Monsoon to become weaker in India due to global warming

New Delhi, Feb 5 (UNI) A weaker monsoon, more severe heatwaves and extreme precipitation are among the various impacts of the climatic change due to global warming, according to the fourth report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Briefing mediaperson here after presenting the in Paris, IPCC chief RK Pachauri said the country faces the threat of rising sea and retreating glaciers in the Himalayas that would put a severe strain on its water resources.

''We are going to get less and less rain from the monsoon. And China too will face more frequent droughts,'' Mr Pachairi, who is also Director Gneral of The Energy Research Institute (TERI), said.

He said the Arctic was warming twice the rate of rest of the world, and the gulf stream current was losing its heat. There are clear proofs that man-made global warming was now a reality.

The rising sea-level will affect many regions like Rann of Kutch and Goa and other coastal regions in the country.

He said the report found that the snow cover in northern hemisphere was gradually decreasing and there were going to be warmer nights.

Dr Pachauri stressed the need of adopting more energy efficient technologies and practices and preparing a roadmap for cutting down emission of carbon.

The IPCC report said that climatic changes will be caused by a rise in global temperature between 1.8 and 4.0 degrees Celsius in this century due to increasing human-induced concentration of greenhouse gases into the atmposphere.

Temperatures rose about 0.7 degrees Celsius in the 20th century.

A more warmer globe will spell greater disaster for poor countries like India who have to house and feed a huge population dependent on agriculture which itself was dependent on vagaries of weather and climate.

This time IPCC's warning about global warming is tougher in proportion to the definitiveness of its conclusion.

The latest report has said it was ''very likely'' that human activities of the past 50 years were the main cause for global warming, while in the previous report released in 2001, it had said it was ''likely''that global warming was caused by such activities.

The report said global atmospheric concentration of carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide has increased markedly as a result of human activities since 1750.

The global increases in carbon dioxide concentration are due to primarily fossil fuel use and land-use change, while those of methane and nitrous oxide are primarily due to agriculture.

UNI