What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?
-Henry David Thoreau
Climate Related Disasters: Trend & Projection
Across world, frequency and intensity of climate related disasters have been increased. We can no longer be in denial about the threats of climate change. There is a huge possibility that perilous climate change may engulf the stability of earth system. Numbers regarding the impact of climate change are frightening and of course, very threatening.
- More than 1 million died due to climate change disasters since 2000 (Guha-Sapir, Below, and Hoyois 2015).
- More than 95% deaths due to natural disasters were in developing countries between 1970 and 2008 (IPCC, 2012).
- There is a potential link between human induced climate change and increase in heat waves (Coumou and Rahmstorf, 2012).
- It was concluded with 80% probability that killing of more than 11,000 people by the 2010 Moscow heat waves would not have been possible without human induced climate warming (Rahmstorf and Coumou, 2011).
- As per the global hurricane data, category 4 and 5 hurricanes were almost doubled in the duration between 1975 to 2004 (Webster et al. 2005).
- More than 11,000 disasters occurred in world between 1970 and 2019. These disasters were responsible for 2 million deaths (DownToEarth, 2021).
- It is expected that there would be significant increase in frequency of heat waves due to surge in average temperature worldwide (US EPA, 2022).
- Increase in annual average precipitation would be observed in some areas. Opposite trend may also be observed in other regions (US EPA, 2022).
Climate Change: Current Scenario & Challenges for India
India is very important for global community. Any aberration in the context of sustainability in this region may affect the other parts of world sooner or later in different intensities. It is essential to understand that disturbance in any part of a land system will ultimately affect the entire land ecosystem. And when it is about India which is hugely populous & is very significant in the context of biodiversity; it becomes very important to be watchful. Effects of climate change in India is also evident and is concerning.
- In all likelihood, more than 40% of India population will be facing water scarcity by 2050 (Made for Minds, 2022).
- Average temperature had already been risen by 0.7 degree Celsius during 1901-2018 (Krishnan et al., 2020).
- It is expected that there is possibility of almost 4.4 degree Celsius rise in average temperature by the end of twenty first century (Krishnan et al., 2020).
- Thousands of lives were killed in India and Pakistan by 2015 deadly heat waves. A phenomenon of this kind can become very frequent in this region (IPCC, 2018).
- There is a frightening possibility of rise in temperature by 5.3 degree Celsius in Delhi by the end of century (IPCC, 2021).
- Recently, Delhi recorded more than 49 degree Celsius. Gurgaon which falls under national capital region also recorded 48 degree Celsius (Mint, 2022).
Leads Connect: Thoughts & Contribution
Besides working towards developing cutting-edge technology backed platforms for addressing the challenges of climate change; we have been trying to raise awareness. This is essential to understand that community participation is now a must requirement for tackling the threats of climate change. Hence, Leads Connect team has developed platforms capable of including communities for assessing actual conditions effectively and for seamless implementation of solutions.
- Development of community participation platforms for addressing the challenges of climate change.
- User driven analytics for deciphering the complexities of climate change.
- Development of causative analytics frameworks.
- Multi-scenario analysis platform for predictive analytics on the impacts of climate change.
- Organizing sessions & seminars either on impacts of climate change or its allied aspects in different scientific platforms.
