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“Need for change in lifestyle to tackle climate change”

NEW DELHI: Noble laureate Rajendra K. Pachauri on Wednesday stressed the need for a change in the mindset and lifestyle of the people and a major shift in every sector of economy to deal with the challenge of climate change. He was delivering the 14th Justice Sunanda Bhandare Memorial Lecture at Chinmaya Mission Centre.

Delivering a lecture on “Ethics and The Challenge of Climate Change”, Dr. Pachauri, who won the Noble Peace Prize in 2007, said: “Scientists had been warning us of the implications of the climate change, brought about by the industrialisation, for over a hundred years. A lot has been written and extensive research is done on the adverse effects of unbridled industrialisation, but we have ignored what the knowledge had been telling us because it was in the interest of companies and the people.”

Lamenting the fact that very little had been done to counter the effects of climate change, Dr. Pachauri said the emission of harmful gases had increased by 70 per cent over the past three decades and the sea-level had gone up by 17 cm in the past century.

“But the people are still not taking the problem seriously. We are still in a state of denial and do not want to compromise with our lifestyle. The need of the hour is sustainable development so that we can meet the needs of present generation without compromising on the needs of future generations,” added Dr. Pachauri, Chairman of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Asserting that the problem of climate change had an ethical dimension to it, Dr. Pachauri said most discussions on climate change get bogged down by economic or business implications, but at the core of this entire problem was the issue of ethics. The function was presided over by Delhi High Court Chief Justice Justice Ajit Prakash Shah. Supreme Court Judge Justice Arijit Pasayat was the chief guest.

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