See future on Google Earth

The India of 2100 and the impact of climate change in the years between now and then, can be seen through a new navigation tool on Google Earth. A report by Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: May 21, 2008, 03:34:24 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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The future may not be too far. For instance, the India of 2100 and the impact of climate change in the years between now and then, can be seen through a new navigation tool on Google Earth. The tool was added to the global satellite map-based website on Monday.

A joint initiative of the UK Met office Hadley Centre and Google Corporation, it shows projected increase in temperatures in different regions, based on medium carbon emission projection and how it could impact millions of people.

For India, the rise in temperature is projected to be between 4 and 6ºC with the projection of a rise in sea level devastating its eastern coast and agricultural production going down by a quarter by 2080. Based on information collected during a joint research project of the UK government, the Environment Ministry and Rural Development Ministry in 2006, Google Earth takes you to places that would undergo major changes because of climate change.

The map shows Kolkata could be ravaged by climate change in 2070. About 12 million people and assets worth $2,000 billion could be exposed to coastal flooding, due to climate and social changes, says the information map on Google Earth.

The bleak picture should leave farmers a worried lot. The entire northwestern area has been painted a light brown, warning of projected increase in drought risk. The other prediction: a fall in production by almost a quarter in the area due to the increase in low-level ozone, which creates breathing problems for plants.

While drought looms large over the north, farmers in Bihar, Orissa and south India — except Kerala — could witness more floods because of unpredictable rainfall. These regions have been painted red, an indication of the possible devastation. There’s more bad news for farmers in these areas: the Hadley Centre projects an increase in summer rainfall of one-third, which would have a major impact on water resources and crop pattern.

The research also shows regions in India where moist and dry savanna forests would decline by one-third, as well as areas where tropical seasonal forest cover would increase by the same level. But, loss of evergreen forests would mean loss of bio-diversity and extinction of many species.

The melting glacial zone in the Himalayas has also been highlighted, indicating concern over projected ecological devastation. The map shows an increase in the malaria season in most of central and south India, due to the rise in temperature and humidity.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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