Saturday, March 19, 2011

Climate time bomb ticking away for Karnataka

DNA India: Karnataka will be warmer by 2 degree Celsius, especially the northern parts; average rainfall will come down by 6%; Krishna basin districts will face drought more often; and water shortage problems will worsen further — these are some dreadful predictions by Bangalore Climate Change Initiatives — Karnataka (BCCI-K) in its interim report released to the state government on Friday. These predictions are for the period 2030-50.

The report sounds alarm bells over threat to quality of life in the state due to the receding forest cover from the annual 8%(2001 to 2007) to 38% and a rise in carbon emissions from the present 80 mn tonnes to 244 mn tonnes by 2030.

BCCI-K chairman, professor BK Chandrashekar, submitted the report saying, “On an average the annual rainfall over the state has decreased by 6% over the period of 1951-2004. The state is projected to experience warming by 1.8 to 2.2 degree Celsius in temperature by 2030, especially in north-eastern parts of the state, where its impact will be felt more. Some districts may face drought more frequently,” he said…

An aerial view of Hosadurga in Karnataka, shot by Channabankapur, who has released the image into the public domain

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Confirming that the majority of American voters are now former climate change believers, was Obama not mentioning the climate crisis in his State Of The Union Address, because the Democrats now know that twenty five more years of unstoppable warming belief with voters was not sustainable. But the war against pollution itself will never end as stewardship of the planet will always be a struggle against those that would put environmental protection on the back burner. Go Green!