Seasonal migrations have been in practice for a long but now we will have to accommodate the swelling climate refugees. Climate is actually the pattern of variations in temperature, humidity, precipitation, wind, atmospheric pressure and meteorological differences of a particular region with an interval of thirty years. The climatic system is so affected by the global warming that a single incident on one nook immediately alters the lives of other regions. The thirty years pattern developed by The World Meteorological Organization (WMO) is practically no more in practice and needs to be revisited as year proceeded is totally different from the year preceded. Whether they are rain forests, monsoon, tropical savanna, humid subtropical and continental, oceanic, Mediterranean and subarctic climate, tundra, steppe, polar icecap or they are the deserts, all are rapidly changing. History may repeat itself but climate is likely not going to. Severing cold and resurrecting hot have become the course of climate.
The British Ministry of Climate Change has forecasted that the year 2016 will be the warmest year and the temperature will possibly remain above 1.1 Celsius. Out of the total global surface, around 33 percent is arid and semi-arid whereas the rest is water. Since 1990, the seas’ level has risen up to 15 cm. And since 1980, more than ten times greater part of ice than the size of Britain has melted. In the last 110 years, more than nine thousand gaga tons ice of Greenland has melted. Annually, it melts at the speed of more than 186 gaga tons since 2003. Algal biomass has declined around 40 percent since 1950 due to oceanic warming. The ecosystem is disturbed. Many species have been wiped out and countless are on the verge of extinction.
Climate is shaping and bending all the novel developments in the world. The intensified carbon dioxide concentration and other heat trapping gasses in the atmosphere have warmed the earth. Rising of seas, protracted floods, hasty melting of snow and ice, extreme heat strokes, fires, droughts and heavy rainfall have not occurred on their own but have been caused due to humans’ besieging of nature.
During 2015, more than ten million acres of forests have been burnt due to wildfires only in the USA. The survival of all things is tied with the climate. The saddest part is that all the naïve and peace loving creatures will also bear the brunt of humans’ inhuman activities.
Change in the usual practices of rain and temperature has altered the blooming of plants, ripening of fruits and reaping of crops. Severe typhoons and hurricanes are imminent. After the industrial revolution, nuclearization has proven to be detrimental to nature. The incumbent century is actually a transition from bad to worst. Its end will be totally different from its start.
From the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change which was incepted in 1992 till the 2015 Paris Climate Change Conference COP21, all such conferences are none more than international tea parties. The Montreal protocol has failed to discourage the production and consumption of ozone depleting chemicals. Just ten countries are collectively emitting more 70 percent of the total carbon dioxide emmissions but the whole world is paying its cost. What a grave injustice as it is development at the cost of other countries’ underdevelopment! Under the Paris agreement, the attendants have decided to maintain the world temperature up to 2.7 Celsius till 2100 but it is only possible if the agreed plan is fully acted upon. If the present policies are continued, the temperature will rise to 3.6 Celsius by 2100 and if no measures are taken, it will rise to 4.5 Celsius. It means complete destruction without an atomic war. It means water all around. And it means floating corpses everywhere.
Precipitation (drizzle, rain, sleet, graupel, snow or hail) occurs when a portion of the atmosphere is saturated with water vapour and has totally deviated from its previous pattern. We are facing sudden rainfalls and untimely hailstorms. But we must remember that precipitation is very fundamental. Neither the water cycle is completed nor is fresh water is deposited without it.
The problem is that politics around the globe depends on corporate money. It is reined how they pull it. The stock market value of coal, oil and gas companies is more than $5 trillion whereas the value of renewable energy is just $300 billion. This is a huge gap. Unfortunately, hardly anyone is sincerely calculating climate risks. Winter has become fully short in the South Asian region. Presently, Pakistan is witnessing the shortest winter of its history. Biodiversity is at stake. Food and fashion are abruptly changing affecting the markets and incomes.
India which is currently producing 5 GW of electricity via solar energy has planned to increase it to 100 GW by 2022. China and the US are also augmenting it. But what if the sun also becomes cold and the oceanic tides become uncontrollable? Well, if this surge is continued swiftly, keeping in view and balancing the demands of fatly growing population and greedy corporates, the dependence on coal, oil and gas will be reduced. If this is achieved, this will be a good shift toward clean energy, clean environment and clean world.
Carbon pricing is another good solution to discourage carbon emissions. In order to reduce the thick pollution in the city, the Delhi government in India has started an odd-even number formula under which only those vehicles will operate having odd numbers plates and the next day only those having even number plates. Toyota, the world’s largest car manufacturing company, has decided to completely end oil based production by 2050 and to shift it on a clean energy mechanism.
Heavy plantation is indispensable. Paulownia, a plant which is hardwood, fireproof, drought tolerant, insect tolerant, wind tolerant and rot resistant is much cultivated in China, Japan and Korea. China is planting it on 150,000 acres per year as it absorbs carbon dioxide ten times greater than any other plant. If carbon emissions are not cut, in the years coming, we should be ready to add the climate refugees in the list of migrants, IDPs, immigrants and asylum seekers etc. And this time, this move will be from North to South and urban to rural.
