Worrying Climate Change in Kashmir
News Kashmir Analysis
Climate Change is one of the serious issues facing humanity. In a ecologically fragile zone like Kashmir the climate change is also becoming a serious issue.
As a matter of fact, 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 that are causing climate change include carbon dioxide and methane. These come from using gasoline for driving a car or coal for heating a building, for example. 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 greenhouse gases.
On the other hand of the spectrum, Climate scientists have showed that humans are responsible for virtually all global heating over the last 200 years. Human activities like the ones mentioned above are causing greenhouse gases that are warming the world faster than at any time in at least the last two thousand years.
The average temperature of the Earth’s surface is now about 1.1°C warmer than it was in the late 1800s (before the industrial revolution) and warmer than at any time in the last 100,000 years. The last decade (2011-2020) was the warmest on record, and each of the last four decades has been warmer than any previous decade since 1850.
How the Spring season gave feel of winters this year and how less snow was witnessed this year in Kashmir is all but evident of worrying climate change.
Last year, it was revealed that
The average mean temperature in Jammu and Kashmir has increased in the last 28 years due to climate change, a senior official said last year . He said agriculture is the only sector that can help reduce poverty by raising incomes and food security for 80 per cent of the world’s poor populace.
“J&K is also witnessing the brunt of climate change and average mean temperature in last 28 years has climbed up by 2.32°C and 1.45°C in Jammu and Kashmir region, respectively,” Additional Chief Secretary (ACS) Atal Dulloo said after inaugurating a two-day international conference on “existing climate change scenario and its arising risks” here.
Also the expert pulse is that,
should prepare ourselves and our farmers to adapt to these weather changes so that they do not suffer on the economic front.
On the otherhand of spectrum, this year the
The quite fluid and unusualweather conditions in the Kashmir Valley have kept the residents and farmers on edge. As the May rains continue in June, when the locals were expecting an ideal sunny afternoon, the direct impact of climate change on the Himalayan region is keeping the growers anxious.
Farmers from several districts of the Valley are worried that the heavy, and untimely, rainfall along with hailstorms is also damaging the crops.
The climate change is undoubtedly a issue of serious nature for a place like Kashmir and we need to take steps to mitigate its impacts, otherwise sectors like agriculture would be badly hurt.
