Introduction
This is a literature review about the effects of environmental pollution in India and the world in general, entitled as 'India starts work on climate action plan' as published in New Scientist magazine by New Scientist Environment and Reuters news agency, on 13th July 2007. It states that due to the rise in earth's temperature accelerated by human activity that this is leading towards 'Global Warming'. India's economy is growing rapidly, contributing towards global greenhouse-gas emissions. As it is a developing country, it is not required to reduce any emissions as agreed by the UN Kyoto Protocol. India formed a new committee known as the Council on Climate Change (CCC). It has different sectors in it, and mainly works towards increasing the energy efficiency, and to give scope to use renewable energy resources.
Smoothed annual anomalies of combined land-surface air and sea surface temperatures (°C), 1861 to 2000, relative to 1961 to 1990, for (a) Northern Hemisphere; (b) Southern Hemisphere; and (c) Globe. The smoothed curves were created using a 21-point binomial filter giving near-decadal averages. Optimally averaged anomalies (Folland et al., 2001) - solid curves; standard area weighted anomalies (adapted from Jones et al., 2001) - dashed curves. Also shown are the unsmoothed optimum averages - red bars, and twice their standard errors - width denoted by black "I". Note that optimum averages for the Southern Hemisphere are a little warmer before 1940, when the data are sparse, than the area-weighted averages. However, the two types of averaging give similar results in the Northern Hemisphere.
Background
Earth is a single planet in our solar system which has life on it, and all this is powered by the Sun. The Sun is a powerful, blazing star which radiates a lot of electro-magnetic energy in all directions. The Earth is a recipient of a small part of it. The Sun's energy keeps the earth warm and makes it possible to sustain life and it also generates clouds and cleanses the water. For decades NASA Scientists have been working on the relationship between Earth and the Sun. They studied solar power arriving to earth and breaking down into different wavelengths. Thirty percent of solar rays are reflected back in the sky by the things such as clouds, snow, ice, etc. Seventy percent of the energy will be absorbed by the earth as in the ocean, land and atmosphere and this will drive the climate on the earth. The Earth's energy is a delicate balance between incoming solar energy and the outgoing thermal energy.
Energy balance on the earth is imbalanced due to the Carbon Dioxide - CO2 and other green house gasses like Water Vapor - H20, Ozone - O3, Methane - CH4 and Nitrous Oxide - N2O in the atmosphere. As humans burn the fossil fuel, it increases the green-house gases in the atmosphere and the Earth's outgoing heat. It causes an increase in temperature on the earth known as 'Global Warming' and in future may be responsible for the melting of polar ice caps causing an increase in sea level and creating more violent global weather climate patterns.
"The fluctuations in the solar cycle impacts Earth's global temperature by about 0.1 degree Celsius, slightly hotter during solar maximum and cooler during solar minimum," said Thomas Woods, solar scientist at the University of Colorado in Boulder. "The sun is currently at its minimum, and the next solar maximum is expected in 2012."
When it is clear that climate is changing due to the human emissions of greenhouse gases it will lead to greater climate changes in the future. In 1990 the governments started to negotiate and debate, resulting in the international negotiations of the 'Kyoto Protocol'. It represents a pinnacle, "which sets specific binding targets for emissions of greenhouse gases from industrialized countries, together with an array of complex mechanisms to give flexibility in how they are implemented and to assist global efforts towards more sustainable development."
Analysis and Critical Review
India took the first step towards the climate action plan against the effects of Global Warming and assesses its greenhouse gas emissions. It formed a Council on Climate Action Plan on 30th June 2008, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh released India's first National Action Plan on Climate Change (NAPCC) outlining existing and future policies and programs addressing climate mitigation and adaptation. The plan identifies eight core "National Missions". It mainly represents the Core Negotiating Team, Technical Support Group, etc. and works towards achieving the goal set on climate change.
Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change
Research Agenda
Principal Scientific Adviser to GOI
Ministry of Science & Technology (Specific Units of MST/Other Ministries)
Core Negotiating Team (Multi-Ministry)
Coordination Unit for Implementation of National Plan of Action for Climate Change (MOEF)
Ministry Specific Agenda (Ministries)
Technical support Group (Multi- Ministry)
A Chart on Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change is shown above and the following are the eight core national missions.
National Solar Mission: It works towards the increase in the use of renewable energy and to reduce the fossil-based energy.
National Mission for Enhanced Energy Efficiency: It mainly focuses on the reduction in energy consumption in all fields.
National Mission on Sustainable Habitat: It concentrates on power production from waste and encouraging the purchase of efficient goods.
National Water Mission: Concentrating on improvement in water use.
National Mission for Sustaining the Himalayan Ecosystem: This mainly aims to conserve biodiversity, forest cover and other ecological values in the Himalayan region.
National Mission for a "Green India": Highly aims to re-forestation in degraded forest lands and to expand forest cover.
National Mission for Sustainable Agriculture: Providing more scope towards agricultural practices through climate-resilient crops, expansion of weather insurance mechanisms, etc.
National Mission on Strategic Knowledge for Climate Change: This plan envisions a new Climate Science Research Fund, improved climate modeling and increased international collaboration.
Climate change is a natural process that has been going on for millions of years, and the current climatic changes, have been just merely accelerated by human activity since the industrial revolution in the 19th century. From an economic point of view, I can understand the need for countries such as India, to increase economic output to increase the standard of living for the Indian population, however, it seems that the dilemma that not only India, but the whole world faces, is that if we do not take responsibility for our actions, to respect the planet's environment on a global scale collectively together, then this would upset the equilibrium of the 'earths' climate, and there would no longer be a global economy !
