Impact of climate change on India

Impact of climate change on India
Here are the main potential effects of climate change on a country, which is the world's seventh largest in area and is home to 1.1 billion people, a sixth of humanity.

Monsoon
Various studies show that surface air temperatures in India are going up at the rate of 0.4 degrees Celsius every 100 years, particularly during the post-monsoon and winter seasons. While mean winter temperatures could increase by as much as 3.2 degrees Celsius in the 2050s, summer temperatures could go up by 2.2 degrees Celsius in the 2050s, spurring climate variability.
Extreme temperatures and heat spells could alter patterns of monsoon rains, vital for India's agriculture and water needs. Scientists warn that India will experience a decline in summer rainfall by 2050. The monsoon accounts for almost 70 percent of the country's total annual rainfall. Winter rains are also predicted to fall by 10-20 percent. Higher temperatures also mean faster melting of Himalayan glaciers and as the melting season coincides with the monsoon season, any intensification of the monsoon is likely to contribute to flood disasters in the Himalayan catchment.


Agriculture
Agriculture will be adversely affected not only by an increase or decrease in the overall amounts of rainfall, but also by shifts in the timing of the rainfall. Higher temperatures reduce the total duration of a crop cycle, leading to a lower yield per unit area, especially for India's wheat and paddy crops.
Soil erosion, increased numbers of pests and weeds brought by climate change will also affect agriculture in India. For instance, the amount of moisture in the soil will be affected by changes in factors such as rainfall, runoff and evaporation.


Rising seas
A 10-year study in and around the Bay of Bengal points to the sea rising 3.14 mm a year in the mangrove swamps of the Sunderbans delta against a global average of 2 mm, threatening the low-lying area which is home to about 4 million people.
A trend of sea level rise of 1 cm per decade has been recorded along the Indian coast. The major delta area of the Ganga, Brahmaputra and Indus rivers, which have large populations reliant on riverine resources, will be affected by changes in water regimes, salt water intrusions and land loss.


Health
Rise in temperature and change in humidity will adversely affect human health in India. Heat stress could result in heat cramps, heat exhaustion, heat stroke and weaken immune systems. Increased temperatures can increase the range of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, particularly in regions where minimum temperatures currently limited the spread of such diseases.


(Sources: Greenpeace, UNDP, Centre for Science and Environment)

Star rated Air conditioners!!! Is it really worth buying star rated air conditioners (ac s)

Most websites on air conditioning ratings are now recommending you to buy an ENERGY STAR rated AC. Will these energy saving air conditioners will undoubtedly save you money? Yes it will when compared to the cheapest, least efficient on the market (since the ENERGY STAR ones will be at least 10% more efficient). The star rated will definitely be more efficient than anything more than 8 or 10 years old, because as they become less efficient with time and more over they have out dated electro mechanical parts.

I have done a small calculation based on the wattage consumption and found out the following savings could be achieved by using a 5 star rated Ac over a 0 star rated AC.

Let us consider a small house:

No of operating hours for AC per day: 6 hours
No of days in a year : 300 years ( leaving out 65 days for outing and other things)

AC tonne : 1.5 tonne

Electricity charges : Chennai, India rates are applied


The total energy bill for a '5' star rated Air conditioner for the above configuration and operating pattern is : Rs. 6793 per year

The total energy bill for a '0' star rated Air conditioner for the above configuration and operating pattern would be : Rs. 9887 per year


So you save Rs. 3094 directly on energy bills in addition to that you have reduced your CO2 emissions by saving energy.

Dust, vanishing greenery threaten Taj

Agra: The Taj Mahal and other heritage monuments in and around Agra are facing a major threat from dust-laden air. Unabated construction is making the city's green cover disappear and drying up water bodies, adding to the dust levels.

"The collision (of the dust with the marble) results in micro-scratches that retain moisture which attracts pollutants and gaseous substances," said PC Gupta, head of the Archaeological Survey of India's (ASI) chemical department.

The dry westerlies from the Rajasthan desert are sand-blasting the white marble mausoleum and the first question in the minds of many tourists visiting the Taj is whether it is turning yellow?

The suspended particulate matter (SPM) level in the ambient air around the Taj Mahal is over 350 micrograms per cubic metre, much above the permissible standard of 100. In the city and around other monuments, it could be much higher, Gupta told a news agency.

