Online chat illustrates low awareness level

Chennai equally vulnerable to after-effects

Awareness drive to target schoolchildren

CHENNAI: Chennai, it appears, is yet to warm up to the climate change discourse that the rest of the world is critically engaged in.

If the proceedings of a public online chat with experts on global warming conducted by the Directorate of Environment on Wednesday are anything to go by, levels of awareness are still very low.

So much so that both the Regional Meteorological Centre and the Tamil Nadu State Council for Science and Technology are now thinking in terms of a comprehensive awareness drive, starting with schoolchildren.

The most common doubts were over the sea level rise, coastal vulnerability and deforestation.

“Most of those who came online were inclined to blame the government rather than own up individual responsibility. Not that there is a need to press the panic button, but we need to be on guard as we too would be vulnerable if Bangladesh is affected. Sea levels along the Tamil Nadu coastline are likely to rise by 0.8 metres over a period of time, leading to the possible submersion of a few islands around Chennai,” says S.R. Ramanan, Director, Cyclone Warning Centre, who responded to questions on the chat.

Though the fourth annual report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), convened by the United Nations Environment Programme and the World Meteorological Organisation, indicates that India would be one of the countries likely to be worst affected by climate change, not much attention has been focussed on peninsular India, leading to a sense of complacency, environmental analysts say. The draft national policy on climate change, which is being put together by the National Council for Climate Change, needs to factor in more of the southern landmass as the fragile and porous coastline is imminently vulnerable to erosion and inundation, they aver.

Imagine this: the rising sea level claiming a substantial landmass around Adyar river, an increased high tide line, the Marina coastline getting submerged by about one metre to three metres, causing the seawater to enter land, while elsewhere large tracts of lands become deserts.

“One of the characteristics of climate change is that it will hasten evaporation and evapotranspiration of surface water (thus drying out water-scarce areas) and increase water levels in areas where there is more water (thus leading to submerging and inundation of land) If the Marina coastline sinks by even one km, it could be potential disaster,” says M. Karmegam, former director, Centre for Water Resources, Anna University.

Action critical

Awareness and affirmative action are critical.

“We will soon be reaching out to Corporation schoolchildren,” says Mr. Ramanan while the TNSCST will submit a proposal to the Department of Science and Technology to launch a sustained campaign to identify partner institutions.

“We will also motivate researchers to monitor meteorological parameters (for global warming) in Tamil Nadu,” says S. Vincent, member-secretary