The starkest warning
The Sixth Assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is foreboding. The current overall global warming trends are likely to lead to increased rainfall, flooding and heat waves. As India has a 7,517 km coastline, the warming of the Indian Ocean, leading to a rise in sea levels, makes southern India particularly vulnerable.
Aggravating matters for India is that it is already sitting on a powder keg with indiscriminate encroachment into water bodies, mining and deforestation.
A developing, fossil-fuel dependent nation such as India, is now finding itself between the devil and the deep sea. What is grossly unfair is that the developing nations are being made to pay heavily for the environment-damaging activities of the earlier carbon emitters, such as the West, who have a historic responsibility towards mitigating global warming and are now looking the other way. It is unfortunate that the IPCC’s report is long on warnings but short on suggestions for concrete actions to reduce climate change.
Nalini Vijayaraghavan,
Thiruvananthapuram
The report only reiterates what we already know. The world is standing at the edge of a precipice due to our complete neglect of environment concerns in our developmental projects. India is more vulnerable than the other industrialised nations because of its dependence on agriculture. With nations unable to come to any meaningful conclusions on measures, there seems to be very little chance of pulling away from the brink.
Anthony Henriques,
Mumbai
To those living in the Global South, the latest report is nothing but old wine in a new bottle. The reasons are simple, because even prior to the Paris Agreement, many of these countries were experiencing severe coastal flooding, irregular rainfall and extreme drought.
The gargantuan “heat dome” in America has finally driven home to many complacent Americans and Canadians that this current crisis can also spell tragedy to them and not just to the distant Third World. It is the same case in Europe, after devastating floods and forest fires. It is time to stop the usual finger pointing at India, China, Brazil and South Africa, because their per capita emissions are still lower when compared to the industrialised western nations. Merely talking, procrastinating and business as usual policies of the past will most certainly make the world completely uninhabitable for all.
G. Parameswaran,
Coimbatore
The report, though alarming, is not surprising. Every region on earth is being impacted by adverse conditions which are increasingly becoming irreversible. Every citizen on the planet is responsible for averting a catastrophe. It is time to act, or die.
B. Ramakrishnan,
Cherrybrook, NSW, Australia
A struggle
It is the practice of corporates, large business houses and governments to bestow on sportspersons, accolades, cash awards and other benefits after they win. But there is also the reality. There are also sportspersons who struggle hard to find a sponsor, training equipment, and even funds to buy the basics such as a pair of shoes or a hockey stick. There are tales of personal suffering and sacrifice. Sports enthusiast corporates and philanthropists need to identify talent and help such sportspersons blossom. It also takes political will.
Tharcius S. Fernando,
Chennai
White paper
It is a surprise that the Tamil Nadu Finance Minister has submitted a white paper on Tamil Nadu’s finances. Things are indeed grave and one wonders what awaits households in the State already struggling with the costs of petrol, diesel and cooking gas. Incidentally, reliable sources cannot recollect any precedent of a white paper submission.
Mani Nataraajan,
Chennai
The white paper is a grand culmination of reckless populism followed by the Dravidian majors. With scant regard for financial prudence or administration, successive governments have burnt a massive hole in the State’s finances. Electricity and transport are the top money burners, with freebies given away at will. Power and transport must be privatised.
K. Ramachandran,
Chennai
