Climate of Denial

Syllabus: General Studies Paper 3

Context

• The IPCC, a body of almost 270 experts from 67 countries, brought together by the United Nations, gave a bleak assessment of the future of our planet and species.
• In its sixth assessment report, titled ‘Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability’, the IPCC discusses the increasing extreme heat, rising oceans, melting glaciers, falling agricultural productivity, resultant food shortages and increase in diseases like dengue and zika.
• Antonio Guterres, the United Nations Secretary General, describes the IPCC report as being “an atlas of human suffering and a damning indictment of failed climate leadership.” He added, “With fact upon fact, this report reveals how people, and the planet are get-ting clobbered by climate change”.

Situation in India

• In India,we are living in the future that the IPCC predicts. Our cities are experiencing more frequent extreme heat waves.
• In Delhi, the AQI for winter months averages between 300-500, akin to smoking one to two packs of cigarettes every day. Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata are in the list of the top 15 most polluted cities of the world, as per the Switzerland-based climate change group IQAir.
• The IPCC warns that should our planet get warmer than 1.5 degrees Celsius from pre-industrial times (we are at 1.1 degrees at present), then there will be irreversible impact on “ecosystems with low resilience” such as polar, mountain and coastal ecosystems “impacted by glacier melt, and higher sea level rise”.
  • This will cause devastation to “infrastructure in low-lying coastal settlements, associated livelihoods and even erosion of cultural and spiritual values.”
• The increased heat will lead to an increase in diseases like diabetes, circulatory and respiratory conditions, as well as mental health challenges.
• Clearly, adverse climate change is an all-encompassing condition damaging our minds, our lungs and our livelihoods.

Unequal impact

• The IPCC also highlights that climate “maladaptation” will especially affect “mar-ginalised and vulnerable groups adversely, indigenous people, ethnic minorities, low-in-come households and informal settlements” and those in rural areas.
• Therefore, India, with a majority of its people falling in these categories, will be especially devastated.
  • The IPCC highlights India as a vulnerable hotspot, with several regions and cities facing climate change phenomena like flooding, sea-level rise and heatwaves. For instance,
  • Mumbai is at high risk of sea-level rise and flooding, and Ahmedabad faces the danger of heat waves — these phenomena are already un-derway in both cities.
  • Vector-borne and water-borne diseases such as malaria and dengue will be on the rise in sub-tropical regions, like parts of Punjab, Assam and Rajasthan.
  • When the concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases, the grains we consume, including wheat and rice, will have diminished nutritional quality. But this presumes we will not face a crisis in food.

Declining yields

• Annexure I of the IPCC report says that over the past 30 years, major crop yields have de-creased by 4-10 per cent globally due to climate change. Consequently, India, which continues to be predominantly agrarian, is likely to be especially hurt.
• Yet, it is not just our agrarian segments that will be impacted. Urban India is at greater risk than other areas with a projected population of 877 million by 2050 nearly double of 480 million in 2020.
• The concentration of population in these cities will make them extremely vulnerable to climate change.

The Indian express link

https://indianexpress.com/article/opinion/columns/ipcc-report-climate-change-india-politicians-7801706/

Question- Adverse impacts of climate change are already visible in India with rising cases of extreme weather events. Explain. What could be the possible impacts of such events on various strata of population in India?