Climate Change and its Impacts Regarding India

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Climate Change and its Impacts Regarding India

• Presentation By
• Jeff Horn and Grant Shelly

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• Issues of Consideration
• Climate extremes and El Nino
• Floods and droughts
• Sea level elevation and coastal flooding
• Agriculture and forestry impacts
• Freshwater loss
• Biodiversity loss
• Health related impacts use, respiratory diseases

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- Background -

• India is a country of 3.3 million sq. km,
  slightly more than one-third the size of of the
  US .
• It contains a population of 1,065,070,607
• The growth rate in India is 1.6 of the total
  population
• The economy is developing, labor force includes
  software, food processing, and textiles.
• Geography and climate vary from planes in the
  south,
• Deserts in the west, and Himalayas in the
  north.
• Source CIA World Fact Book

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- Emissions Facts -

• In 2002 India emitted 908 million tons of CO2.
  Still India contains 17 of the worlds
  population and only 4 of its emissions.
• Per capita emissions are .93 MT compared to the
  world average of 3.87 MT.
• The growth rate of GHGs is 4.6 annually
  compared to 2 for the world
• Source Delhi School of Economics

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- Climate Extremes and El Nino -

• According to the Indian Meteorological Society,
  the Indian year is divided into four seasons, a
  dry cool winter from December through February, a
  hot humid summer from March through May, and a
  southwest monsoon from June to September .When
  the predominating southwest winds bring rain to
  most of the country a retreating monsoon prevails
  from October through
• Source www.Indian child.com/climate_india.htm

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- Floods and Droughts -
Yearly, monsoon seasons cause widespread damage
in India. While the yearly rains provide food and
livelihood, flood waters leave millions sick,
homeless, and dead. Source Mennonite Central
Committee Extreme weather phenomena like the El
Nino are causing erratic monsoon rains,
frequently skipping over desert and plain
regions. Due to geographic diversity, some states
can be drought stricken while others are still
flooded from monsoon season.
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- Sea Level Elevation -and Coastal Flooding

• India has a low lying densely populated coastline
  extending about 7500km.According to the UNEP
  India ranks among the top 2 countries that are
  most vulnerable to sea level rise 
• Most of the coastal regions are agriculturally
  fertile.The major coverage which is patty fields,
  is extremely susceptible to inundation and
  salinization. A case study of the Orissa and West
  Bengal estimates that in the absence of
  protection a 1 meter sea level rise could
  potentially inundate 1700 km2 of valuable
  agriculture land. A hit like this could severely
  affect the Indian economy .
• Source www.teriin.org/climate/impacts.htm

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- Agriculture and Forestry Impacts -

• Agriculture and allied activities constitute the
  single largest component of Indias economy,
  contributing nearly 27 of the total Gross
  Domestic Product
• However, given that 62 of the cropped area is
  still dependent on rainfall (MoEF. 2002), Indian
  agriculture continues to be fundamentally
  dependent on the weather.
• Increased temperature and rainfall,
• - increased productivity, migration of forest
  types to higher elevations, and transformation of
  drier forest types to moister types.
• -increase in temperature and a decrease in
  precipitation in central and northern India,
  could have adverse effects on forests. Results
  indicate that under the climate scenarios
  generated by the ECHAM3 climate model, the soil
  moisture is likely to decline and, in turn reduce
  teak productivity from 5.40 m3/ha to 5.07 m3/ha

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- Freshwater loss -

• Sanitary water is already limited with the
  countrys enourmous population, climate change is
  expected to make this problem only get worse.  
• Climate change is expected to lower precipitation
  and increase evaporation. As a result the
  countrys water sheds will be directly effected.
• Source www.teriin.org/climate/impacts.htm

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- Biodiversity loss -

• The major proximate causes of species extinction
  are habitat loss and degradation affecting 89
  percent of all threatened birds, 83 percent of
  mammals and 91 percent of all threatened plants
  assessed globally (IUCN. 2000). The main causes
  of habitat loss are agricultural activities,
  extraction (including mining, fishing, logging
  and harvesting) and development (human
  settlements, industry and associated
  infrastructure).
• India has a total of 89,451 animal species
  accounting for 7.31 of the faunal species in the
  world (MoEF 1997) and the flora accounts for
  10.78 of the global total.
• Red List of Threatened Animals (IUCN. 2000), 44
  plant species are critically endangered, 113
  endangered and 87 vulnerable. Amongst animals, 18
  are critically endangered, 54 endangered and 143
  are vulnerable. India ranks second in terms of
  the number of threatened mammals, while India is
  sixth in terms of countries with the most
  threatened birds (IUCN. 2000).

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- Health Related Impacts -

Every year, as waters from flood-hit areas begin
receding across the region, Thousands fall ill in
outbreaks due to waterborne diseases, mainly
diarrhea and jaundice. Recent droughts cause low
agricultural production, loss of animal wealth,
inadequate nutrition and primary health care,
these impacts retard the development process
. India's malaria rate is declining by about
200,000 cases per year since the introduction of
stocking ponds, rivers and wells with fish like
guppies that feed on the mosquito larvae, in
place of DDT use.
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- Conclusion -

• In the game of chess it is necessary to have
  sufficient foresight to see or predict what is
  about to happen before it happens. Decisions
  must be made and possible outcomes assessed.
  Climate change is similar in many ways. India is
  capable of lessening the impacts of some of the
  effects of climate change with sufficient
  foresight. For India the time to start working on
  these problems is now. But India has other
  struggles ahead of it as well. The economic
  ability to fund the change needed is enormous and
  India is currently developing slowly.

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