The chief reasons are the rapid increase in vehicular movement, lack of water in Yamuna river and poor afforestation on the western periphery of the city, he said.

Surendra Sharma, president of Braj Mandal Heritage Conservation Society, questioned the success and validity of a whole lot of exercises undertaken to bring down the air pollution level when the SPM and dust levels have not come down.

The abnormally high temperature in March and April have dried up all water sources and the dust storms have raised the SPM level to a new high.

Mughal emperor Akbar's abandoned capital at Fatehpur Sikri is equally threatened by illegal mining activity all around and lack of water to green the surroundings.

No government department has any idea or plan to remove the garbage dumps that have come up on 80 acres of the incomplete Taj Heritage corridor - work on which was ordered to be stopped by the Supreme Court in 2003 - between the Taj and the Agra Fort.

"The Supreme Court has done justice by staying the development of corridor at the site. However, the unfinished project is actually causing lots of environmental problems," said Ritesh K Sharma, an activist of rights group LegalMitra.

Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) officials have said repeatedly that the dust level in the whole Taj trapezium cannot come down until there is massive tree plantation all around and water in the river Yamuna round the year. The ASI last year sent a proposal for a barrage on the river but no action has been taken.

Despite crores of rupees spent over the past 15 years, the Yamuna behind the Taj is still dry. Urging efforts to save the river, Mughal historian R Nath said: "The water in the river will absorb all the pollution and dust and also strengthen the base of the massive structure."

Stretches of green cover along the Western periphery of the city and the southern side have vanished to make way for residential colonies. Community ponds have also disappeared and there is no trace of the dozen-odd Mughal gardens and with only their names like Bagh Farzana, Begum Samru Ka Bagh, Bagh Muzaffar Khan and so on surviving.

Road building activity all around the Delhi-Kolkata national highway, the Jaipur-Agra highway, and now the Jaypee group's most ambitious expressway connecting Greater Noida to Agra along the river bank have also taken a heavy toll on trees and greenery.

The new townships proposed to be built by the expressway authority all the way from Noida to Agra will further deplete the green resources.

"They are spending tonnes of money on questionable projects within the city in preparation for the Commonwealth Games, but the general maintenance of the monuments and the surroundings has remained miserably poor," conservationist Ravi Singh told a news agency.

"Encroachments have not been removed and conservation work has not been taken up to facelift the historical monuments that dot the city. The focus is too Taj-centric."

Water quality in Ganga at Haridwar poor: NGO

DEHRA DUN: Water quality of the river Ganga in Haridwar is below the standards set by the Central Pollution Control Board for bathing, a recent
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study by an NGO says.

Water has been polluted due to continuous discharge of untreated waste and effluents from various drains directly into the river Ganga, a Dehra Dun-based NGO People's Science Institute said in its study.

Sewage treatment plant (STP) at Jagjeetpur releases about 129 million litres daily (MLD) into the Ganga with a fecal coliform concentration of about 34 million/100ml.

Fecal coliforms are non-sporulating bacteria. Scientists from People's Science Institute (PSI) took samples from 10 drains falling into the river Ganga at different locations in Haridwar on January 2 and 3 this year along with samples of the river water at three locations.

The fecal coliform count of the waste water discharged by the 10 drains ranges from 2.35 million/100ml to 40.6 million/100ml.

The worst situation is the sewer drain at Jwalapur in Balmiki Nagar in the holy town which releases an estimated 15 MLD containing 40.6 million fecal coliforms per 100 ml.

Water samples of Ganga river taken from Saptrishi, Har-Ki-Pauri and Jagjeetpur showed fecal coliforms counts of 1000, 1500 and 7.5 million per 100 ml.

These are well above the prescribed CPCB standard of 500 MPN/100 ml and they pose a health hazard to millions of devotees who are likely to bathe in the river during the Kumbh Mela, PSI Environmental Quality Monitoring Group Head Dr Anil Gautam said.

"The present results do not show any significant improvement in the waste water draining into the Ganga, or the treated effluents emerging from the STP at Jagjeetpur, compared to the results we obtained in July 2009," he said.

"We had circulated our results of July 2009 to all the state legislators and ministers. We received acknowledgements from only two of them, Matbar Singh Kandari and Amrita Rawat, both of whom wrote letters to the Chief Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal," Gautam claimed.

However, no steps have been taken to clean Ganga before the Kumbh Mela, he said.