Climate change is a great threat to global security: Prof Jagdish Mukhi

GUWAHATI: Assam Governor Prof Jagdish Mukhi on Monday said that climate change is one of the greatest threats to global security which knows no borders and presents an existential challenge to environment and human kind.

Speaking at a seminar on climate change organized at the Raj Bhavan here, the Governor said that climate change and its outcome - global warming - have dealt a deadly blow to the mankind. The recent floods in Pakistan or rainfall in Southern India were the fallout of climate change. He said that the intense monsoon rains in the last few months was the impact of climate change.

The Governor said that global warming, which is one of the manifestations of climate change, is causing air and sea temperatures to rise, leading to more evaporation. Warmer air can hold more moisture, making monsoon rainfall more intense. The recent flood-ravaged pictures in Haflong and Silchar meant that Assam also started receiving the brunt of climate change. He also said that climate change can also cause droughts which can be more frequent and severe. Climate change is making the weather system more unpredictable and severe.

Mukhi said that a part of the climate change problem is man-made. Since human beings use a lot of fossil fuels like petrol or coal, they release a lot of carbon dioxide which is primarily a greenhouse gas. The increase in carbon dioxide level in the atmosphere is the leading cause of global warming. As the earth warms, the glaciers in the poles start melting, rising the sea level. The rise in water threatens to change the geography of the earth. Many coastal cities are expected to be underwater in the next century, the Governor added.

The Governor also said that of late the State Government's policy on solar power and its investment on solar projects are the testimonies of the State Government's seriousness of beating the climate change and global warming.

The resource persons of the seminar were Additional Chief Secretary of the Environment and Forest Department Ravi Shankar Prasad, former head of Civil Engineering Department, IIT Guwahati, Prof Arup Kumar Sarma, Distinguished Fellow in the Centre for Global Environmental Research in TERI, RR Rashmi, professor of Ecological Economics from Department of Humanities and Social sciences, IIT Guwahati, Dr Anamika Barua. All of them extensively deliberated on the ways and means and also a broad strategy to empower Assam to contribute to India's efforts to deal with climate change.

The seminar was attended by senior officials of Raj Bhavan and various departments, faculty members, research scholars, post graduate students from universities and media personnel.

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