What is climate change?

By: Janki

Climate change refers to long-term shifts in temperatures and weather patterns. Such shifts can be natural, due to changes in the sun’s activity or large volcanic eruptions. But since the 1800s, human activities have been the main driver of climate change, primarily due to the burning of fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas. Burning fossil fuels generates greenhouse gas emissions that act like a blanket wrapped around the Earth, trapping the sun’s heat and raising temperatures. The main greenhouse gases (GHGs) that are causing climate change include carbon dioxide and methane. These come from using gasoline for driving a car or coal for heat in the factory and building. Clearing land and cutting down forests can also release carbon dioxide. Agriculture, oil and gas operations are major sources of methane emissions. Energy, industry, transport, buildings, agriculture and land use are among the main sectors causing GHGs.

India is the second largest producer of wheat and rice, the world's major food staples. India is currently the world's second largest producer of several dry fruits, agriculture based textile raw materials, roots and tuber crops, pulses, farmed fish, eggs, coconut, sugarcane and numerous vegetables.

In today’s time, resilience and adaptation to climate change by everybody will help us overcome major challenges and will provide effective solutions of problems. Adaptation to climate change is about adjusting to a warmer world, in order to protect people, mother nature, our prosperity and way of life. Collective efforts are only solution and efforts take place once society as a whole adapt and change behavior to mitigate these challenges. The climate emergency and biodiversity crises around the world is a call to all of us to join forces and act in new and innovative ways. Adaptation to climate change requires understanding, planning and actions in a way that not only reduces the negative impacts of climate change but also creates new opportunities to become safer and more resilient ecosystem. Climate change is one of the biggest threats currently facing humanity. The Earth has already warmed by 1.1°C since the late 19th century. This is already affecting every region of the world, causing more frequent and intense extreme events such as heatwaves or droughts, changing rainfall patterns, melting ice and affecting habitats and extinctions of lots of species. Some consequences of climate, such as sea-level rise, will continue to whirlwind for centuries to millennia. Every bit of warming matters and climate action has never been as urgently needed as today. Limiting global warming requires immediate and deep cuts in the emissions of greenhouse gases (GHGs). However, mitigating climate change will not be enough. In addition, we will have to adapt to the unavoidable impacts. Responding to these challenges will require better knowledge and scientific breakthroughs in various domains ranging from technologies, solutions and services for adaptation in areas such as:

• Awareness & factual data about climate change

• Coping mechanism & techniques like drought-resilient crops management

• Water saving technologies

• Energy efficient equipment and vehicles

• Satellites for environmental observation

• Rapid progress in adaptation science & climate analytics as a basis for state-of-the-art climate information

• Scaling up of advanced digital tools like AI and other smart technologies usage aiding our adaptive capacities to the next level