‘Climate change gradually affects human life’

BHUBANESWAR: Climate change is not a problem in India only, it is a global concern which poses threats to the biological diversity of the planet, said the speakers and delegates in the State-level seminar on ‘Challenges of Climate Change: Loss of Biodiversity in India’ here on Tuesday. The seminar was organised by the Society for Participatory Action and Reflection (SPAR), a Kolkata-based NGO working on environmental issues, as a part of its innovative programme Promotion of Issue based Strategic Alliance (PISA).

Expressing grave concern over the loss of bio-diversity in India, former Information Commissioner of the State Prof Radhamohan said the people of the country should think about the conservation of forests and environment as the forest land is gradually decreasing which creates a major problem to maintain the balance of the ecosystem and to preserve the biodiversity in the nature. Climate change and loss of bio-diversity is gradually affects human life, he added.  

Gracing the occasion the experts said that land degradation such as soil erosion, deteriorating soil quality and desertification are driven by climate variability such as changes in rainfall, droughts and floods. Degraded land releases more carbon and greenhouse gasses back into the atmosphere and slowly kills off forests and other biodiversity that can sequester carbon, creating a feedback loop that intensifies climate change, they added.

Similarly, water degradation is exacerbated by climate change as it plays havoc with the hydrological cycle, destabilizing ground water tables, altering the levels of nutrients and sediment in the water and ultimately increasing biodiversity loss and leading to further land degradation. Chemicals discharged into the soil, waterways, and oceans are having a broader impact as climate change is altering ocean currents and weather patterns and changing animal migration, the experts said. The chemicals that reduce fertility rates and disrupt immune systems are spreading into mammals and birds that they were never expected to affect, they cautioned.