KOLKATA, March 25: Look around you. Your house may soon be swallowed by the sea. According to a report released by Greenpeace, which has inputs from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Columbia University of the USA, West Bengal is one of the states in the country most vulnerable to climate change and a consequent rise in sea-water levels. Even if the sea rises by only as much as 2 metres by the middle of this century, Kolkata will be inundated. We are staring a man-made disaster in the face.
The 0.6°C rise in global temperatures is already having an impact, with freak weather reported from many parts of the world. During the course of the century, temperatures could rise by 4°C-5°C. Cities such as Mumbai and Kolkata are among the most vulnerable, as they are in low elevation coastal zones, at elevations of 2-10 metre. According to Prof. Sudhir Chella Ranjan, the author of the report titled Blue Alert and a professor at IIT Madras, the rise in temperatures will continue if countries across the globe do not take action now. "The reason for the continuing rise in global temperatures is carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. In pre-industry days, the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere was 280 parts per million. Now it is 380 parts per million, and by the end of the century, it would be 750 to 1,000 parts per million if emissions continue at the current rate," Prof. Ranjan said. As sea levels rise, large parts of the city and the state will increasingly go under water, forcing an estimated 10 million in the state to migrate in the course of the century. "But as the climate is most unpredictable, this crisis could come sooner than we think, or later," Prof. Ranjan added.
The report also states that already burdened cities such as Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, and Pune, will see an influx of migrants from the coastal regions as well as from cities such as Kolkata and Mumbai. Criticising the Indian government's stand on climate change, Ms Divya Raghunandan, campaign director, Greenpeace India, said: "The Indian government has wrongly forsaken mitigation for adaptation (to climate change) and the forthcoming session of Parliament must debate this wisdom which has serious long term consequences. We have an opportunity to be world leaders at developing clean technologies. This is where the focus should be when the government announces its National Climate Action Plan in June."
