Creative Producer: Kunal Mehra
‘Climate hasn't changed.'’
‘We have changed.'
'Our habits have changed.'
This is what Prime Minister Narendra Modi had said on climate change, in a Teachers’ Day interaction with students in 2014.
Back then, Modi had all but dismissed climate change as "people's inability to tolerate the cold as they grow older."
But now, in 2020, even PM Modi agrees and made his point in the United Nations Climate Summit in New York.
“A lot of efforts are being made across the world to fight climate change. But we have to agree that to battle this serious problem, not enough is being done,” the prime minister said.
There’s more than enough data to make it official:
Climate change is not a thing of the future – and it hasn’t been for quite some time now.
Let's take a closer look at the year that just went by:
- The 2010-2019 decade was the warmest that India has ever witnessed, since records began in 1901.
- It was the 7th warmest year since 1901.
- At least 350 people killed due to heat waves during the year.
- Overall, the number of deaths in 2019 due to extreme weather events stood at 1,630 – in just one year
Consider this, we saw the longest summer and the coldest winter, all in one year.
About 2.17 million people were displaced in the first six months of the year – again, due to extreme weather events.
‘Most Delayed Monsoon’
India experienced the most delayed monsoon since 1961. But, by the end of that "delayed monsoon", the country recorded the highest rainfall since 1994.
Karnataka, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Assam, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Manipur saw unprecedented floods.
While UP alone saw 110 people die because of deluge.
India was also hit by seven cyclones, for the second year in a row. Australia and Brazil are not the only countries affected by forest fires. India, too, recorded an exponential increase in forest fires – a 113 percent increase.
That brings us to the end of 2019.
While IMD had warned of a warm winter, the conditions were far from that. Not only did cold wave sweep North India in early December, Delhi saw the coldest December in recorded history.
To sum up, as ‘Science Guy’ Bill Nye said: ‘The World Is On Fire!’
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