If India wishes not to make the same mistake as the United States, and risk contributing towards the inevitable demise of the 'Indian economy' through climate change, then it is extremely important that India, in its best economic interest and security, joins the world, in collectively contributing towards respecting the planet, and to reduce its carbon emissions as much, and as early as possible, otherwise the consequences are, that there will no longer be a sustainable world economy, let alone an Indian economy.
One other point that the Indian government must also take into account, when taking climate change into consideration, is that its current population growth at the current rate is unsustainable, as a rapidly increasing amount of the population, is putting more and more pressure on the environment, which is contributing towards accelerated 'climate change', which has enormous implications for all of us worldwide. As crops are either destroyed by drought or washed away by heavy rains and flooding increasing global food shortages.
One example of accelerated climate change and its effect on the environment is the rapid accelerated melting of the Himilayan glaciers in northern India, which recently contributed towards devastating floods in Pakistan, Bangladesh and India. This also has enormous implications for India not having enough water for its industrial output, as well as drinking water for its general population.
Conclusion
In regard to the above, my conclusion on the matter of 'climate change' is that it has always been, and always will be a natural process of the planet's evolution. Unless human activity can accept a considerable amount of responsibility for rapid acceleration of the Earth's climatic changes, since the industrial revolution, then the consequences of the planet's climatic changes can only become more severe, with category 5 hurricanes / cyclones becoming more frequent, causing devastating storms such as were seen recently with extremely cold weather in the northern hemisphere this past winter, as well as catastrophic flooding in Queensland, Australia, causing billions of dollars worth of damage to property, livestock and crops.
In recent years at climate change conferences such as Kyoto, Rio de Janeiro and Copenhagen, although many countries have pledged to reduce their greenhouse gases, not every country has been so forthcoming in reducing their carbon emissions. Until countries become less reliant on fossil fuels, and become more energy efficient with green technology, accelerated climate change due to human activity will always be a 'hot' political issue, as the political implications of climate change are enormous, if not enough food and water is available, to meet the needs of the world's population.
Unless all the world's nations take 'climate change' more seriously, there will always be the threat of countries becoming more politically unstable, due to rising food prices on the world's commodity markets, with the cost of wheat and rice increasing beyond the affordability of most of the world's population in the 'developing world '.
In summing up, on the above, it is in the best interests of all countries to reduce their pollution levels as soon as possible, and to find other alternative means of energy that is more environmentally friendly, so as to reduce the effects of global warming, so that future generations can live in a cleaner and safer world, without having to live with the threat of war, due to water and food shortages attributed by 'climate change'.
List of Reference:
John Houghton, (1994), "Global Warming The Complete Briefing", Cambridge University Press, Second Edition, Chapter 1 and 2.
Contribution of Working Group II to the third assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, (2001), "Climate change 2001 : impacts, adaptation, and vulnerability", edited by James J. McCarthy ... [et al.], Cambridge University Press, pp. 21-33, pp. 46-50, Chapter 11
Michael Grubb with Christiaan Vrolijk and Duncan Brack, (1999), "The Kyoto Protocol : A Guide and Assessment", Additional contributions from Tim Forsyth, John Lanchbery and Fanny Missfeldt, The Royal Institute of International Affairs, pp. xxxiii - xlii
Websites:
New Scientist, "India starts work on climate action plan", http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn12258-india-starts-work-on-climate-action-plan.html,
NASA, "Solar Variability: Striking a Balance with Climate Change",
http://www.nasa.gov/topics/solarsystem/features/solar_variability.html,
HOW DID HUMANS FIRST ALTER GLOBAL CLIMATE?, http://www.if.uidaho.edu/~johnson/ifiwrri/SciAmGlobal.pdf ,
The Greenhouse Effect,
http://www.ucar.edu/learn/1_3_1.htm
Science Direct, "Mapping vulnerability to multiple stressors: climate change and globalization in India",
http://www.sciencedirect.com,
James Wang, Ph.D., Bill Chameides, Ph.D., (APRIL 2007), "Are Humans Responsible for Global Warming? A REVIEW OF THE FACTS",
http://www.edf.org/documents/5279_GlobalwarmingAttributuion.pdf,
Council on Foreign Relations, "India's Council on Climate Change: National Action Plan on Climate Change",
http://www.cfr.org/india/indias-council-climate-change-national-action-plan-climate-change/p17167
Pew Center on Global Climate Change, "Summary: India's National Action Plan on Climate Change",
http://www.pewclimate.org/international/country-policies/india-climate-plan-summary/06-2008,
Daily Tech, "Blog: Science NASA Study Acknowledges Solar Cycle, Not Man, Responsible for Past Warming",
http://www.dailytech.com/NASA+Study+Acknowledges+Solar+Cycle+Not+Man+Responsible+for+Past+Warming/article15310.html,
Council on Foreign Relations, "Interview: India's Climate Change Forecast",
http://www.cfr.org/india/indias-climate-change-forecast/p20248,
Council on Foreign Relations, "United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change: Cancun Agreements, December 2010",
http://www.cfr.org/climate-change/united-nations-framework-convention-climate-change-cancun-agreements-december-2010/p23662,
Time News Feed, "After the Floods, the Category 5 Cyclone: Australians Panic As They Are Turned Away From Shelters",
http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/02/after-the-floods-the-category-5-cyclone-australians-panic-as-they-are-turned-away-from-shelters/
