Puri beach reverberates with 'Blue Alert'

The Pioneer , Friday, March 28, 2008
Correspondent : Staff Reporter
In an effort to alert people regarding the global warming phenomenon, Greenpeace on Thursday joined internationally acclaimed sand artist, Sudarshan Patnaik here to highlight the threat to India's cultural heritage sites along the coastline from global warming induced sea level rise.

Sudarshan created miniatures of popular heritage monuments like the Jagannath Temple in Puri, the Shore Temple in Mammalapuram in Tamil Nadu and the Gateway of India in Mumbai on Puri's Golden Beach, poised to be washed away by high tide, symbolising sea surge, as cautioned by Greenpeace, if the rise in temperature is not kept below the 2 degree tipping point.

Sudarshan said he used seven tonnes of sand and took two days to prepare the seven feet high sculpture. "The issue of global warming is close to my heart. I imagine the kind of ruin rise in temperature would bring to the lives of millions of people. Flood, drought, water shortage, and sea surge would collectively devastate everything we have," Sudarshan said. "The impact of climate change is already evident and must not be allowed to go out of control. It chills my spine to even think that Orissa will create four million climate victims as estimated in Greenpeace report," he said

Greenpeace on Tuesday released Blue Alert and alerted the Indian Government and people of the subcontinent to the massive humanitarian crisis that the South Asian region could face. Blue Alert - Climate Migrants in South Asia: Estimates and Solutions, a paper authored by Professor of Humanities and Social Sciences at IIT Madras and climate expert Sudhir Chella Rajan estimates that the number of people who could be displaced from their homes are125 million in India and Bangladesh alone. The report has also warned that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow under the business-as-usual scenario as projected, leading to global temperature rise by 4-5°C, the South Asian region could face a wave of migrants displaced by the impacts of climate change, including sea level rise and drought associated with shrinking water supplies and monsoon variability. Chella Rajan, the author of the report, recommended that India should seek policy options that are proactive in terms of developing international strategies to reduce the risk of destructive climate change. We cannot wait for the inevitable to happen and hope to adapt to it."

Greenpeace climate and energy campaigner Vinuta Gopal said, "This is what is at stake if we fail to invest in fighting climate change today. The costs of the crisis are enormous, from whichever angle you look at it. Whether it is economic investments or cultural heritage or simply the humanitarian crisis, we have everything to lose and nothing to gain if we don't start mitigating now."

 
SOURCE : The Pioneer, Friday, 28 March 2008
 


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