property was Rs 12,546.16 crore. This difference widened and between 2013 and 2017, the loss India suffered due to public property damaged in floods was 112 per cent more than that suffered due to damaged crops.
Sea Level Rise
Because of the continental ice melt and thermal expansion of ocean water, sea levels have risen globally in reaction to global warming. Sea-level rise in the North Indian Ocean (NIO) occurred at a rate of 1.06–1.75 mm per year during 1874–2004 and has revved to 3.3 mm per year in the last two and a half decades (1993–2017), which is comparable to the present rate of global mean sea-level rise.
At the end of the twenty-first century, the steric sea level in the NIO is projected to rise by around 300 mm relative to the average over 1986–2005, with the corresponding projection for the global mean rise being approximately 180 mm.
Tropical Cyclones
India is a country in the North Indian Ocean that is the most helpless to getting hit by tropical cyclones in the basin, from the east or the west. On average, 2–3 tropical cyclones make landfall in India each year, with about one being a severe tropical cyclone or greater. There are two main seas in the Indian Ocean, the Arabian Sea and the Bay of Bengal where all of these cyclonic storms form in the basin of every season. Cyclone Yaas from the Bay of Bengal is the second severe cyclonic storm of 2021 in India. Cyclone Tauktae was the season’s first and strongest tropical cyclone that made landfall in India, states of Kerala, Karnataka, Goa, Maharashtra and Gujarat registered heavy rainfall and flash floods. Tauktae was a deadly and most strong tropical cyclone that started from the Arabian Sea and made landfall on the west coast of India. Cyclone Amphan, Cyclone Nisarga were the strongest storm and most powerful super cyclonic storms of the year 2020. Climate models project a rise in the intensity of tropical cyclones in the NIO basin during the twenty-first century.
Changes in the Himalayas
The Hindu Kush Himalayas (HKH) experienced a temperature rise of about 1.3°C during 1951–2014. Several areas of HKH are experiencing a low trend in snowfall and also retreat of glaciers in recent decades. Global warming is having a severe impact on the amount of snow and ice, which has serious implications for downstream water availability in both the short and long term, as up to 50% of the average annual flows in the rivers are contributed by snow and glacial melting. In contrast, the high-elevation Karakoram Himalayas have experienced higher winter snowfall that has shielded the region from glacier shrinkage. By the end of the twenty-first century, in HKH the annual mean surface temperature is projected to increase by about 5.2°C.
Nations around the world are upping their game in the fight against climate change, The goal is simple. We can curb our contribution to climate change while also saving money. In today’s social-distanced world, Earth Day 2021 is going online. Despite the novel coronavirus, it’s still possible to join the fight against climate change with your home. Every little step towards climate action will bring a lot of changes and help our nature. During the lockdown, nature had restored because of less human intervention. Support those organisations and NGOs who are supporting and making these changes to improve nature.
Author : Lubdha Dhanopia
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