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Experts
Divided Over Global Warming - An Indian Case Study "The high-frequency infra red radiation from the sun is responsible for the creation of heat in the earth's atmosphere. On reaching the earth's surface, it gets deflected and the frequency is therefore reduced ... The Greenhouse gases are able to trap the less frequency radiation and provide heat ... but more gases means ..." Drought is a condition that follows failure of normal rains. Rivers, ponds and wells dry up and the land becomes parched. Water supply for agriculture, industry and domestic use therefore becomes scarce. Livestock may die and human sufferings mount. Starvation and diseases set in. The vulnerable perish. Drought affects more people than does any other single type of disaster. Droughts have been a frequent happening in India.Overenthusiastic environmental and meteorological experts have diagnosed a delay in the monsoon in central India this year as an effect of the phenomenon of global warming. Rise in temperature even by a fraction can cause devastating fluctuations in weather, resulting in flash floods and unexpected droughts, the experts claim. The Inter-Governmental Panel on Climatic Change (IPCC) has brought forth data of a decade to prove its point that average surface temperature will go up by 1.4 degree C to 5.8 degree C during the present century because of global warming. What is global warming? The high-frequency infra red radiation from the sun is responsible for the creation of heat in the earth's atmosphere. On reaching the earth's surface, it gets deflected and the frequency is therefore reduced. The Greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide and sulphur trioxide trap this infra red radiation of low frequency and thereby the heat. Now, due to the burning of more and more petroleum products, coal etc in the modern age, the quantum of the Greenhouse gases in the earth's atmosphere has increased manifold. More gas traps more of the heat from the reflected infra red radiation ie heat is not allowed to escape after deflection from the surface of the earth. The atmosphere works like a glass house (dome). And the increasing surface temperature is global warming which will lead to drastic changes in weather patterns like severe droughts and flash floods, and thereby slump in the production of foodgrains etc. The protagonists of global warming hold that the July spell of drought due to delay in the onset of monsoon over central and north-western India is a forerunner of calamities the phenomenon of global warming will bring about. However, a good number of meteorologists do not subscribe to this theory. The present drought comes after a gap of 15 years, the last was in 1987. In the last 125 years, there had been drought 38 times, the recent ones being in 1965, 1972 and 1987. Therefore there is no conclusive proof of global warming being the sole factor behind the drought of 2002 in parts of India due to delay/absence of the monsoon in the month of July. The rains returned in early August. (The south-west monsoon covers the period June to September) Twelve states were declared drought-affected. Among the worst-hit were: Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa. In these states the kharif crops of oilseeds, bajra, pulses and paddy were destroyed. Reservoir levels sunk to 48 per cent of last year's level, affecting irrigation, power generation and drinking water supply. With a stock of around 63 million tonnes of foodgrains in the Food Corporation of India godowns and $ 60 billion in foreign exchange, food prices did not go high. The consumers were therefore not affected much. The producers and farm labourers were. The farmers lost their investment and the labour were rendered jobless. There were reports of labour migration. Loans for the farmers and food-for-work from the stocks for the labour had to be arranged. Over Rs 1,500 cr and 50 lakh tonnes of foodgrains were released in the first dose. The time is still far off when crop insurance and village foodgrain banks will bail out the rural population in the wake of such calamities. Anyway, it rained in August. And the damage was limited. -India Overseas Global
Warming Linked to Cosmic Rays: Report (Go
To Top) WASHINGTON: Researchers studying the global warming phenomenon have often been baffled by the variance in temperatures observed during the last two decades. Some have even argued that global warming is unproven, as the true warming should show uniformly elevated temperatures from the surface through the atmosphere. However, for the first time a report by Fanggun Yu at the State University of New York-Albany has proposed that inter-stellar cosmic rays could be the missing link between the discordant temperatures. The report, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Space Physics, proposes that the rays, tiny charged particles that bombard all planets with varying frequency depending on solar wind intensity, may have height-dependent effects on our planet's cloudiness. "A systematic change in global cloud cover will change the atmospheric heating profile. In other words, the cosmic ray-induced global cloud changes could be the long-sought mechanism connecting solar and climate variability", Yu said. The hypothesis, if confirmed, could also shed light on the Sun's role in global warming. The amount of cosmic rays reaching Earth depends on solar winds, which vary in strength by space-weather conditions. Yu pointed out that indications of Earth's warming have coincided with decreased cosmic ray intensity during the 20th century. Such explanations for natural causes of global warming do not rule out human contributions to temperature change, but present the possibility that humans are not solely responsible for some of the observed temperature increases. In addition, recent satellite data have revealed a correlation between cosmic ray intensity and the fraction of the Earth covered by low clouds. Yu proposes that the amount and charge of cosmic ray-generated ions can contribute to the formation of dense clouds by stimulating the production rate of low-atmosphere particles that make the clouds more opaque. Moreover, natural and man-made differences in atmospheric chemistry, like greenhouse gas concentrations, can also affect the cosmic rays' influence on clouds, according to Yu. -ANI 'El
Nino Causing Abnormal Weather Conditions World-wide'
