The tell-tale signs of climate change, which has cast a huge shadow on the future of planet earth, should be taken seriously and authorities need to draw up action plans to face the challenge, environment experts have said.
“The increase in the frequency of extreme weather events in recent times has been signaling the seriousness of the situation and the need to do something about it,” Emeritus Professor at the School of Earth,Ocean and Climate Sciences at IIT, Bhubaneswar, Prof. Uma Charan Mohanty said while addressing a seminar at the SOA Deemed to be University in Bhubaneswar yesterday.
Delivering the keynote address at the seminar on the theme ‘The Sun, The Earth and The Weather’, organised jointly by the Bhubaneswar chapter of Indian Meteorological Society and Centre for Environment and Climate (CEC) Prof Mohanty said extreme weather events like cyclones, floods, heat waves and droughts had shown an increasing trend between 1980 and 2000 indicating the impact of climate change on environment.
Former Director General of Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) Dr. Ajit Tyagi , said heat was on the rise due to anthropogenic reasons “but if it is allowed to rise, we will be in trouble.”
“Climate change is a huge challenge globally and there is an urgent need to work together and administrations need to draw up action plans to face this challenge,” Deputy Director at the Integrated Research and Action for Development (IRADe), New Delh Rohit Malhotra, said.
“Things are going to worsen further with climate change and every day the planet has been losing biodiversity with certain species getting extinct,” he said.
IRADe, Mr. Malhotra said, was in discussion with the Odisha State Disaster Mitigation Authority (OSDMA) and Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation (BMC) for preparation of a heat action plan for the capital city of Odisha which has been experiencing extreme heat during the summer.
“Precipitation has been varying from city to city and it is difficult to interpret what 20 cm of rainfall will cause to a city,” he said adding IRADe had so far conducted climate change programmes in six universities.
Universities, he said, should introduce more number of application oriented courses for which there was huge scope.
Prof. Mohanty said the weather and climate systems were complex and this science had no geographical barrier. “The earth’s climate system comprises of the atmosphere, oceans, cryosphere (ice) and biosphere (vegetation).
Human activity during the last 100 years has significantly altered the earth’s climate system,” he said.
Dr. Tyagi said the government, research institutes and civil society needed to work closely together to meet the challenge of climate change.
He said researchers should now think of how climate change would affect business in the next 15 to 20 years.
Dr. Sarat Chandra Sahu, Director of CEC, said over 2,500 people died in India due to lightning and thunderstorms annually while Odisha accounted for as high as 400 deaths. (UNI)
