Most of the states lying close to the Indian coast on the east have their lives and economies disrupted and have been on high alert because of highly intense cyclone which began in the Bay of Bengal. This cyclone is however, expected to be more intense in the upcoming days.
Amidst the horrific videos of cyclone Michaung circling in the country and abroad wherein heavy waters have disabled the east coast of India, questions about a possible future of India are making rounds too.
A series of heatwaves, cyclones and then droughts are all finding homes within this country ready to take its growth to heights.
According to a recent Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, flash floods hitting our hills and their infrastructures, scorching heat, droughts, erratic rainfall and intense-frequent cyclones are likely to burden India’s upcoming decades in consonance with each other.
As the Climate scientists call it, there is too much energy because of global warming and its inherent entropy in the system.
Especially concerning is the Indian Ocean, which as per the report, has ‘warmed faster than the global average’ as has the western equatorial Pacific Ocean.
The scientists explain further: “Heat extremes have increased while cold extremes have decreased, and these trends will continue over the coming decades.”
These are what constitute a little of what we term ‘irreversible changes’. Other prominent change in the region has been on South Asian Monsoon and its resulting rainfall over the Indian Subcontinent that continues to be inconsistent and unreliable since 1950s.
The problem is not only the intensity but also the fact that the unpleasing climatic events supposed to happen later sometime are already being witnessed in most uncertain of places.
Additionally, climate change is crafting compound weather events by combining several and at times contrasting weather events in pairs in India. Just like, heatwave, drought and the excessive rainfall has been noticed.
Therefore, every life everywhere has an impending threat of climate change that is growing stronger day-by-day. With no moratorium on fossil fuels in sight, no significant decline in emissions and consequent pollution, this reality is approaching closer. Apart from this, deforestation continues.
In just a single decade of 2010 to 2020, highly climate vulnerable areas of the world consisting around 3.6 billion humans including India saw 15 times higher human mortality rates from the so called hazards such as floods, storms or droughts when calculated for the regions with low climate vulnerability.
And as the climate change is unfolding new tricks, even these low vulnerable regions earlier deemed to be safeguarded well, are falling.
If we continue to stand unbated, climate change will further add to the globally rising temperatures only to reach beyond 3°C. Already seeing the current climate change impacts, one cannot dare to imagine humankind’s future for long.
Land Degradation: Eating Us?
Of all the various things worldwide, that have gorged millions of lives, destroyed livelihoods and still be barely noticeable or curbed has been land degradation and desertification.
An Executive Secretary of UNCCD once said: “Unlike other disasters that attract media attention, droughts happen silently, often going unnoticed and failing to provoke an immediate public and political response.”
It is the surrounding air that hurts us so bad that we fail to acknowledge our stressed oceans and overburdened soil.
As per the United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) data, India has lost nearly 30 million hectares of total land that was completely arable, to degradation. Unfortunately, this happened in brief years from 2015-19.
The country’s degraded land now comprises nearly 9.5 percent of its total land asset.
The Indian state topping the charts for desertification has been Jharkhand with 69 percent of its total land territory considered a Desert.
If we want to understand the gravity and play with numbers, around 251 million Indian faced the brunt of this change.
And when it comes to the world, about 100 million hectares of productive land gets lost each year snatching means to produce food and pushing people to poverty.
A worse form of this future is very near; we need to gear up and that too, faster than ever. Mitigation can be our immediate mantra yet we need investments to flow in sustainable development and building back our ecosystems better.