LS debate on climate change tomorrow

The Asian Age , Monday, May 07, 2007
Correspondent : Staff Reporter
New Delhi, May 6: One of the most important and also one of the most unusual debates will take place in Parliament this week, when instead of scams, scandals, fake encounters or corruption the Lok Sabha will deliberate on the issue of global climate change, and the threat that it poses to India.

The initiative for this has been taken by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and the discussion has been scheduled for Tuesday. The MPs will have to focus on changes in temperature patterns, decreasing glaciers, frequent droughts and the possible catastrophes caused by these phenomena.

A pathbreaking report released by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) last month had warned that India and parts of Asia were among the most vulnerable regions in the world if urgent action was not taken globally to control the emission of greenhouse gases. On Friday, delegates at a UN con ference in Bangkok approved the world’s first roadmap for stemming the mounting greenhouse gas emissions, and warned that all countries must take stringent action to stabilise the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere by 2015 — just eight years from now —to keep global temperatures from rising more than 2ºC. India’s Rajendra K. Pachauri, the head of IPCC, had in April outlined the horrific scenario the world would face — including the meltdown of the Himalayan glaciers — if such a temperature rise happened.

Weather scientists have predicted that in the long run, if no effective steps are taken, India will face crises like water scarcities, floods, droughts and loss of species as a result of global warming. Apart from these, there is also the prospect of steep increases in the levels of malnutrition, diarrhoeal and cardio-respiratory diseases. An earlier IPCC report had warned that India and China would face excess mortality due to heat stress along with risk of dengue fever.

 
SOURCE : The Asian Age, Monday, May 07, 2007
 


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