Climate Change
The four cyclones that hit the eastern coast of India between 2019-21 – Fani, Amphan, Bulbul and Yaas – point to the increasingly unpredictable weather events in the Sundarbans caused by climate change and sea level rise.
https://science.thewire.in/environment/on-islands-swallowed-by-water-there-is-nowhere-else-to-go/
Sundarbans inhabitants have faced climate-induced displacement for decades. Lohachara was one of the first inhabited islands to disappear under the sea in 1996, forcing residents to relocate to neighbouring islands, often without documents or property deeds.
Women-led households in the Sundarbans are more common than in any other area in India because of distress migration.
Increasing salinity is a leading cause of reproductive health problems among rural women in the Sundarbans, including pelvic inflammation and urinary tract infections. The intersection of salinity, women’s health, and its effect on family systems and local economy remains an under-researched area that deserves urgent attention. The pressure on forest resources also amplifies man-animal conflict in the area. The Sundarbans, both in Bangladesh and West Bengal, are home to tiger widows, women whose husbands went into the Sundarbans reserve forest area for fishing or honey collection and were killed by tigers.
Climate disaster not only slows down the scope of recovery but exacerbates pre-existing vulnerabilities along the lines of caste and gender. For example, state relief in the area following climate disaster is often selective and contingent on existing land holdings, as research interviews with women who have witnessed state relief measures after Cyclone Amphan in the Sundarbans suggest.
by PIYA SRINIVASAN
30/01/2024
Keeping the global temperature increase within the 1.5°C target of the Paris Agreement will happen only if we rapidly phase out fossil fuels, the letter notes, adding that failure to do so can “lead to overwhelming health consequences".
This year, for the first time in the history of COPs, health is on the agenda. One day, December 3, will be dedicated to discussions on health alone.
This is because combustion of fossil fuels adds to carbon emissions that accelerate global warming and cause climate change. The latter also manifests in extreme weather events such as intense heat waves that are a threat to the health of both human and non-human species. Fossil fuel use also releases pollutants into the air, and these are known to cause direct impacts on human health. One of the pollutants is particulate matter (PM, or solid inhalable particles ranging from fine diameters of 2.5 mm to larger ones of 10 mm) and these are known to cause public health issues ranging from respiratory illnesses to cancers. According to the World Health Organisation, air pollution – which fossil fuels and other pollutants contribute – causes 7 million premature deaths annually.
“A full and rapid phase-out of fossil fuels is the most significant way to provide the clean air, water, and environment that are foundational to good health,” the letter said,
02/11/2023
But while India is indeed implementing some actions to achieve its goals (for instance, India has one of the most rapidly developing renewable energy sectors in the world) and is faring better than many other nations, it has much distance to cover to fulfil all its promises. The Climate Action Tracker, which tracks the climate actions of around 40 countries and their impacts, rates India’s overall climate action as “highly insufficient” (as per its last update, dated November 15, 2022).
India and its climate targets https://thewire.in/environment/modi-g20-india-paris-agreement-fact-check
Under the Paris Agreement of 2015, India submitted its first set of Nationally Determined Contributions. NDCs are a set of long-term goals to cut carbon emissions and adapt to climate impacts. Every country signatory to the Paris Agreement has to submit these NDCs, and update them every five years.
India’s first NDCs included decreasing emissions intensity of India’s GDP by 33-35% compared to 2005 levels by 2030; increase total cumulative electricity generation from clean energy sources to 40% by the same year (achieving 175 gigawatts of clean power by 2022 was a target to forward this); and create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tons through increasing forest and tree cover.
Though India is faring better at developing clean energy projects, it missed its 2022 renewable energy target of 175 GW.
24/06/2023
Tracking Carbon Emissions by Stanford Kay, 2011 https://mapdesign.icaci.org/2014/08/mapcarte-238365-tracking-carbon-emissions-by-stanford-kay-2011/ Posted on August 26, 2014
SS: in whatsapp comment: This is a clever way, in the current context, of making a decidedly misleading and dangerous argument more saleable.
India and China (or China and India?) are, the most vocal votaries of this argument in order to defend continued use of fossil fuels in general and coal in particular.
The most vulnerable small island countries threatened with imminent submurgence are the bitterest critics.
This logic also tries deflect from the huge domestic asymmetry in terms of carbon footprints.
Most importantly, this historic inequity has got to be factored in by making the already developed countries provide adequate (financial and technological) support to the developing ones to transit to low-carbon growth while themselves capping and reversing their emission levels.
But, humanity is facing an imminent doom.
It's decidedly easier to shape the future than amending the past.
All hands have got to be on deck.
Petty nationalism is a big impediment in tackling a truly global crisis.
JD: While I agree with Debi.. that it is a complex issue.. we cannot ignore the fact that countries like India are trying to re-shape and preempt global governance. You will recall that Indira Gandhi sent MA Qasim to Antartica just before the Law of the Sea negotiations. the same seems to be the case with the Moon/Space, while NASA is dishing out contracts, we to are trying to get a piece of the pie in the sky. Thew only difference is that the current sovereigns are trying to contract "international" common resources to private companies, who will demand a heavy price for what was "family silver". In the Case of Climate Change, the entire scam in India on coal, the contracts, as well as the power purchase agreements, threaten to be the stumbling blocs to international agreement, unless poor countries who suffer will pay the Adani's and e Musks of the world! Either way , they win, because they will be hailed as the carbon capitalists of the world....
The Monk | The Engineer | The Artificial Glacier | Ice Stupa | Sonam Wangchuk | Ladakh https://youtu.be/WC_JPSIoTPc
this is an updated version of the short film 'The Monk, The Engineer and The Artificial Glacier'. It has updates about the work on the pilot project carried out in Jan- Feb 2015, appended to the original film. Through the Ice Stupa Artificial Glacier Project, Ladakh attempts to solve its water crisis caused by melting glaciers/climate change.
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