Taking on climate change urgently

Climate change is the most-talked-about issue of the present time. The impacts of climate change have already affected agriculture, human health, ecosystem, water supplies and livelihood of a large number of people. The striking feature of observed impacts is that these are occurring everywhere from the tropics to the poles, from small islands to large continents and from the wealthiest countries to the poorest. People, societies and ecosystems on the planet are vulnerable and the effects vary depending on places and countries. "The planet is poised for a disaster. Forests will get burned, cities will see floods and infrastructure will collapse under the impact of a warming climate. The climate change will also lead to increased food security and even wars over resources," says a report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was set up by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).
National and international seminars on climate change are held in different countries on different occasions. But we do not come across any action-oriented swift programme that can tackle and counter the adverse effects of climate change. As a result, developed and richest countries of North America were affected by the abnormally freezing weather during the last winter. China and the USA are the two great greenhouse gas emitters. A comprehensive approach to addressing the problem of climate change remains mired despite emergency calls from eco-scientists, ecologists and the concerned communities around the globe.  
Climate change will hit hard underdeveloped and developing countries in the coming century. Less-rainfall will prevail, drought-prone areas will become drier, wet tropical areas will be more wetter and abnormal weather like high temperature will continue unabated and all these will contribute to cyclones, storms, tornados, tidal bores and tsunami in low-lying areas of the poorest countries. Combating climate change should be the number one challenge for the world leaders to save the planet from an imminent human-made ecological catastrophe.
Different research organisations and climate scientists unanimously forecast and projected that by 2020 about 500 to 750 million people would be faced with water-related problems. Low-lying coastal regions including Bangladesh are vulnerable to a sea-level rise under the impact of climate change.
The overwhelming majority of scientists who study climate change agree that human activity is responsible for the changing climate. The United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is one of the largest bodies of international scientists ever assembled to study a scientific issue, involving more than 2,500 scientists from more than 130 countries. The IPCC has concluded that most of the warming observed during the past 50 years is attributable to human activities. Its findings have been publicly endorsed by the national academies of science of all G-8 nations, as well as those of China, India and Brazil.
The climate change, a global problem, needs to be tackled by swift action plans jointly by developed, developing and underdeveloped countries alike. The causes of climate change have been identified by climate scientists and eco-geologists as human activities, burning of fossil fuels, use of chemical fertilisers, industrial advancement, deforestation, melting of glaciers, volcanic eruptions, depletion of ozone layer, air and water pollution and green house gas effect. The planet is showing the signs of record heat, drought, storms, tornados, tsunamis, fire and other types of extreme weather.
According to a science magazine, with the climate change happening, the wild fire situation is getting worse in the west. Across the western United States, wildfires grew bigger and more frequent in the past 30 years, according to a new study that blames climate change and drought for the worsening situation. "It's not just something that is localised to forest or grasslands or deserts," said lead study author Phil Dennison, a geographer at the University of Utah. "Every region in the West is experiencing an increase in fire. These fire trends are very consistent with everything we know about how climate change should impact fire in the West," Dennison told the Live Science.
It is now the appropriate time to take action. Climate scientists, ecologists and climate researchers after spending a lot of time on studies and researches, have come up with specific options to mitigate the impacts of climate change. These are: forgoing fossil fuels and coal-powered energy, upgrading infrastructure, moving closer to work to reduce use of transport fuels, replacing fossil fuels by clean and environment-friendly energy, stopping deforestation and planting more and more trees around the whole planet.  World leaders, climate scientists and people at large can do a plenty of things to that end.
The basic science of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and global warming makes the approach to climate change mitigation fairly straightforward. Science dictates that emissions of carbon dioxide must stop. In fact, all anthropogenic sources of GHGs must be progressively cut. Although the majority of citizens in the developed nations of the world acknowledge the reality of global warming and the serious consequences of climate change, a very large proportion of them remains poorly informed and confused about the science. Therefore, leadership on climate change solutions is urgently required - and this opportunity is macroscopic for all dealing with climate change, global warming and clean energy in both developed and developing countries.
Bangladesh, a developing country in South Asia, is highly vulnerable to climate change due to many reasons, not limited to its geological and geographical position on the world map. Climate change is an extremely crucial issue and according to the National Geographic, Bangladesh is the number one nation in terms of exposure to the adverse impacts of climate change in the coming decades. According to the German Watch's Global Risk Index-2011, Bangladesh is most vulnerable to the global climate change. Deforestation has taken place in this small country without reforestation while population boom, unplanned industrialisation, unplanned urbanisation and green house gas emitted by industrially-developed nations have severely affected the country. Deforestation is a double blow for Bangladesh. Trees help regulate the climate by absorbing CO2 from the atmosphere and an immense amount of carbon is stored in the world's forests. When forests are lost, the carbon stored in the trees is released into the atmosphere as CO2, adding to the greenhouse gas effect. On top of that, when a forest is destroyed, it can no longer absorb CO2 from the atmosphere. Bangladesh should take steps to stop deforestation and plant trees throughout the whole country, stop soil erosion by dredging rivers and canals and make water reservoirs like lakes, ponds and bore-holes for the dry season. The recent highest temperature of Bangladesh (highest in 53 years) is a clear sign of the adverse effect of climate change and an awakening signal to the state policy-makers of the country.
The writer is the Group
Financial Controller at a
private group of industries.
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