Climate Change—Present Scenario in Parts of India; Needed Preventive Measures and Role of Earth System Scientists

Abstract

It is now evident, from glacier receding in Himalaya, ice melting in Arctic and Green Land, significant fluctuations in day and night temperatures, unprecedented monsoon vagaries that Climate change is a reality and Man needs to take urgent measures to contain its impact and save himself and Fauna-Fauna. The expected sea water rise, due to ice melting of Polar Regions, is bound to affect the long coastal corridors flanking the eastern and western parts of India. Unfortunately, in spite of many warnings by the Nature in the form of unprecedented spells of cloud bursts during non monsoon seasons of 2012 and 2013 no steps have been initiated to safe guard erosion of our coasts that are inhabited by millions of people. Since both the administrative channels and the political mind set are not tuned to take preventive measures it is essential for the earth system scientists to prepare land erosion, land subsidence, saline water ingression details in space and time using remote sensing and GIS techniques.In this exercise the earth scientists and space scientists should evolve strategies that can convincingly produce models showing how the coastal corridor can be affected with varied intensity and magnitude of sea water rise, in time and space. Specific details of the expected ill effects on the coastal segments of Andhra Pradesh and parts of Tamilnadu will be discussed along with proposed remedial measures to strengthen the wind and tide barriers in these areas. © Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015.