Environment damage – causes and solution

Climate Change

Human activity primary cause for environment damage

by  Jayanthi Raghunathan at Stockholm

There is a famous phrase around the Scandinavian countries: “there is nothing called bad weather but just bad clothing.” For these outdoorsy people, weather does not stop any of their activities. But perhaps this phrase would no longer hold true with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that has recently released an alarming report on the climate trends of the future.

Leaving aside the pandemic, last year has been about climate extremity across the globe. In fact, the pandemic put a lid on the boiling crisis of climate and helped the earth to rejuvenate itself. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a United Nations climate science research group, released the first instalment of the Sixth Assessment Report (AR6). This report is strongly worded: “human activity is ‘unequivocally’ driving the warming of atmosphere, ocean and land.” Unequivocal, the harshest term that the IPCC report has used and, for the first time, pointed out human activity as the primary cause for climate change. This report comes eight years after the AR5 report and this period has provided almost a decade worth of data to layout and compare facts. It has come right in time before the COP26 climate meet in Glasgow where countries gather to track progress against targets set during the Paris Climate Agreement, 2015 and to set new goals.

During the Paris Climate Agreement, countries had pledged to maintain growth in the earth’s temperature well below 2°C in this century and then pursue efforts to keep it under 1.5°C compared to the pre-industrial era temperature. Most of the countries are way behind their individual commitments. This report clearly points out that in all probable scenarios, both these targets will be missed in this century unless immediate and large-scale steps to cut carbon emission are right now taken.

The report states that the past five years have been the hottest on record since 1850 and the global surface temperature was 1.09°C higher in the decade between 2011 and 2020 than between 1850 and 1900. It also sounds the  alarm that the sea level rise has almost tripled compared with 1901–1971.

What is Climate Change?

Climate is a very vast and complicated system impacted by several different natural phenomena. It is constantly changing, but from the past, there is evidence that the change has been accelerating due to human activity. From the start, human race has been transforming the natural system to suit its needs. Every time such an activity is performed, carbon-di-oxide, methane and other greenhouse gasses are emitted. These emissions float around the atmosphere trapping heat from escaping the earth and in turn heating up the earth.

The climate system has tipping points that act as a threshold, which when crossed cannot be reversed. After a tipping point is reached, climate changes become unpredictable and it cannot be reset to the previous form. This makes it necessary to take concerted actions to ensure the balance of the system.

Who is responsible?

Industrial Revolution (1850 to 1900) has been the greatest contributor to climate change. The carbon emitted by fossil-fuelled powered growth has left a CO­2 concentration of 419 ppm. Today, an average human contributes about 5 tonnes of CO­2 with substantial difference between rich and poor countries.

Historically, the United States was responsible for over a quarter of emissions, followed by China. Along with Russia, Germany and the United Kingdom, these five countries account for 60 per cent of historical emissions.

As per 2018 data, China tops the world in fossil CO­2 emissions, followed by the USA, India, Russia and Japan in top 5 positions. But when we calculate the per-capita emission, the list changes with the US ranking 4^th, Russia ranking 7^th, Japan ranking 8^th, China ranking 13^th and India Ranking 21^st.

Historically high emitting countries have become developed economies today and the stress of balancing development and environment falls on the developing economies. But climate is a phenomenon in which it is not just the polluter that is affected but the entire ecosystem of the earth is damaged. This report clearly states that the warming that has been caused by humans has already made serious changes to our climate systems that are irreversible over centuries to millennia. This means that the oceans will continue to become warmer and more acidic. Mountains and polar glaciers will continue to melt for decades and centuries. Forest fires, cyclones, floods, droughts and other climate catastrophes that usually happen once in a hundred years will become an annual affair.

How will India be affected by the climate change?

India has promised to reduce emissions, intensity of its GDP by 33-35 per cent by 2030 from the 2005 levels. It has also committed to achieve about 40 per cent cumulative electric power installed capacity from non fossil-fuel based energy resources by 2030, create an additional carbon sink of 2.5 to 3 billion tonnes of CO­2 equivalent through additional forest and tree cover by 2030. Of these promises, India has reached 95.9 GW of renewable energy resource of the 175 GW committed by 2022 and 450 GW by 2030.

India is ranked seventh in global climate risk index of 2019 and the AR6 reports points to rising sea levels, unprecedented cyclones, heatwaves, droughts and floods as major climate catastrophes that India will face. Global sea level rise of 2m by the end of this century and 5m rise by 2150 is expected. Using this data, NASA has identified 12 cities along the Indian coast that may go down at least three feet below water by the end of the century. The cities Kandla, Okha, Bhavnagar, Mumbai, Mormugao, Mangalore, Cochin, Paradip, Khidirpur, Vishakapatnam, Chennai and Tuticorin.

What next?

The high-end technology and vast data have helped the IPCC to ascertain some major facts that cause climate change and also to predict the future. Though the AR6 report signals a code red, scientists are hopeful that if globally emissions are cut by half by 2030 and reaches net zero by 2050, then it would be possible to halt and perhaps reverse the rise in temperature. Reaching a net zero carbon emission means immediately reducing greenhouse gas emissions as much as possible, using clean, green technology, finding new carbon capture technologies and, most importantly, planting trees or developing more carbon sinks.

This report has a condensed version called Summary for Policymakers that highlights the current state, possible future risk assessment and prevention detailed in non-technical terms. It has come right in time before the COP26 climate meet scheduled in November where world leaders meet to discuss the same. This is a warning bell at the right time to act swift.

by Jayanthi Raghunathan at Stockholm