Hyderabad: The past one year witnessed over five cyclones, floods in Uttarakhand, heavy rainfall in Gujarat and the deficit monsoon in the south among other weather extremes, indicating a need to analyse the weather situation across the country. Future projections of the South Asian rainfall, based on the Inter-governmental Panel for Climate Change models, exhibit a wide range of variations and uncertainties. Many scientists agree that these recent weather extremes are not accidental.
While the US accounts for 33 per cent of the global green house gas emissions, Asia is fast approaching this level. India and China especially account for the greatest volume of black carbon emissions, almost 35 per cent. “The IPCC’s fifth assessment report warns that if global carbon dioxide emissions continue to rise at the current rate, the effects will be disastrous leading to increasingly rising sea levels, accelerated melting of glaciers, droughts and floods, and increased stress on nature due to rapidly shifting climate zones. Carbon dioxide, aerosol black carbon and similar warming agents are mainly responsible for the rise in the planet’s surface temperature. The effects of black carbon are yet to be understood fully,” said K. Kasturirangan, former chairman of the Indian Space Research Organisation.
