On December 3rd, Chennai, India’s fourth largest city, received nearly 252 millimeters more rain than it used to receive in the month of December. 330 millimeters of rain had reached Chennai in under 24 hours. With such an increase in rain in such a short amount of time, it can be said that there is a correlation with the rising global temperatures and this flash flood.
Of course, this may be counted as only a freak rainfall, as these events have occurred several times in the past in other countries. In contrast, the number of events of rain spells have increased ever since climate experts reported that temperatures have increased globally.
So in fact, there is a tie between increasing global temperatures and sudden events as these floods. Now I ask, what are political leaders doing to solve these issues?
One in particular, the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, assures that India is indeed under the impact of climate change. On November 30th in Paris, he called for a ‘loss and damage’ agreement which stated that “developing countries want included the final climate agreement to ensure compensation for victims of climate change from richer countries for environmental damage done by them over decades as they industrialized.”
It’s good to know that he’s attempting to shape his country back by pursuing the causes, but there are flaws to his solution of targeting countries that he believes are most responsible for climate change.
Although China and the United States are mainly to blame for their part in climate change (for they are known for their large consumption of fossil fuels and coal), India is at fault as well for being fourth in emitting the most greenhouse gases in the world. They emit around 6% of the world’s greenhouse gases, so they have a part to play to reduce their emissions, to say the least. Not only did climate change destroy India’s cities; it also cost India billions of dollars worth of property damage and loss.
If something is not done for cutting down the rate of greenhouse gas emissions, India will need to pay nearly $1 trillion between now and 2030 to support only for its adaptation activities, and the world will have to spend around $318 trillion by 2050 on fueling climate change.
