In line with rising carbon dioxide concentrations, global temperatures have also rocketed, with 2016 being the hottest year since records were systematically maintained from 1880. Last year was about 1.1°C warmer than pre-industrial levels. The 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change , hopes to keep the global temperature increase, by the turn of the century, well below 2°C.
Were CO2 levels to rise at present rates, concentrations could touch 500 ppm within 50 years and warm the earth by an unsustainable 3°C.
Reflecting the global trend, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) says the country is on an average 0.6° Celsius warmer than a century ago. Here too, 2016 was the warmest year since 1901. Summer temperatures across India, according to the IMD, were “above normal” and the summer months of March-May last year were 1.36°C higher than the historical average.
Disease outbreak
The elevated carbon dioxide levels were also linked to increasing instances of extreme rainfall and are likely to cause disease outbreaks. As The Hindu reported earlier this month, the IMD is working on a system to issue 15-day warnings on the likelihood of a malaria or chikungunya outbreak, over different regions.
This, according to IMD Director-General K.J. Ramesh, was part of a larger initiative by the department to provide custom, weather-related information to cope with challenges of a global warming.
