Environmental Article
Climate ChangeA Disastrous Catastrophe
Nero fiddled while Rome burnt.
Not much has changed. Recent report
of the U. N. Panel on climate change
and the Global warming on account
of human activities has spread the
message like never before. We are
facing a global crisis; if we continue
to generate green house gases, we
will sink without a trace. The report
makes it clear that the days of passing
the buck and pussyfooting are over. It
says that emissions of carbon dioxide
must start declining by 2015 to
prevent the worlds temperatures
from rising more than 2C over pre-
industrialised temperatures to stave
off disaster. To that end, the
emissions of carbon dioxide in
particular has to drop between 50 to
85 per cent by 2020.
Objectives
The result of the melting of most
of the Himalayan glaciers by 2030, as
predicted by the U. N. Panel on
climate change, could be truly
catastrophic for India and its
neighbours. The Himalayan glaciers
are the largest store of water outside
the polar ice caps and feed seven
great rivers. The Himalayan glaciers
could disappear onces the parennial
rivers turn into seasonal ones. As
these river-flows fall, agriculture,
water supplies on which millions of
people depend, and power
generation and cultivation will be
badly affected.
The ultimate objective of the
United Nations Framework Conven-
tion on Climate Change (UNFCCC) is
to achieve stabilization of green-
house gases (GHG) concentration in
the atmosphere at a level that would
prevent dangerous anthropogenic
interference with the climate system.
Such a level should be achieved
within a time-frame sufficient to
allow ecosystems to adapt naturally
to climate change, to ensure that food
production is not threatened and to
enable economic development to
proceed in a sustainable manner.
PD/August/2007/255/6 If we dont discipline ourselves, the world will do it for us.
Serious Changes in Climate
in the Past
Evidence of climate change
ranges from differing geological
strata to the study of pollen grains
and tree rings.
The early climate history of the
world is not well understood but it is
known that during the last 55 million
years the Earth has been cooling, and
that during the last million years
there have been alternating of glacial
and interglacial episodes.
External causes of climate change
may include : changes in solar out-
put; changes in the number of
sunspots which seem to vary in an 11
year cycle, changes in the ellipticity of
the Earths orbit, which roughly
follows a 1,00,000year cycle and
changes in the Earths axis of rotation,
which alter the season of perihelion
and which follow an approximately
1,00,000 year cycle.
Internal causes include vulcani-
city, which can increase the density of
atmospheric nuclei in the atmosp-
here, variations between the distribu-
tion of land and sea, continental drift
and changes in the atmosphere
surfaceocean system. Recent
research suggests the human agency
in altering the climate.
Evidences gathered in the
Northern Hemisphere concerning the
past 10,000 years have revealed that
the climate had minor fluctuations of
Short-ware radiation from Sun
(720 cal/cm2/day)
Reflected back to space
Radiation from
atmosphere
ATMOSPHERE
EARTH'S SURFACE
(300 cal/cm2/day)
short duration. The worldwide nature
of these climatic changes and the
simultaneous beginning and ending
of glaciations in all parts of the world,
Dr. B. P. Yadav
indicate a general cause for the
advance and recession of glaciers.
Variations in solar radiation, which
have been monitored, might be a
satisfactory general cause, but there
are no accurate records to prove their
existence. Another possible cause is a
variation in the tide-generating
forces, as a result of changes in the
distance of the moon and the sun
over a period of about 1700 years.
Thus a maximum tidal force
computed 1433 A.D. may have
broken up large quantities of ice in
the polar seas, thus increasing the
amount of drift ice. The great storms
and excessive rainfall of 12th to 14th
centuries in Europe were supposed to
have been caused by the increase of
tidal forces at that time. Solar activity,
however, may have been an equally
important factor.
The most notable climate events
in modern times were the dry periods
of the 16th century, the great increase
in mountain glaciers; the dry period
in Western Europe in the first half of
the 18th century; and the worldwide
rise of temperatures, alongwith the
recession of mountain glaciers, since
1850 till at least 1940.
Greenhouse Effects
Greenhouse is a building with a
glass roof and sides enclosing a space
in which temperature and humidity
can be controlled for cultivating
tender or out-of-season plants.
SPACE
(80 cal/cm2/day)
Absorbed by atmosphere
Long-wave radiation from Earth
(500 cal/cm2/day)
Greenhouse became popular in
Europe. The favourite crops were
pineapples, peaches and grapes; they
were grown in greenhouses.