Why India Should be worried?
- India is uniquely vulnerable to rising temperatures — it ranks in the top 20 in the Climate Change Vulnerability Index.
- Our average surface temperature, over the past four decades, has risen by 0.3° Celsius, accompanied by a rising incidence of floods, droughts and cyclones.
Effects:
- Disasters such as intense storms and heat waves
- Slow moving changes like drought and sea level rise
- Atoll nations in the Pacific such as Tuvalu and Maldives in the Indian Ocean –> only few meters above sea level
Proof of these effects:
- Fishes like mackerel and oil sardines, which used to be found near Malabar coast, now can be found in water near Gujarat coast
- Himachali apple no longer thrive in lower Kullu valley
- Species suffer from – heat stress, ocean acidification, greater pest attacks, and draughts
- Changing timing of annual life cycle events like timing of first flowering, bud emergence, birds nesting, the timing of frogs breeding etc.
- When species shift northward or higher, not all species in an ecosystem may move, and the interconnectedness that has evolved over decades gets disrupted
21/04/2016
Interventions needed:
- Health Sector:
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- HHWS:- Heat Health Warning Systems i.e Providing weather forecast regarding Heat Patterns can help to some extent in mitigation
- Preparing an emergency response system to accommodate a sudden influx of Patients
- Water resources:
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- Provision of Water to some of the worst hit parts of India such as aurangabad, latur, beed etc. So as to fulfill the basic drinking water needs.
- Policies to prevent wastage of Water, Ex. Recent intervention by courts in IPL matches in Maharashtra or Ban on new sugar mills in Marathwada region etc
- New methods to preserve and conserve water so as to face any future exigency
- Power Sector:
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- Provision of Continuous electricity in the severe Heat wave effected regions/Drought effected areas
- If water is scarce then Moving towards solar energy and utilising the heat of the seasons and provide power