Indian Climategate

What The Indian Version of Climate Gate Doesn’t Mean….

 

Climate gate: An Introduction

There is a saying in the people these days that if anything has changed after the much awaited Copenhagen Conference for sure, it’s “CLIMATE”. The conference is over without legally binding restrictions on developed economies to cut the emissions. But in this buzz of doing something about the changing climate, there have been serious & credible claims made which shake this belief to its core. We simply can’t afford to turn our blind eye towards these claims. Nonetheless these objections have been made by reputed scientists & have been confirmed by no other than Dr. Pachauri himself. He had admitted that there hasn’t been scientific study in order to conclude such facts so confidently. Yes, I am certainly talking about the fiasco over the reports of melting of Himalayan Glaciers.

Scientific Facts-

In a 2007 report, the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change said the Himalayan glaciers are very likely to disappear within three decades if the present melting rate continues. But a statement from the panel now says there is not enough scientific evidence to back up those claims. The warning in the report "refers to poorly substantiated estimates of rate of recession and date for the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers," the IPCC said. "In drafting the paragraph in question, the clear and well-established standards of evidence, required by the IPCC procedures, were not applied properly”..
The U.N. panel did not give a new estimate of when Himalayan glaciers might melt away, but said "widespread mass losses from glaciers and reductions in snow cover over recent decades are projected to accelerate throughout the 21st century."
This will reduce the availability of water and change the seasonal water flows in major mountain rangers, including the Himalayas, it said.
The U.N. climate change panel said "the chair, vice-chairs, and co-chairs of the IPCC regret the poor application of well-established IPCC procedures in this instance."

These images & studies conducted by Dr. Vijay Kumar Raina, clearly show that Gangotri glacier melt only a dozen meter per year between 2004-08, & since September 2007 it hasn’t receded at all!!
Next case study he presents in front of us is about Siachin Glacier. Which-according to his studies-is completely stable & hadn’t receded at all…!!!



What This Doesn’t Mean….

Now, there is a tricky situation in front of us. In the backdrop of Nobel winning reports being proven wrong & unscientific, we face a challenge of whom to trust. I know that in the scientific world, this won’t create much debate as it would in common public. I am afraid that this event would conceive a much larger vacuum regarding CLIMATE CHANGE data in public. Certainly, a lay-man would tend to think that even after the emissions of so many pollutants & (what is popularly known as) Greenhouse Gases in the atmosphere, our glaciers haven’t receded too much, then how true is this so called climate change? This is exactly what I mean when I say there will be created a vacuum in public. Moreover, there is no dearth of CLIMATE SKEPTICKS funded by giant oil companies to manipulate data & show how climate change is a big lie or a joke (exception of scientific reports made by dedicated scientists who are in pursuit of nothing but the knowledge).
So, to ensure our priorities (as human species) don’t change too much regarding our commitment to minimize (at least) climate change, we must remind ourselves the wrath of destruction we have brought to this world.

1. Find IUCN lists & every time there has been addition of new species which are either threatened or extinct. Thousands of species of plants, birds, mammals, & god only knows how many species of insects have been destroyed by us.
2. Check the meteorological observations & find how erratic the weather has turned. Why go away, check our monsoon records & you will notice how real this climate change is.
3. Check out any credible data on how the underground water levels have depleted because of increased pumping coupled with less precipitation.

Now, these are only three factors which are changing so severely that they are already affecting our lives. Remember last time you saw a bird (say a Sparrow even) in your area. How many days ago?? How many?? It is just a common bird I am referring to, there are thousands of bird species which are about to see their last sunrise on this planet.
There are much larger changes occurring in climate across the globe, more than meet the eye. So, this is the perspective I want to stress that we should not change our priorities simply because a part of a report has been exposed for its inconsistency with scientific facts. Because, as a species, we are too young to understand what is at stake. On a geological time scale we are on this planet for about a last 1 second & it’s about to 12.00 mid night.

We will talk more about our efforts to minimize this change next time when we will learn about bio fuels.