Climate Change: A Clear And Present Danger

Of late, there have been more concerns and pleas that the climate cannot afford another Donald Trump’s presidency. Wonder why? He considers climate change is “mythical”, “nonexistent”, or “an expensive hoax,” created by and for the Chinese to make US manufacturing non-competitive. Under Trump’s presidency, the US even became the first nation in the world to formally withdraw from the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement which aims to keep the global temperature rise below 2C above pre-industrial levels and further bring it down to 1.5C. The US had also committed to reducing GHG emissions by 26-28% by 2025.

Like Donald Trump, many people are “living in climate change denial” i.e., refusing to accept reality so as to avoid painful truths about degradation and destruction of natural resources, accompanied by extreme weather events.

It is sad that the people and the governments are yet to realise the grave threat the climate change is posing to the globe. Wildfires, glacial outbursts, droughts, quakes, landslides and floods etc., can be pinpointed to global warming, a result of our mad pursuit of fossil fuels. Emissions of billions of tonnes of Greenhouse Gases (GHGs) are trapping heat and they are blanketing the earth, causing it to warm up. Global warming is severely affecting food and water security around the world, more so in the developing world. The air is increasingly becoming toxic due to industrial and vehicular pollution. The average surface temperature of the Earth was the warmest in 2023 since its recordkeeping commenced in 1880. Heavy rainfall events have become more frequent than ever, flooding habitations and submerging agricultural fields.

Alas, current government responses the world over are to put even more money, year after year, in extraction and overuse of fossil fuels. There is still a considerable percentage of climate change deniers among us. But, science is not hoax. The last four years were the four hottest on record. Humanitarian emergencies are increasing in scale, frequency and intensity.

We can choose to remain climate deniers or act while there is still time to recover our wits and face the situation. As Secretary-General António Guterres points out in September, “the climate emergency is a race we are losing, but it is a race we can win.”

Amidst this gloomy scenario, came the news that the Union Cabinet of India has approved a ‘Mission Mausam’ to create a more weather-ready and climate-smart Bharat with an outlay of Rs 2,000 crore over the next two years. The Modi government is in a mission mode to tackle extreme weather events and impacts of climate change. The country has just experienced landslide havoc in Wayanad, shocking floods in Telugu States.

By integrating advanced observation systems, high-performance computing, and cutting-edge technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning, Mission Mausam will set a new benchmark for predicting weather with high precision, utilizing next-generation radars and satellite systems with advanced sensors and high-performance supercomputers to facilitate a GIS-based automated decision support system.

Prime Minister Modi in his virtual address to the just concluded Second International Conference on Green Hydrogen raised hope that there is a growing realisation that climate change is not just a matter of the future. He said India was the first among G20 nations to fulfill Paris commitments on green energy.

He called for adoption of Green Hydrogen as a promising addition to the world’s energy landscape. All must join hands now as climate change and energy transition have emerged global concerns. Nations have to coordinate more closely than ever for a greener earth.