Climate Change and Global Warming-in simple terms
Climate change is here and a present danger to all of us is now established basis analysis of data of last 80 years.
We all know and are experiencing/observing
i) The discomfort caused by particulate matter in the air that we breathe. That is what, combined with ambient temperature, causes the smog that we see.
ii) Green House Gases (Carbon Dioxide, Methane and Nitrogen) are trapping heat close to the earth which is resulting in temperatures rising.
iii) Of course all of the climate control devices like air conditioners that we use (the heat that these generate when cooling indoors) and the concrete Islands that we have built in our towns,
when coupled with lack of greenery is resulting in heat islands (that translates into ambient temperatures in certain pockets being higher than open spaces). The earth is experiencing similar heat island effect with Green House Gases.
iv)Summers are becoming longer and that also resulting in lower crop yields because of this change in climatic conditions.
All of the above has been brought out so forcefully in the Synthesis Report of the IPCC (Inter Governmental Panel on Climate Change) in its report released during the current week.
i)Our blog ‘Climate Change and Global Warming’ of July 12, 2013 for more
ii)Economic Policy Instruments for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions formation of September 29, 2011
Watch a short film titled” Adapting to Climate Change in the Himalayas - Jhelum Basin experiences” at
Photo by Mousree Ganguli, taken two days before the flash floods of Uttarakhand last year