Some facts • We are already at 385 ppm of C02 up from pre- industrial 260 ppm • More than 0.6 degree Celsius increase during the past century • Melting of land- based Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets' melting will raise sea level by 200 feet Adverse Effects on Crops • An increase in winter temperature by 0.5 deg C- decrease in wheat- yield by 10% in UP, Punjab, Haryana but 1 °C increase in mean temperature ineffective (if 2°, leads to lower yields) • Rice yield to go down by 0.71 ton/ hectare (min. temp. 18 to 19 deg C.), 0.41 toni hectare for 22 to 23 deg C • Rice yield to go down by 0.75 toni hectare if mean temp up by 2 deg C in high yield areas, and by .06 ton/ hectare in coastal areas But Yes, There Are Errors • Some time back NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies corrected its data that seemed to show that 3 and not 9 of the ten hottest years in U.S. history occurred since 1995. • There is no basis for claiming that Himalayan glaciers will vanish in 2 or 3 decades. • Thereafter many "global warming deniers" have used this to reject the whole idea of global warming induced climate change. • But we ought to take steps Relationship between Climate & Energy • The evolution of the society and evolution of energy sources have been going quite parallel. • The anthropogenic influence on climate has energy as an important input and hence the climate and energy are also closely related. • Our interference in nature is also caused by our influence on energy- budget of the atmosphere. • One can't think of mitigating the climate change without understanding and managing the energy scenario.