(Go To Top) LONDON: Scientists have blamed the weather phenomena El Nino as being behind the changing weather conditions around the world that have caused countless number of deaths and rendered millions homeless due to severe droughts and raging floods. El Nino is a warming of water temperatures in the eastern Pacific Ocean which has a knock-on effect on wind and rain. When it last hit, four years ago, floods and drought devastated several developing countries in South America, Africa and East Asia. Scientists have warned that what happens in India is often a foretaste of conditions elsewhere. The country has been experiencing extremes - some parts suffering under searing heat and droughts while others are being lashed by torrential rains. Heavy rainfall killed seven hundred people and property worth millions were destroyed across eastern India, Nepal, Bangladesh and other parts of Asia. But parts of south-east Asia are seeing their worst droughts in many years that has severely hit cultivation. Vietnam is experiencing one of the worst droughts in 27 years - only 25 per cent of the annual rice crop has successfully been planted and in some places the figure is as low as 3 per cent. In parts of the north, however, there have been floods. Elsewhere, one of the worst droughts in the last 50 years is affecting the United States, with 26 states suffering severe drought. Fires have scorched the north-west, destroying 4.6m acres (1.9m hectares) of forest. Southern Africa is already suffering from a severe drought which is causing the worst food crisis in the region for a decade. Meanwhile, rains have swept Europe in the past weeks, bringing misery to summer holiday-makers. On Russia's Black Sea coast, up to 58 people have been killed and 1,500 evacuated in torrential rains and flooding. In the UK, firefighters have evacuated flooded homes along the north-east cost of England. Weather experts in Australia say the effects of El Nino are already being felt there. Although this year's cycle is not as strong as the last one, it is compounding Australia's existing drought, forcing crop forecasts to be slashed. According to a report in BBC, scientists believe that as the planet continues to warm, these effects of El Nino will be felt more and more often. -ANI Cloud
of Pollution Over Southern Asia (Go
To Top) NEW DELHI: Indian environmentalists have sounded alarm bells about a three-kilometre thick cloud of pollution hovering over southern Asia. According to a United Nations-sponsored study, the cloud which is a toxic cocktail of ash, acids, aerosols and other particles is threatening the lives of millions of people in the region. The study also claims that the cloud, which is roughly seven times the size of India, was damaging agriculture and changing rainfall patterns across the region which stretches from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka. The lives of millions of people were at risk from drought and flooding as rainfall patterns were radically altered, with dire implications for economic growth and health. Director of New Delhi's Centre for Science and Environment Sunita Narayan believes the study has major implications for policy-makers. "Their study is talking about the cloud being formed of aerosols which are of anthrogenic sources which means of man-made sources. It means that the pollution that we are seeing in the cities does not end in our cities only, it then forms a huge cloud over the Indian Ocean. So I think it has major implications for policy," said Narayan. UN Environment Programme chief Klaus Toepfer has said that there are global implications as a pollution parcel like this, which stretches three km high, can travel half way round the globe in a week. The United Nations study says the cloud was the result of forest fires, the burning of agricultural wastes, dramatic increases in the burning of fossil fuels in vehicles, industries and power stations and emissions from millions of inefficient cookers. Narayan said that formation of such clouds is a part of the industrialisation process, experienced by different countries at different times. "You have to understand that Europe has created such clouds over Africa in the past as well. Every country as it goes through the process of industrialisation uses a lot of very dirty technology which is the stage we are in today", said Narayan. "It is a process of industrialisation in India wehere we are using very outdated technology very dirty fuel creating a pollution problem which is impacting on our health but now scientists are showing is that not only is it making a difference to our daily life bit it's also going to change the regional climatic system," added the director. The shadow the cloud has cast over local weather patterns is its greatest impact, especially at a time when several parts of India are reeling under severe drought conditions. The study says the cloud's heat-absorbing properties were warming the lower atmosphere considerably, and the combination was altering the winter monsoon, leading to a sharp reduction in rainfall over parts of north-western Asia and a corresponding rise in rainfall over the eastern coast of Asia. The report calculated that the cloud - 80 per cent of which was man-made - could cut rainfall over northwest Pakistan, Afghanistan, western China and western central Asia by up to 40 per cent. Environmentalists say that it was necessary to phase out fossil fuels and replace them with clean, green, renewable energy and tough laws. "You will need cleaner fuels across the country. You will need to move to gaseous fuels whether it is in thermal power stations or in cars. But one thing that we will have to differentiate is between the emissions of the rich and the emissions of the poor. We have to be clear that when we are talking about this large cloud of aerosols over Indian Ocean we must always recognise that the first most important step is to check the emissions of the rich because these are luxury emissions. The poor who burn biomass because they need cooking material they need firewood to cook their food. They can not be called culprits they can only be called victims," said Narayan. Apart from drastically altering rainfall patterns, the cloud was also making the rain acid, damaging crops and trees, and threatening hundreds of thousands of people with respiratory disease. The report called for special monitoring stations to be set up to watch the behaviour of the cloud and its impact on people and the environment. -ANI |
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