Chandigarh, February 17
“To expect not to have global warming or global cooling is to expect too much,” said Dr Ashok Sahni, Department of Geology, Panjab University, during a seminar ‘Climate, Carbon and Copenhagen’ organised by the Society for Promotion of Science and Technology in India (SPSTI) at Panjab University.
“In a phase of 500 billion years the earth’s temperature has seen very high and low mercuric levels. What’s happening now is part of a cycle. Though we need viable solutions to save our planet, the current situation of global warming is not just human induced,” Dr Sahni said.
Even the sea level follows a pattern. Since 1850, the sea levels have been increasing. Is this increase just a co-incidence or a result of human activities? Why should you be concerned if the earth is heating up?
“There are many implications for the Chandigarh-Punjab-Haryana region. There is an immediate need to conserve water as annual rainfall is decreasing and ground water is depleting. Measures must be taken to start water harvesting, introduce drought resistant crops and promote mass transportation,” Dr Prodipto Gosh, distinguished fellow The Energy & Resources Institute (TERI), New Delhi, said.
Dr Prasanna Kumar, principal secretary Environment, Government of Haryana, summarised by putting forth solutions to counter the human induced climate change.
He said: “There is a need to work at three levels. At the corporate level we must adopt better technology, which is more energy efficient while individually we must know small things like a vehicle not turned off at a light point emission is 20 times more than when a vehicle running at optimum speed.”
And lastly policy amends to award eco-friendly citizens and punish those causing harm, he added. Though there is no a need to panic, every citizen must act with a certain level of concern. We need to set the climatic conditions right that have been mangled due to our actions.