The Impact of Global Warming and the Imperative of Mitigation.

Publication Year: 2013

Author(s): Rajendra K Pachauri

Abstract:

There is no scientific doubt that our climate is changing. Over the last 50 years most of these changes have taken place as a result of increasing concentration of anthropogenic greenhouse gases and associated changes in global average temperatures. Glaciers are melting particularly rapidly in the Himalayan region and the consequent changes in river flows will adversely affect 500 million people in South Asia. Climate change will also decrease crop yields in South Asia by 30 percent. Human health will also be affected with endemic mortality due to diarrhoeal disease likely to increase. Coastal erosion and inundation due to sea level rise will affect social life in mega deltas. It is crucial to make use of the small window in time available to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and stabilize global temperature increase to 2.0 to 2.4 degrees Celsius, which will cost less than 3 percent of GDP in 2030.

 

Source: In: Hussain A and Dubey M (eds), Democracy, Sustainable Development, and Peace: New Perspectives on South Asia (Book chapter)

Publisher/Organisation: Oxford Scholarship Online

Rights: Oxford Scholarship Online:

URL: https://oxford.universitypressscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198092...