Effectively, in less than 80 years from now, Mormugao town may not exist if the pace at which the climate is changing is not arrested. While the report states that Mormugao will be submerged along with other cities like Mumbai, Kandla, Okha, Bhavnagar, Mangalore, Cochin, Paradip, Khidirpur, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Tuticorin, we would be foolish to believe that the rise in sea level will spare the rest of coastal Goa and only concentrate on Mormugao. Very simply put, the entire coast of Goa is in danger of submerging under water and the NASA report has only confirmed what environmentalists and climate change activists have been saying for years.
Governments, present and past, have paid no attention to predictions such as these when environmentalists make the claims, but the NASA report is based on data from satellite and ground equipment, as well as analysis and computer simulation. Can it be ignored? As per the report, the average global surface temperature has risen by about 1.1 degree Celsius between 1850-1900, a level not seen since 1,25,000 years ago, before the most recent ice age. If the government does turn a deaf ear to this, then it is placing at peril the people and the land. Climate change is a reality and the effects are already being felt. The changes are not going to happen in the future, they are already occurring with a speed that is hard to fathom. They have be slowed, stopped and reversed. That is the task that the government has to undertake to keep the State, especially the coast, safe.
If you enjoyed reading this article, you can help support our journalism by adding OHeraldo as a preferred source.
Coming precisely to Goa, in recent weeks the State has experienced cyclone Tauktae that swept off the coast in May and then floods in July of the kind that the State has not seen for four decades. Both are weather phenomena that are not known to be common in the State. For that matter, cyclones originating on the west coast of India were rare in the past, but in the last five to seven years there has been at least one such each year that has not just originated off the west coast but also made landfall in India – Maharashtra and Gujarat bearing the brunt of the cyclone. The evidence is there, but the realisation that this can have dramatic and drastic effects on the land is yet to seep in. As a result, Goa takes no measures to beat climate change. In the sustainable development goals report released earlier this year, Goa was below the national average for climate change mitigation measures.
The NASA report further states that society’s continued reliance on fossil fuels is warming the planet at a rate that is unprecedented in the past 2000 years. The effects of releasing greenhouse gases and burning fossil fuels are leading to higher temperatures. Goa’s baby steps towards promoting electric vehicles may help reduce the use of fossil fuels, but the State would do well to increase the use of solar power wherever possible. Goa has to take climate change seriously failing which its future is at stake. It, however, cannot be just the efforts of one State, but the entire country and the entire world has to do its bit. Waiting for the other won’t bear results. Unless each State starts the process of climate change mitigation, there will be no slowing down of the effects. What Goa can do and should do is show the way forward, at least to the rest of the country.
