Greenpeace report warns of climate change impacts

South Asian region could face a wave of migrants displaced by the impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise and drought

MUMBAI: Climate change is the biggest environmental threat faced by South Asia and it may well be the biggest humanitarian and economic challenge that the developing world will have to face in the coming decades. According to a Greenpeace report released in Mumbai on Tuesday, the cascading effects of climate change and global warming will aggravate by the end of the century. As far as India is concerned, Mumbai and Kolkata would be the worst-hit cities.

The report Blue Alert prepared by Mr Sudhir Chella Rajan of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Chennai, says, “The report, Blue Alert, has been prepared by Sudhir Chella Rajan from the department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai. It claims that if global temperatures rise by about 4-5C in the course of the century, South Asian region could face a wave of migrants displaced by the impacts of climate change, including sea-level rise and drought associated with shrinking water supplies and monsoon variability.
 
“According to the research conducted at NASA, the sea level will rise by around five meters. Once this happens, major parts of Mumbai and Kolkata would be submerged under water,” said Brikesh Singh, a Greenpeace campaigner. According to the study, areas like Marine Drive, Race Course, Mumbai Central railway station, Sasoon Dock, Mazgaon Dock, part of Bandra Kurla Complex, Mira Bhayander, Juhu Airport and part of JVPD will be under water.

“Forget sea-level rising to five meters, the cascading effects of global warming would be visible even if the sea-level rises to one meter. In fact, the effects have already been seen in many areas along the coastline of the city,” said a former campaign director of Greenpeace, Ganesh Subramanian. The foundations of many buildings along the coast have started eroding and is a fallout of rising ocean temperature, Subramanian said. “This is the warning of nature, which we must understand and start action to at least delay the effects of climate change,” he said.

According to the report, about 50 million migrants, from densely populated coastal regions as well as other vulnerable parts of India could be rendered homeless by the end of this century. Around 75 million people from Bangladesh are likely to immigrate to India, the report says.

“There is no choice but to change the mindless policies to achieve economic growth and check green house gas emissions to delay effects of global warming,” says Subramanian. Climate change is the most serious environmental problem South Asia has ever faced and, in the absence of early policy, action is likely to cause devastating social and economic problems for the region in the future.

The fact that it currently remains a low-priority issue for most policy makers, and is virtually unknown among the general public, is merely a reflection of the poor state of knowledge about its dangers.