Future generations would face immensely difficult living conditions unless urgent steps are not taken to combat global warming, warned D.V. Bhaskara Rao, retired professor of meteorology and oceanography at Andhra University.
“Future generations may have to live under more complicated and challenging situations in view of global warming as rising temperatures pose multiple threats to human life,” Prof Bhaskara Rao said.
In a lecture on climate change organised jointly by the Centre for Policy Studies and Visakhapatnam Public Library, Prof. Bhaskar Rao, Fellow of the Indian Meteorological Society, spoke on the effects of global warming which is leading to an increase in temperatures by about 0.2°C per decade due to a rise in anthropogenic greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide.
Climate changes
“The increase in CO2 is due to burning of fossil fuels and rapid industrialisation. The climate change has been responsible for a rise in sea levels and an increase in extreme weather events. The impacts are reflecting in the occurrence of stronger cyclones, intense local storms, and a rise in droughts and floods,” he said.
He also explained how climate change affects the economies of different countries, helping the GDP of countries in colder regions to gain and countries in warm tropical regions to shrink as the current warming helps the cool countries to spend less on CO2 controls and gain from production whereas developing countries like India have to look for newer technologies for CO2 reduction and spend more of their resources on combating the impact of climate change.
