Page 13 - 30NOV2018E

CoverStory ENVIRONMENT

he first Monday of November saw the air and the mudslides in Japan were equally horrify-
quality in Delhi dipping to its worst low of ing. Closer home, the dust storms in Rajasthan and
the season. Just two days before Diwali and the floods in Kerala were the worst reminders of
T barely a week after the Supreme Court put our continuous and atrocious indifference towards
cursory restrictions on the sale and use of crackers the environment that surrounds and sustains us.
in the national capital, the pollution levels inched Over the last thirty years there has been consist-
towards ‘severe plus emergency’ category due to ent warming over Indian landmass. It has been
change in wind direction and rampant stubble documented that the land-ocean thermal contrast
burning in neighbouring states. After breathing and the monsoon circulation have weakened dur-
the cleanest air in three weeks on the preceding ing the recent few decades, while the frequency
Sunday, people woke up to a gloomy Monday, with of cyclonic disturbances, tropical cyclones and
a thick haze covering the sky. According to the data severe tropical cyclones has reduced over the
from the Central Pollution Control board (CPCB), Indian Ocean as well as Bay of Bengal during the
the PM2.5 (particles in the air with a diameter less monsoon and post monsoon seasons. The overall
than 2.5 micrometers) and PM10 concentrations
touched 365 and 503 respectively. Most of the
NCR region recorded ‘severe’ pollution, with Gur-
gaon recording ‘very poor’ air quality. This is just For years, developing
another warning sign of the rapidly deteriorating
Indian climate in a year that was inundated with countries have
dust storms, floods and vast variations in daily
temperatures. faced the paradox of
The official sources attribute the sudden shift in
air quality to the change in direction of the wind curbing greenhouse
which has started blowing from the north-west
towards Delhi, thus bring with it dust and smoke emissions while
from stubble burning in the neighbouring states.
Despite several government measures, subsidies
and court orders to curb the burning of stubble sustaining the economic
residue at the end of harvest season, there has been
limited progress in controlling the harmful prac- growth required for
tice. Each year, the air quality deteriorates after
paddy is harvested, specially in states like Punjab development and
and Haryana. Most air monitoring stations are in
urban areas, while stubble is burned in rural areas. prosperity Pretending that
So far the states have not been able to put a reliable climate change isn’t
real is dangerous
mechanism in place to quantify the actual extent
of the problem. Despite the increase in forest fires,
dust storms and smog after harvesting, the ‘official’
Air Quality Index (AQI) has remained within ‘mod- monsoon does not show any significant change The recent report from the United Nation’s In- wrong direction. And as long as we’re emitting any
erate’ category in most of these regions. mainly because the decreasing trend in moder- tergovernmental Panel on Climate Change says at all, we’re only making the problem worse.
ate rain events has been compensated by an in- the world has just 12 years to get matters un -
CLIMATE CHANGE IS REAL: creasing trend in heavy rain events. India receives der control or the effects will be irreversible. If it STARTLING STATISTICS:
Pretending that climate change isn’t real, or doing almost 75% of the annual rainfall in the summer doesn’t, entire cities may have to be walled in to In the past 25 years , there is a raise of 0.2 degree C
nothing about it has landed trapped us in a vicious monsoon which plays a vital role in agriculture, protect them from sea-level rise; other cities may (24 degree C to 24.2 degree C) in the surface tem-
cycle which is getting increasingly tough to get out water resource management and power manage- simply have to relocate to areas where there is less peratures of the Indian landmass. The minimum
of. For decades, scientists have warned that climate ment. The survival of the large population as well flooding or drought.We’re also seeing with greater average temperature rose from 24.2 degree C to
change would make extreme events like droughts, as the economy of India depends highly on the clarity how these dangers are interlinked, building 24.5 degree C, a 0.3 degree C rise in just 15 years.
floods, hurricanes, and wildfires more frequent, quantity and distribution of rainfall received dur- upon one another toward perilous climate tip- Moreover, number of heavy rainfall events are
more devastating, or both. In 2018, we got an up- ing the summer monsoon season. A large year-to- ping points. And yet for all the growing risks, and increasing almost over the entire landmass. By
close look at the raw ferocity of such an altered year variability is characterised by years of excess the decades we’ve had to confront them, we have 2030s, data from the Ministry of Environment
world as high-category hurricanes, typhoons and and deficit monsoons. Deficit monsoons have large yet to address the problem in a meaningful way. In and Forestry (MOEF) projects 1.5-2oC warming
cyclone battered the the coasts of U.S. and South adverse impact on crop production, while it is ob- fact, despite all our climate policies, global accords, in the annual mean temperature over the Indian
East Asia while wind-whipped fires scorched Cali- served that excess monsoons do not compensate solar advances, wind farms, hybrid cars, and Teslas, landmass while winter and spring seasons show
fornia; the earthquake and tsunami in Indonesia for the loss in crop yield during droughts. greenhouse-gas emissions are still moving in the higher warming. The annual mean surface air

TEHELKA / 30 NOVEMBER 2018 12 WWW.TEHELKA.COM TEHELKA / 30 NOVEMBER 2018 13 WWW.TEHELKA.COM

10-23 22nd CStory.indd 4 11/15/2018 4:40:13 PM 10-23 22nd CStory.indd 5 11/15/2018 4:40:25 PM