Melting: icecaps

EACH year, on 5th June, World Environment Day provides an opportunity for communities and governments around the world to reflect on the essential role that the environment plays in our daily lives and our plans for the future. This event is one of the principal vehicles through which" the United [Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.
Global wanning has emerged as one of (he most important environmental issues ever 10 confront humanity. This Concern arises from the fact that our everyday activities may be leading to changes in the earth's atmosphere that have the potential to significantly alter the planet's heat and radiation balance. It could lead to a warmer climate in the next century and there-after, portending a potpourri of possible effects - mast I y adverse. The theme for this World Environment Day is aimed at these concerns and The World Environment Day slogan selected for 2007 is Melting Ice a Hot Topic? In support of International Polar Year.

the WED theme focuses on the effects that climate change is having on polar ecosystems and communities, and (he ensuing consequences around the world . The Earth has warmed by approximately 0.75 ^C since pre industrial times. There is overwhelming consensus that this is due to emissions of greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide (CO2), from burning fossil fuels. Warming in this century is projected to be between 1.4 and 5-8 °C.
Until recently, such talk seemed the prattle of doom sayers. No longer. The devastating impact of melting snows, rising seas and drying rivers is virtually upon us. With¬in the lifetime of many of us. The ganga could be a pale shadow of its current glory; shoreline cities and towns, including Mumbai, could be compelled to build dykes to keep out the invading seas; agricultural yield in the.fecund Gang plains could become insufficient to feed our billion-plus population. That is unless we act now.
Here's how Hie disaster scenario could pan out. As temperatures rise, glaciers will melt faster and receive

less snowfall. Snowfall in the upper reaches of the glacier adds weight on top, and Hie pace of melt at its mouth creates a delicate balance, keeping the ice mass in place. When this balance is upset, the- glacier either recedes or comes forward dramatically or simply bursts. Any which way, it's a calamity.
At one level, accelerated glacial melt will initially cause excess dis¬charge of water in the rivers. A study has been done on the behaviour of 100 Himalayan Rivers. As an illustration, let take the Ganga at Uttar kashi,the river level is expected to rise 20-30% within the first two decades and then gradually recede to 50% of its original level over the next decade, signaling that the river is drying up.
Glaciers cover, nearly 38,000 sq km of the Himalayan Mountains, which, in turn, accounts for 800 cubic km of water flow annually. This nurtures the great Indian civilization, as we know it. Many of Himalayan glaciers, including Gangotri are shriveling up in varying degrees. The Pindari glacier is receding by 23 meters a year, Bara Shigri by 36 meters a year,Dokriani by 18 meters. Meola by 35 meters, Sonapani by 17 meters, Milam by 13 meters, Zemu by 28 meters to name just a few. Cumulatively, this melt, could change (he way. we know our world. If global warming isn't arrested, rivers will first flood and then dry up; seas will rise and fer¬tile lands will lurn barren.
Due to the rising seas, we have already lost 31 sq km of the Sagar Islands in the Sunderbans. a world heritage .site, as well as four smaller islands, rendering 6,000 families homeless, if the trend is not checked, another'15% of the area's hospitable land will be under sea by 2020, displacing 30.000 families. Actually by 2020, the disaster area will not be limited to far-Hung, tow-lying areas like the Sunderbans. ft will be much closer to us, say, in Mumbai or Panaji, Kochi, Chennai, Vizag, Puri, Kolkata in fact, all along India's 7,600-km coastline where 20% of the country's population lives.
Climate change is projected to impinge on ustmnuble development of countries like India as it compounds the pressures on nat.