In California, thousands died of heat-related illnesses. Many lost homes due to wildfires and landslides. Thousands of people are suffering from severe asthma and heart disease as a result of air pollution and inhaling wildfire smoke. The most affected are low-income communities and people of colour.
The condition is not favourable in India, too. Climate change or global warming triggers a series of issues which directly affect people. The primary cause of climate change is the burning of fossil fuels, which emits greenhouse gases into the atmosphere – mainly carbon dioxide. Deforestation and other human activities destroying nature also result in the emission of greenhouse gases that cause global warming. Increasing temperatures, uneven rainfall, extreme weather events and loss of agricultural land due to drought and floods seriously affect production and availability of food around the world. The rate of child malnutrition has gone up in the recent years. Agricultural distress due to climate change impacts food manufacturing, availability and access to basic food grains, fruits and vegetables. Price rise compel people to shift to cheaper, unhealthy and processed foods and beverages. Climate change also affects food quality, reducing the nutritional value of some popular crops. Higher carbon dioxide leve
ls in the atmosphere potentially decrease the protein and mineral content of plant foods like wheat, rice and soybeans while raising their carbohydrate levels.
A study also reveals that switching to active or public transportation is environmentally sustainable and can help reduce an individual’s Body Mass Index. Over the last few years, large areas of forest land across the country have been converted for commercial, residential, agricultural, and other purposes. Substantial deforestation results in soil erosion and fertility loss, which in turn leads to temperature rise, floods and landslides, and other weather extremes, all of which are associated with lower crop productivity in a particular region. Deforestation also results in the reduction of biodiversity, which affects food supply.
Considering that climate change is threatening the whole planet, what steps must be taken to bring it under control? Are we taking enough measures to control it? Since factors like climate change attribute to issues like malnutrition, what must be done to avoid it? Isn’t it high time we started using zero-emission vehicle technologies to reduce air pollution and greenhouse gases?
Do your bit
Kalpana Ramesh, water conservationist
Climate change is something that will affect every living individual. However, we often see people playing the blame game. Commoners blame the government, and the government blames the people. Therefore, people need to take a look around their homes and private area and take small steps. Conserve water through rainwater harvesting, allocate open spaces where rainwater can also seep into the ground to increase the ground water level. Groundwater depletion affects wetlands in urban areas. And wetlands are an integral part of maintaining climate. We need to connect the global effort to our local effort.
Travel the green way
Bandana Sondhi, nature lover
Some people think only environmentalists have to worry about climate change. It is one of the biggest global issues. In a world filled with billions of people, one may think how it matters what I do but each of us is a drop in the bucket and with enough drops we can fill any bucket. We should push for reduced methane emissions as methane is 84 times more powerful and worse than carbon dioxide. We should switch to renewable energy all over as it’s cleaner and healthier. Most importantly, we have to act against forest loss and plant more trees. Switching to zero emission transport technology or electrifying transportation is a must now as it helps in bringing down air pollution greatly.
Switch to renewable energy
harish chandran, it professional
Imagine the world as a spherical glass bowl and start filling it from the inside with an array of fuel emissions. It eventually leads to an unimaginable catastrophe, which will break the bowl from inside. This is why climate change needs to be understood and acknowledged. Fossil fuel fumes have increased the levels of heat traps across the earth’s atmosphere. These heat traps in turn act as a catalyst for global warming. The change in long-term climate cycles of various places is evident now. Europe faced one of the most extreme climate changes during last year where certain countries close to the arctic region experienced temperatures of close to 25 degree Celsius for almost a month, which is highly unusual. Countless number of villages and cities all over the world are witnessing seasons getting jumbled up. It is high time that we, the people of the world, adapted to renewable and eco-friendly energy measures and put forward our strong will to advocate for a clean atmosphere.
Calm before the storm
Leo Saldhana, Activist
Lack of convergence on climate change globally is a direct outcome of imperial and neo-liberal policies that tend to retain hegemonic control over the resource flows of the world advantaging rich nations.
Those countries, which were created to oppose such concentration of wealth and political power in the small elite, have themselves turned into oligarch led ‘communist’ countries, practising capitalism of the worst sort. The way out is to appreciate the importance of socialist policies that looks out for each other’s welfare, in calm and distress times. But given that the world has not turned out too many successful cases of socialist planning, we have an unprecedented crisis of retaining global order and peace, as climate change causes unimaginable disasters. So, we are now speaking in the time of calm before the storm. It’s only possible to survive if we can build from the ground up and create resilient cities and villages that can manage long periods of stress without breaking down. This demands collaborative and intelligent responses. Nothing less will do if we care to ensure the only living planet has a chance, into the future.
Affects economy
Kaviya Reddy, youngster
Climate change is one of the biggest crisis we face these days. Climate change will not only affect weather condition, but also economic and socio-political conditions too. Along with the human life, wildlife and oceans are also getting affected because of global warming. If it is not controlled now, life will become hard on the planet. Temperatures have been rising around the world for decades. We’re already seeing the first climate refugees as people are displaced by rising sea levels, melting Arctic permafrost and other extreme weather.
Take serious measures
Dr Kamran Tak, doctor
I think climate change should be taken into strong consideration because it is creating many problems now days. We should use public transportation facilities or try car-pooling, which can certainly help in keeping the environment away from danger to some extent. So far I don’t think that we have taken enough steps to address this grave issue but yes, at least some people are trying to do something for the environment. There are less methane producing flights and people have started using public transportation, though we still have to see the use of electric vehicles once they enter Indian markets. Climate change is creating problems for individual lives as well and hence everyone has the responsibility to take strong steps, else it is not far that climate change would start affecting human existence.
