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| CLIMATE
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INTRODUCTION
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The growing
industrialization and associated emission has given
rise to serious concern particularly from the environment
point of view. One such is the effect of Green House
Gas (GHG) emissions.
The Green House Gases are Carbon-di-oxide, Nitrous Oxide,
Methane etc.
These GHG gases are relatively transparent to the incoming
short wave radiation to the sun and opaque to the outgoing
long wave radiation. The long wave radiation that would
have otherwise escaped are therefore trapped by the
GHG gases and radiated back to the earth. This results
in trapping of absorbed radiation resulting in the warming
of the earth.
Out of the GHG emissions, the Co2 emissions and their
effect is of immediate and serious concern to us. The
Co2 emissions to the atmosphere has been an increasing
trend and more steeply in the last few decades.
The Co2 emissions in terms of billion tons of carbon
has risen from about 0.1 billion tones in the 19th century
to nearly 7 billion tones in the year 2000.
The detailed scientific study shows that the effect
of manmade GHGs is equivalent to nearly 1% increase
in power of the sun.
Impact of increase in GHG emissions
The impact of increase in GHG emissions is as under
a. Global warming
The increased GHG emission particularly Co2 would result
in increase in the global temperature upto 6°C in
the next 100 years. The increase will be further higher
at higher altitudes.
b. Rise in Sea level
The increase in global temperature would result in rising
of sea level by 1 to 3 feet in the next 100 years.
c. Rapid effect on Eco systems
There could be a rapid change on movement of climate
zones - The climate zones are expected to move 150 -
550 kms towards the poles. All the above effects ultimately
result in a devastating impact on rainfall, monsoons
and weather.
The increased warming brings increased rain but higher
percentage of this increased rain will be in the form
of torrential downpours. The monsoon seasons could become
shorter with more rainfall resulting in serious floods.
For example the floods in Bangladesh become more frequent
and intense in the last two decades.
Normally, the monsoon floods one out of every two affect
only 20% of the area in Bangladesh. However, the last
two floods of 1987 and 1988 have inundated nearly 60
- 80% area of Bangladesh.
This could ultimately leads to substantial property
damage on account of flooding, erosion, storm and torrential
rains. The estimated property damage in the last decade
is nearly about $ 400 billions.
d. Agriculture
Agriculture will be one of the sectors, which will be
affected on account of the Climate change and there
could be a net reduction in the overall world's food
supply.
Climate change Related Web-sites |
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Kyoto Protocol
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