SATURDAY, MAY 04, 2024
An intense storm caused travel havoc across the United Arab Emirates (UAE) recently. The UAE experienced its heaviest rains in the 75 years for which it has kept weather records, according to meteorological authorities.
In Dubai, operations at the airport, a global travel hub, were severely disrupted, while vehicles were submerged in poorly drained slip roads and tunnels, highlighting the vulnerability of the region’s financial centre to extreme weather.
Flood waters cascaded through malls last week, while in the most violent periods of the storm, furniture was hurled from balconies while the sky turned green. The rising waters flooded villas in the city’s desert outskirts, where residents were canoeing and jet-skiing along submerged roads.
Scientists have predicted that climate change will make the lower Gulf region hotter, more humid and more prone to flooding. The oil-rich UAE is seeking to reduce its dependence on exports of fossil fuels, the biggest contributor to global warming.
While the disaster struck many miles away, it certainly shows the way global warming has impacted each one of us, transgressing land boundaries, across the world. Who will know it better than we Indians, bearing the brunt of extreme climate events since the last 20 years.
Dubai receives about 3.7 inches of rain in a year, but within a day it received 5.7 inches, making it 1.5 years of rain in 24 hours. It reminded of the July 26, 2005 Mumbai deluge, caused by the eighth heaviest-ever recorded 24-hour rainfall figure of 944 mm (37.17 inches) in one day.
The highest 24-hour period in India was 1,168 mm (46.0 inches) in Aminidivi in the Union Territory of Lakshadweep on May 6. The previous record high rainfall in a 24-hour period for Mumbai was 575 mm (22.6 inches) in 1974.
Climatic changes have resulted in variations in the ecosystem, reducing the net productivity, resulting in encroachment of agricultural and construction lands, deprivation of natural habitats, alterations in migration times and routes, mixing of species, extinction, loss in biodiversity and impacts on livelihood.
Temperatures have increased on average by 0.2 °C in 20 years due to the growth of industries and the rise in population, and are predicted to increase by 0.8 °C in the upcoming time keeping in constant the activities of humans.
The effects of global warming can already be felt. The predicted increase in precipitation by 10–12% and rise in sea levels by nearly 50 cm has the potential to submerge several coastal cities in India like Mumbai, Chennai, Goa, Kochi, Daman, etc, putting nearly 35–50 million Indians at risk of death due to chronic flooding, shows a National Maritime Foundation report.
Statistics have shown that nearly 2–3 million people are forced to relocate from coastal regions to interiors in India every year and the numbers are increasing rapidly. Also, multiple floods, storms, and cyclones with high frequency have been recorded in the last few decades compared to the past.
Despite all this, we still are not ready to mend our destructive ways. Urbanisation and industrial development are increasing rapidly. These are accompanied by problems of population explosion, encroachment of agricultural, and construction lands, increased waste generation, effluent release, and escalated concentrations of several greenhouse gases and pollutants in the atmosphere.
This has led to wide-scale adverse impacts. Best example of all this destruction is Goa, which has been facing a lot of issues related to increased exploitation of resources, air, land and water pollution, etc.
Excessive exploitation of the State’s resources at the cost of Goa's pristine environment and its population is posing a threat not only to the clean and green environment, but also to wildlife. Building roads or creating settlement zones in eco-sensitive areas is causing human-animal conflict, with the displaced animals entering human settlements and endangering domesticated animals and destroying agricultural produce.
The killing of tigers in Mhadei Wildlife Sanctuary is the biggest example of this man-animal conflict.
Goa’s long coastline has been facing the threat of erosion. This includes some of the top beaches in the state like Anjuna, Keri-Tiracol, Morjim in North Goa and Agonda, Betalbatim, and Majorda in South Goa. Human factors like illegal sand mining and natural factors like flooding are the main reasons.
But instead of becoming the guardians of our environment, the political leadership has become the main perpetrator of its destruction, which is a shame. This is the situation around the world, where the political leadership is colluding with big corporate conglomerates and destroying the environment for their greed.
Looking at this situation, it is unlikely that we would be able to reverse this trend, which means more suffering is in store for the common people as the
frequency and intensity of extreme climate events will increase.
But it is still not too late to get our act together. For this. The policy makers and corporates have to shed their greed, the people have to put pressure on the elected representatives and also change their own habits.
