Expert warns of climate change consequences

By Ramesh Mathew

Staff Reporter

A visiting environmental campaigner has appealed to people to be aware of the consequences of climate change and global warming and raise their voice against critical issues such as rising sea levels and deforestation happening in different parts of the world.

“It is doubtful if  common people across the world, including those living in economically-advanced countries, are aware of the disasters in store on account of such worrisome issues as rising sea levels and deforestation,” Prof E Kunhikrishnan, a former head of the zoology stream at the University College, Thiruvananthapuram, India, told Gulf Times yesterday.

He was in town to deliver the keynote address at a session on “Climate change - manmade causes and challenges”, organised by the Ministry of Environment in association with Thissur Jilla Souhrida Vedi, yesterday evening to coincide with the World Environment Day celebrations.

The academic recalled that there were enough examples of damage to the bio-diversity, ecology and heritage arising from the conquests for supremacy between different empires and powers, fought mainly in the seas.

The ancient Romans, Turks, Persians, the Dutch, Portuguese and the English made voyages to different regions and each of them had to wage wars for annexing and retaining the territories under their control.

“If one looks closely at the wars they fought it could easily be found that considerable damage was caused to the ecology of the places where they waged battles,” he said.

“Likewise most of the damage and destruction happening to the world these days is because of man-made causes. However, it is unfortunate that not much attention is being paid to such burning issues these days even though we are very much aware that the world is sitting on the edge of a volcano,” he lamented.

“Also it is doubtful if the commoners are aware of such issues as the certainty of island nations as Tuvalu, Samoa and even Maldives getting submerged in the coming decades owing to the rising of the sea level,” he said.

“The world is also all set to witness a new situation - those of refugees of environmental disasters.”

In many countries, especially in Asia and Africa, there seems to be tendency among people to label even committed and dedicated environmental campaigners as “public nuisance”.  This is mainly due to the ignorance of the population about the issues which they are fighting for, he pointed out.

Any mega projects initiated by the government could be called “useful” only if they serve the future generations without harming the interests of the people that they serve. “However, there is a growing tendency among politicians in some regions of the world to champion endlessly for projects that seem to serve only the vested economic interests of those behind them,” said the professor while hailing a recent Green Tribunal verdict in India cancelling the sanction accorded to an airport project in southern Kerala.

“There is nothing wrong whatsoever in opposing any project that stalls the public’s channels to drinking water, shelter or free air,” he said.

Senior educational consultant at the Ministry of Environment Mohsen Z al-Khayarin also spoke at the session on climate change.

Call for ‘workable’ waste-disposable plans

Prof E Kunhikrishnan has highlighted the necessity of developing “workable and practicable” waste-disposal plans, depending on the actual requirements of every society. “It is not the size of a plant that matters. Rather its merit is assessed on the basis of how it functions and how it benefits a society that it covers,” said the academic.

“Thickly populated cities should concentrate on building micro plants in different localities of the place rather than building one or two large-sized plants,” he said, citing  examples in many cities across the world, especially in Europe. The advantage with smaller plants is the facility for easy disposal of solid wastes and converting them into organic manure that could yield revenues to its operators, he said.

The environmental campaigner urged  authorities of industrialised societies to think  more seriously  about  the disposal of industrial wastes.

“The best way to deal with industrial waste is to develop methods at local levels to explore the possibility of developing manure and disposable things, eventually to market them.”