Climate change: A global issue
Saturday, 6 October 2007
Ripan Kumar Biswas
Over 100 fishing trawlers, with some 1200 fishermen aboard, went missing in the Bay of Bengal due to high waves triggered by a sudden storm on September 20, 2007.
On its part Bangladesh frequently faces such odds of nature not only for its geographical position but also for the rapid changing of world climate which is largely caused by human activity.
Which underlining the need for striking a balance between mitigation and adaptation, Chief Adviser of the caretaker government of Bangladesh, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, appealed to the world leaders, policy makers, scientists and environmental activists to take drastic measures against the rise of global temperature and sea-level while he was delivering a lecture as co-chairman at a recent seminar on the "Challenges of Adaptation--From Vulnerability to Resilience."
The seminar was a part of daylong deliberations on 'High Level Event on Climate Change' at the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2007.
The event has not been simply an occasion for negotiations. It is meant to express the political will of the world leaders at the highest level to tackle the challenge of climate change through concerted action, said the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the chair at the closing session of that daylong deliberation.
The effort began at the UN headquarters in New York to seek to, at least, make world leaders aware of the role greenhouse gases play in warming the earth and the need to address the problem, to secure a political commitment and to build momentum for the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Bali, Indonesia on December 3 to 14, 2007, where negotiations about a new international climate agreement will start. However, the question remains unanswered whether the greenhouse gases (mainly CO2 produced by power plants and cars) are a primary cause or not for the climate change.
Among others California Governor and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger and former US Vice President Al Gore joined more than 70 world leaders to help spur global negotiations on how to cool the warming planet. Rich and poor countries, as they acknowledged, have differing responsibilities about to global warming, but it is time to stop the blame game. However, they are not interested to look back at the Kyoto Protocol which has also been rejected by the US President George W. Bush.
The 1997 Kyoto deal requires 36 industrial nations including the United States to reduce heat-trapping gases produced by power plants and other industrial, agricultural and transportation sources by an average 5.0 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Sixteen countries that together represent 85% of the global economy and 80% of global greenhouse-gas emissions are more or less responsible for rising temperature, according to the environment scientists.
This includes the leading "western" economies and large "developing" ones such as China, India and Brazil. Sadly, it does not include the countries that are most at risk from the impacts of climate change: countries like Bangladesh and most African nations that do not have the funds to build dykes and grow drought-resistant crops.
In much of South Asia, the irony of climate change is that it has led to a situation where there is too little water in some places and too much in others. The summer runoff from mountain glaciers that now provides most of the drinking water to 40 per cent of the world's population is rapidly disappearing. And so are myriad inhabitants, forced to leave the land that their families tilled for generations.
In Bangladesh, refugees who can no longer farm on the drowning coastal land are making inward to cities already crammed with the jobless and desperate people. Smaller than Illinois in the US, Bangladesh has 152.6 million people, half of the US population. Imagine what it will be like in 50 years, when the Bay of Bengal is predicted to cover 11 per cent of Bangladesh's land.
According to some estimates, a one-meter sea level rise would submerge about one-third of Bangladesh's total area, uprooting 25-30 million people. Country's recent flooding is one of the worst ones in recent times as more than one-third of the country was inundated. But in the face of such a deluge, there is little that Bangladesh can do to prevent this natural disaster.
The one-day gathering at the UN headquaters was meant to send a "strong political message" about the urgency of the problem of curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, according to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
According to a recently released study by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC), the extent of sea ice now stands at 4.18 million square kilometers (1.61 million square miles). This represents an increase of 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) compared to the value of 4.13 million square kilometers (1.59 million square miles) five-day running mean extent, observed on September 16, which appears to be the 2007 minimum. The increase reflects the end of the Arctic summer and the onset of winter.
However, the NSDIC also noted: The minimum for 2007 shatters the previous five-day minimum set on September 20-21, 2005, by 1.19 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles), roughly the size of Texas and California combined, or nearly five United Kingdoms."
Because oceans are so dark compared to sea ice, the immense open water areas, north of Siberia, absorbed a great deal of the sun's energy through summer, hence heating the upper ocean. As the sun begins to set in autumn, this heat stored in the ocean starts to be released back to the atmosphere, which increases air temperatures. Hence, the anomalous lack of sea ice is itself partly responsible for the unusually high temperatures.
On September 17, 2007 the Arctic ice pack reached its lowest level since measurements have been taken. Glaciers are melting and the world's weather patterns are changing.
In addition, leaders in the discussion also emphasised the need to stimulate the development and deployment of clean, low-carbon energy technologies to balance environmental protection with economic growth and also to balance public and private sector involvement in clean energy growth.
No problem is as complex, or as potentially catastrophic for the industry, as the rising temperatures in the world's oceans and atmosphere. It is time for action. The world needs adaptation to climate change, because irrespective of what one can do, everybody will have to live with change in the climate.
