Uncontrolled emission of greenhouse gas in heavily industrialised nations is one of the main reasons for global warming. Though demands to cut on its emission has been made repeatedly at international platforms, the developed nations have shied away from agreeing to a legally binding emission cut rate so far. In the picture, a brick kiln chimney belches harmful gases into the air in Guwahati. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
The United Nations Climate Summit held in Copenhagen in December 2009 failed to broker an internationally binding deal on greenhouse gas emission cut rate. It was also unable to set a time frame for the emission cut. While the developed and the major developing countries adopted a target of keeping the global average temperature rise since pre-industrial times to 2º Celsius, island nations — faced with the danger of rising water levels — demanded a target of 1.5º Celsius. Photo: AP
Unscientific felling and burning of trees to make way for human habitation and agriculture purposes is causes an imbalance in nature. This directly affects climate. With lesser green coverage, carbon dioxide emitted from burning fuels goes on to heating up the atmosphere resulting in global warming. Photo: Ritu Raj Konwar
Several rivers in developing nations such as India and China are dying a slow death as industries and civic authorities continue dumping untreated sewage and harmful chemical effluents into them. This severely damages riverine ecology and results in the death of its aquatic biomass. In this picture, people wash soiled containers in the Ganga river in Moradabad. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently remarked that time was running out for the river unless serious efforts were taken to clean it up. Photo: PTI
Retreating glaciers in most major mountain systems and melting of glaciers at the poles at an alarming rate are two important implications of global warming. The polar bear population in the North Pole faces serious threat due to this. Photo: AFP
The threat of devastating floods looms large with rising sea levels due to melting of ice caps at the poles. Last year's floods in Bangkok are a gloomy reminder to the fact. Photo: AP
The large-scale devastation and displacement brought about by the floods is an alarm bell to what might be lying ahead in future. Around 2.5 million people were affected — lost their homes, livestock and farming lands — in Pakistan in 2010 due to floods. Photo: AP
Man-made accidents can also pose serious threats to the fragile ecological balance. The Mexican Gulg oil-spill disaster caused due to an explosion in a British Petroleum oil rig proved expensive for the marine life and people living on the coasts in the region. Photo: AP
Mindless mining of minerals can have a devastating impact on the ecology of the region. Iron-ore mining in certain parts of Orissa and Karnataka have wreacked havoc on both human life and nature. Photo: K. Bhagya Prakash
Shifting to usage of non-conventional energy sources like solar and wind are the necessities of the day with rapidly depleting conventional fuel resources and the emission of greenhouse gases. Photo: G. Karthikeyan