The world is experiencing widespread changes in the
environment thanks to the sustained depletion of the rainforests, letting out
of green house gases and CFC’s from unconventional and older generation of AC’s and refrigerators, depletion in the
crucial Ozone layer especially over the polar regions and abundant and
uninterrupted Carbon footprint emissions
over the last few decades.
The Earth is receiving bountiful rainfall in arid areas
where sparse rains have been the trademark for centuries and coastal regions
have been experiencing deficit rainfall year after year. The polar region has
seen melting of hitherto solid ice caps, resulting in substantial increase in
sea water level inundating low lying areas and slowly gobbling away chunks of
fertile coastal land in the process. Despite early warning about this process
in the early 1970’s by eminent scientists and environmentalists few took notice
and by the time they did, the damage was already done and the rot had set in.
Nature has amply demonstrated its fierce-some power to hit back at its
detractors (read ravagers of this Planet) by churning savage flash floods in
rain shadow areas and appalling drought conditions in some of the most fertile
land mass.
The periodic warming of the Pacific waters (this is cyclical
and takes place once in every 5/8 years) results in drastic changes in the
environmental conditions all over the world. Some areas experience prolific
rainfall while others reel in drought. This phenomenon known as ‘’El-NINO’’
effectively translated as little boy in Spanish is one of the most dreaded word
for weather bureaus worldwide. It has been routinely analyzed that a number of
natural catastrophes has struck every year when El Nino has been diagnosed. Despite
the state of the art technology available no one has been able to determine the
periodic pattern of this peculiar phenomenon.
While the scientist fraternity is fighting over the logical
aspect it is to be understood that blaming the El Nino for this mess is futile.
This mess has been created over the years by all of us contributing to it albeit
in a small way knowingly or unknowingly through emissions of harmful green
house gases in dis- proportionate amounts. The failure of the monsoon over the
Indian sub- continent has generated a lot of interest and concern amongst the
masses in the EL NINO phenomena.
The world leaders hold periodic meetings (remember the failed
Kyoto Protocol- Dec 1997 which was
resisted tooth and nail by the USA who perhaps is the prime offender in
emitting Green House Gases) and differences keep cropping up between the
developed countries (who started all this muck by resorting to newer
technologies with disastrous after effects) and the developing nations who naturally
resist the clamping of sanctions on them in the name of Carbon footprint emissions.
At this rate nature will throw newer gauntlets at us
every now and then, upon which newer theories will be propagated, newer
principles will be set up to show case its ill effects on our extremely fragile
ecosystems.
The top environmentalists, intellectuals and scientists
would vie with one another to get the credit and perhaps get the ‘’phenomena’’ named
after them.
No one wants a new disease/phenomena on the horizon with
only the symptoms to reckon with.
We all need a ‘’CURE’’ for this malady and that too a
long lasting one.
The apocalypse has already set in and the time-bomb is
ticking away precariously and ferociously.
No comments:
Post a Comment