Adaptation alone can not cope with all the projected impacts of climate change. Hence, a mix of strategies is needed, including adaptation and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
The writer is a freelance writer based in New York and can be reached at e-mail: [email protected]
Over 100 fishing trawlers, with some 1200 fishermen aboard, went missing in the Bay of Bengal due to high waves triggered by a sudden storm on September 20, 2007.
On its part Bangladesh frequently faces such odds of nature not only for its geographical position but also for the rapid changing of world climate which is largely caused by human activity.
Which underlining the need for striking a balance between mitigation and adaptation, Chief Adviser of the caretaker government of Bangladesh, Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, appealed to the world leaders, policy makers, scientists and environmental activists to take drastic measures against the rise of global temperature and sea-level while he was delivering a lecture as co-chairman at a recent seminar on the "Challenges of Adaptation--From Vulnerability to Resilience."
The seminar was a part of daylong deliberations on 'High Level Event on Climate Change' at the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2007.
The event has not been simply an occasion for negotiations. It is meant to express the political will of the world leaders at the highest level to tackle the challenge of climate change through concerted action, said the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the chair at the closing session of that daylong deliberation.
The effort began at the UN headquarters in New York to seek to, at least, make world leaders aware of the role greenhouse gases play in warming the earth and the need to address the problem, to secure a political commitment and to build momentum for the UN Climate Change Conference to be held in Bali, Indonesia on December 3 to 14, 2007, where negotiations about a new international climate agreement will start. However, the question remains unanswered whether the greenhouse gases (mainly CO2 produced by power plants and cars) are a primary cause or not for the climate change.
Among others California Governor and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger and former US Vice President Al Gore joined more than 70 world leaders to help spur global negotiations on how to cool the warming planet. Rich and poor countries, as they acknowledged, have differing responsibilities about to global warming, but it is time to stop the blame game. However, they are not interested to look back at the Kyoto Protocol which has also been rejected by the US President George W. Bush.
The 1997 Kyoto deal requires 36 industrial nations including the United States to reduce heat-trapping gases produced by power plants and other industrial, agricultural and transportation sources by an average 5.0 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
Sixteen countries that together represent 85% of the global economy and 80% of global greenhouse-gas emissions are more or less responsible for rising temperature, according to the environment scientists.
This includes the leading "western" economies and large "developing" ones such as China, India and Brazil. Sadly, it does not include the countries that are most at risk from the impacts of climate change: countries like Bangladesh and most African nations that do not have the funds to build dykes and grow drought-resistant crops.
In much of South Asia, the irony of climate change is that it has led to a situation where there is too little water in some places and too much in others. The summer runoff from mountain glaciers that now provides most of the drinking water to 40 per cent of the world's population is rapidly disappearing. And so are myriad inhabitants, forced to leave the land that their families tilled for generations.
In Bangladesh, refugees who can no longer farm on the drowning coastal land are making inward to cities already crammed with the jobless and desperate people. Smaller than Illinois in the US, Bangladesh has 152.6 million people, half of the US population. Imagine what it will be like in 50 years, when the Bay of Bengal is predicted to cover 11 per cent of Bangladesh's land.
According to some estimates, a one-meter sea level rise would submerge about one-third of Bangladesh's total area, uprooting 25-30 million people. Country's recent flooding is one of the worst ones in recent times as more than one-third of the country was inundated. But in the face of such a deluge, there is little that Bangladesh can do to prevent this natural disaster.
The one-day gathering at the UN headquaters was meant to send a "strong political message" about the urgency of the problem of curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, according to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
According to a recently released study by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC), the extent of sea ice now stands at 4.18 million square kilometers (1.61 million square miles). This represents an increase of 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) compared to the value of 4.13 million square kilometers (1.59 million square miles) five-day running mean extent, observed on September 16, which appears to be the 2007 minimum. The increase reflects the end of the Arctic summer and the onset of winter.
However, the NSDIC also noted: The minimum for 2007 shatters the previous five-day minimum set on September 20-21, 2005, by 1.19 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles), roughly the size of Texas and California combined, or nearly five United Kingdoms."
Because oceans are so dark compared to sea ice, the immense open water areas, north of Siberia, absorbed a great deal of the sun's energy through summer, hence heating the upper ocean. As the sun begins to set in autumn, this heat stored in the ocean starts to be released back to the atmosphere, which increases air temperatures. Hence, the anomalous lack of sea ice is itself partly responsible for the unusually high temperatures.
On September 17, 2007 the Arctic ice pack reached its lowest level since measurements have been taken. Glaciers are melting and the world's weather patterns are changing.
In addition, leaders in the discussion also emphasised the need to stimulate the development and deployment of clean, low-carbon energy technologies to balance environmental protection with economic growth and also to balance public and private sector involvement in clean energy growth.
No problem is as complex, or as potentially catastrophic for the industry, as the rising temperatures in the world's oceans and atmosphere. It is time for action. The world needs adaptation to climate change, because irrespective of what one can do, everybody will have to live with change in the climate.
Adaptation alone can not cope with all the projected impacts of climate change. Hence, a mix of strategies is needed, including adaptation and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
The writer is a freelance writer based in New York and can be reached at e-mail: [email protected]