NEW DELHI: According to a report on the global impact of Climate Change by the CPIE India, peak summer temperatures in various coastal regions of India, including Goa, could rise by 2-4 degrees C (from the present levels) causing a range of catastrophic events that could greatly impact the oceans, cause widespread flooding and destroy the flora and fauna and piscine and aquatic life in rivers, ponds lakes, other water bodies in the region.

Climate change will lead to many more very hot days in the summer and fewer very cold days in the winter. In some areas like Mumbai, winters will disappear.

Higher growth in greenhouse gas emission volumes would cause more frequent and severe temperature extremes. Globally, cold waves have decreased in frequency and in cities like Mumbai, there are hardly 3-5 days in winter when it’s really cold. The higher intensity and severity of individual heat waves can often be attributed to global warming.

Temperature spikes must slow down if we want to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, say climate scientists. Global warming needs to be kept to 1.5C at the maximum by 2100 or else the consequences could be disastrous for our planet.

Scientific estimates based on present mathematical models claim global warming could exceed 4C in the future, leading to devastating heatwaves, millions losing their homes to rising sea levels, and the irreversible loss of plant and animal species across the world.

Several parts of Goa (and Mumbai), it’s beaches, fields and other low-lying areas could be under water by the turn of this century if global warming levels continue to rise. Beaches like those of Candolim and Baga will be initially eroded by sand erosion caused by devastating floods (caused by climatic variations) and whatever is left of the eroded beaches would be inundated by rising sea levels which would be in the range of 2 to 6 meters.

Extreme weather events like continuous floods and long heat waves of 10 to 12 days at a stretch are already more intense across the globe, threatening lives and livelihoods with devastation.

With further warming, some regions could become uninhabitable, as farmland turns into desert or gets inundated with saline sea waters. East Africa has seen several repetitive seasons of failed rains, which the UN’s World Food Programme says has put up to 22 million people at risk of severe hunger due to vegetable and food grain shortage and in the peril of death.

Extreme temperatures can also increase the risk of wildfires – as seen in Europe and the Americas. France and Germany recorded about seven times more land burnt between January and the middle of July 2022, compared with the average in the years earlier. Goa too has seen several forest fires with the frequency and intensity increasing annually.

Hotter temperatures also mean that previously frozen ground covered in layers of ice, will melt in places like Siberia, releasing greenhouse gases trapped for centuries into the atmosphere, further worsening climate change.

In other regions, extremely heavy rainfall caused historic, unprecedented flooding – as was seen in China, Pakistan and Nigeria.

People living in poorer and developing countries are expected to suffer the most as they have fewer resources to adapt to climate change, the report says.

LONDON: The recent collapse of a over 1,100km2 ice shelf in East Antarctica came at a time of record high temperatures and is a clear symptom of a planet in climate crisis, experts say.

It seems the Antarctic region is warmer by about 35 to 40 °C this year and getting warmer as the months go by.

The Conger ice shelf, which cleaved away from the eastern side of Antarctica in March, is the latest victim of rising temperatures at the Earth’s poles.

Experts say as the polar regions warm, more ice is likely to melt, potentially pushing up sea levels and inundating coastal communities.

“The current concentration of greenhouse gases is higher than at any time in human history. It’s a very worrying signal,” said Pascal Peduzzi, Director of the Global Resource Information Database (GRID) – Geneva. GRID-Geneva is a partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment and the University of Geneva.

Satellite imagery, which dates back five decades, shows sea ice at both poles is in retreat. On February 21, 2022, Antarctic sea ice, which has until recently been stable, reached its minimum since measurements began in 1979.

The situation is much more dramatic at the opposite side of the planet. Forty years ago sea ice in the Arctic was typically three to four meters thick. Today, it is around 1.5 metres, according to a recent UNEP report, the Foresight Brief.

Thinner ice and more open water lead to increased absorption of sunlight and increased melting in summer. Since 1979 around 50 per cent of summer sea ice coverage has been lost.

