Are the recent natural disasters manmade?
By Shreya Nath (@nath.shreya) & Sneha Singh (@bsnehasingh)
India’s west and east coast have been battered by cyclones Tauktae and Yaas within the span of a week. The effects of the cyclones have left many areas along the coast devastated.
Two cyclones so close together should have come as a surprise. But with several similar instances in our recent memory many of us have become immune to these unlikely climate events.
Year after year the Indian Meteorological department issues reports on changing rainfall patterns, with excessive rainfall in one year and droughts the next. This got us thinking. Why are we experiencing climate disasters more frequently? And, what can we do to better cope with it?
Climate change is not in the distant future, it’s already happening.
Scientists agree that global temperatures are rising and that greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activities are largely to blame. Despite many countries signing up to cut emissions we still haven’t made enough progress. We are not approaching the problem with the needed urgency.
Many of us still assume that climate change is something that will happen in the distant future. The fact that the weather still fluctuates makes it easy for us to forget that our planet is in fact warming even when we have cooler days. Many parts of the world are already 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than pre-industrial levels.
This may seem like a small increase, but it leads to a much higher frequency of extreme weather events. Some scientists refer to this phenomenon as loading the climate dice. When the climate was relatively stable before the 1980s, there were fewer erratic climate events. With the rise in temperatures, the climate has become more unstable, loading the climate dice towards more frequent extreme weather events.
Cities will be hard hit by climate change. They are also greenhouse gas generators accounting for nearly 70% of all global emissions. This makes it crucial for us to look at how to build cities that are able to withstand the changing climate.
We can learn a lot from nature about how to adapt to changing climates. Most manmade infrastructure simply isn’t as flexible. By neglecting our cities’ natural assets we are turning natural disasters into manmade ones with more severe consequences.
Most Indian cities are crumbling under the weight of rapid unplanned urbanization, resulting in ad hoc development and mismanagement of utilities.
Cities being densely populated, rely on pipelines and borewells for water, rural farms for food and malls and theatres for recreation. In the past, these essential services were provided by blue and green spaces like lakes, rivers, farms and parks. Shifting towards manmade infrastructure has made them less essential to our daily lives. They are neglected at best or built on at worst!
This has brought with it a new set of problems. Construction in naturally low-lying areas such as lakebeds has made our cities more flood-prone. Water bodies and drains are left full with sewage, garbage and wastewater breaking down natural stormwater flows. Unplanned urbanization also makes cities unable to cope with droughts because groundwater is being drawn out at a much faster rate than it is being recharged. With most of the green spaces in the city having disappeared, cities have lost their ability to cope with rising temperatures and naturally recharge groundwater networks.
By changing our relationship with the natural surroundings and making climate action plans, we can help our cities cope with the changing climate.
Cities across the world are using innovative methods that work with nature to cope with the changing climate. Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS) have reduced flooding in Copenhagen, Philadelphia and parts of Singapore by effectively managing stormwater run-off. Wuhan is a sponge city designed to absorb rainwater and allow recharge of groundwater tables. Increasing tree cover has helped deal with the problem of overheating in Stuttgart.
Governments have also realized that having climate action plans is equally important in disaster management. Rio De Janeiro has a citywide policy for Early Warning Systems which ensures zero deaths during floods.
Read more: Pathways for building more climate resilient Indian cities.
With CSEI’s Green Cities Initiative, we are trying to bring some of these research-backed solutions to Indian cities to make them more resilient (more on that here). To know more about the initiative reach out to shreya.nath@atree.org.
