GLOBAL WARMING

EARTH PRAYING FOR MERCY…!!!

Source: National Weather Service, NOAA

No one can say , what it looks like when a planet falls ill, but it probably look a lot like EARTH…!!!
Never mind you’ve heard about Global Warming as a slow motion emergency that would take
decades to play-out . Suddenly and unexpectedly, the crisis is on.

It certainly looked that way last year as the atmospheric bomb, that was a cyclone Larry- a category
4 storm with wind speed over 150mph, exploded in nearly arid North-Eastern Australia. It certainly
looked that way last year as curtains of fire and dust turned the skies of Indonesia orange, thanks to
drought-fueled blazes sweeping the island nation. It certainly looked that way two years back as
Texas was attacked by largest tornado of all time (category F-5, with wind speed 430kmph ) causing
a damage of 2billion dollars. It certainly looked that way as “Nargis” attacked on Myanmar just a
few days back leaving around 100,000 people dead. And it certainly looked that way as the sodden
wreckage of New Orleans continues to molder, with over 25 major hurricanes hitting in just 90 days.
Disasters have always been with us and surely will be. But when they hit so hard and come this fast,
something must have gone grievously wrong. And that something is GLOBAL WARMING.

“Global warming can seem too remote to worry about, or too uncertain”- something projected by
same computer technologists that often can’t get next week’s weather right. From Alaska to the
snowy peaks of Himalayas, the world is heating up now and fast. Globally the temperature is up by
1OC over the past century, but some of the coldest spots like Greenland and Antarctica, have
warmed up more. Ice is melting, rivers are running dry and coasts are eroding, threatening the
 communities. The changes are happening largely out of sight. But they shouldn’t be out of mind,
because they are omens of what’s in store for rest of the planet.

Drought and flood, famine and pestilence, tornado and hurricane, name your calamity and I can bet
90% of those can be blamed on Global Warming. Many scientists say “Climate is notoriously
fickle”. Sure, the natural rhythms of climate might explain a few of the warming signs, but
something else is driving the planet-wide fever.

From centuries we’ve been clearing forests, and burning coal, oil and gas, pouring CO2 and other
heat-trapping gases into the atmosphere faster than plants and oceans can soak them. We’re now
geological agents, capable of affecting the processes that determine climate. In effect, we’re piling
extra blankets on our planet. Global temperatures are shooting up faster than any other time in past
thousand years. Some experts fear today’s temperature rise could accelerate into devastating
climate lurch. Continuing to fiddle with global thermostat is not just the wise thing to do.

But the damage is already done. Already we’ve pumped out enough greenhouse gases to warm the
planet for many decades to come. The Arctic is warming several times faster than most of the planet,
ice there is melting on land and at sea. The release of freshwater into oceans has led to rise of sea-
level, which has already rang alarm for New York, California and many more cities supporting
millions of people, including our very own Mumbai.

The largest effect of Global Warming in past decade is La Ninā in 1988 and El Ninō in 1997 which
blasted away the pressure belts of earth’s atmosphere leading to grand scale damage worldwide
including India. While La Nina the collapse of the rainy phase of the monsoon system resulted in
drought that occurred in half of India leaving Orissa and Deccan drowned in millions of gallons of
flood water.

Source: JPL, California Institute of Technology, NASA

From past 2.5 million years Earth’s climate has cycled through ice age. In most recent episodes, ice
grew over tens of thousands of years until it formed large continental ice sheets. It then retreated
quickly, and the Earth entered warm inter-glacial period. And now we have entered the era of
warming due to our activities which have put our planet in the fireplace to roast.

Computer models project that continued warmings could trigger the rearrangement of currents,
perhaps leading to abrupt climate changes in the world, whose trailers are already in front of us.
We’ll have a better idea of actual changes in the next 10 years, because all of us will have lived
through them. But it is surely going to be a difficult world. The weather is going to change. It is fine
now, but that’s the end; it’s turning rough tomorrow.

The signs of warming are striking enough, but they are just a taste of havoc the next century could
bring. Can we act in time to avert the worst of it..?? The Earth will tell….!!!

By:-

Gaurav Madan

Vice Chairperson (Program Committee)

IEEE Student Branch
Maharaja Agrasen Institute of Technology
Region 10, IEEE Delhi Section