“There has been a significant sea ice loss, especially in the last 20 years,” said Tore Furevik, a Director at the Nansen Environment and Remote Sensing Centre and a co-author of the Foresights Brief. “Sea ice loss indicates a climate that is getting warmer and warmer and is not in balance, The only way to stop this trend is to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases.”

The temperature at Vostok Weather Station in the central part of Antarctica in March normally averages -53°C. But between March 16 and March 20, around the time the ice shelf is believed to have collapsed, the temperature was on average 35°C warmer, hitting a balmy-for-Antarctica -18°C on March 17. The heat wave is part of a warming trend being recorded globally.

BENGALURU: According to a report in the Hindustan Times, horticulture experts and farmers claimed that climate change is the main reason behind the drastic drop in mango production this season.

The report mentions a reduction of nearly 50 per cent in yield with mango farmers in the state staring at another lean year and loss of income.

This year, production of around 0.7-0.8 million tonnes of mango is expected as against the 1.5 million tonnes yield in a normal year, a clear drop of 50 per cent.

Further, this year the peak season is expected to be around mid-May or early June, which is also later than the usual season. Karnataka has witnessed a reduction in yield for the third time in a row. In 2021, the reduction was close to 60-70%, with the Covid pandemic also playing a role, the reports states.

According to horticulture experts, the prolonged unseasonal rainfall last year increased moisture in the soil and delayed flowering of Mango trees.

“Usually, flowering takes place in November-December, but it did not happen in most places, and it took place in January and February. The moisture in the water has been one of the reasons for this,” said SV Hittalmani, who retired as additional director (fruits) in the state horticulture department.

The expert pointed out that the December rains were unusual in Karnataka, and dry soil is needed for a good amount of flowering. But for the past two years, several parts of south Karnataka have been witnessing an increase in the amount of rain in December.

Since 2000 till 2018 or 2019, Karnataka has been under drought for 15 of the 18 years. But now things have changed, and some parts of the state even experienced floods. Prof MB Rajegowda, agrometeorologist and former Registrar, University of Agriculture Sciences (UAS), explained that in Karnataka, normal rainfall during the South-West Monsoon is in the range of 850-870mm. For the past couple of years, the state has seen normal or above normal rainfall.

The imbalance in mango flowering patterns caused by the high moisture content in soil is the main reason for the decline in mango yield in the state this year, Hittalmani added.

In Karnataka, mango orchards are spread across 180,000 hectares of land in Kolar, Ramanagara, Chikkaballapura and parts of the Bengaluru rural district in the south Karnataka region and Dharwad and Belagavi in the northern Karnataka region.

K Srinivas Gowda, president of the Chikkaballapura Mango Growers’ Association, said that the results of climate change are not limited to the unusual rains. According to him, while the past two years witnessed unusual rains, in the three years before that, Chikkaballapura witnessed drought-like conditions.

“There was hardly any rain. In a way, for the mango cultivation, such a weather pattern is good because for getting a good yield the temperature at night should be very low, and it should be high during the day. While the dry conditions helped during those years, it is having its effects now,” said Gowda.

He explained that when the state received excessive rain last year there was vegetative growth instead of flowering. “It is simple. Because there was a draught earlier, this time when the trees got water and nutrients, they used those for the growth of the plant, like getting branches and leaves. In other words, it is used for the tree to grow than create fruits. This is also another effect of climate change,” he said.

State Mango Development and Marketing Corporation Limited (KSMDMCL) officials also pointed out that a slump in hermaphrodite flowers, key for a good yield, was observed in mango trees.

To promote the sale of mangos which saw a slum during the pandemic, KSMDMCL organised a buyer-seller meet in Bengaluru. As part of the initiative, top traders from North India visited the mango plantations in and around Bengaluru and in Kolar and Chikkaballapur districts, said officials.

Source: Hindustan Times