Nov. 17: The totality of climate change’s effect on the globe are going to be drastic and the term "climate change" is "more passive" as compared to its effect. A biologist and practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, Dr John Stanley wants "climate emergency" to replace the term climate change as the issue needs more urgent attention and mitigation measures.
The scientist was speaking on the theme "Climate Breakdown at the Third Pole: Effects of global warming on China, Tibet and India."
Dr Stanley, who has published over 90 papers in international scientific journals and carried out extensive review of global warming and "climate emergency", said the earth will bear effects of global warming much earlier than predicted by the intergovernmental panel on climate change reports. Citing wild fires of California to Australian drought, the scientist said, the North Pole ice cover has reduced by over 1.2 million square kilometre in the last three decades.
He said Arctic has witnessed ice loss in summers of 2007 and 2008, which has exposed one million square miles of open ocean. He said this loss is seven decades ahead of what IPCC has predicted. Highlighting on glacier meltdown, Dr Stanley said glaciers on Tibetan plateau and the Himalayas are melting at fast speed as a consequence of global warming.
He said large populations dependent on glacier-fed rivers in Asia — around 360 million on the Ganga and around 388 million on the Yangtze in China alone — will be affected.
