Indian scientists approach to ''climate change science ''

New Delhi, Aug 11 (UNI) The Centre for Science and Environment has demanded new approaches from Indian scientists to face the challenge of climate change.

''Climate change science, because of its many variables and very many scenarios is a game of chess which can only be played by investigative and highly inquisitive minds, '' says CSE director Sunita Narain.

According to her, this science demands new approaches, breaking away from what is already known, to discover what needs to be known.

It will require crossing the line so that inferences can be drawn, however tentative. It will require active engagement with the 'outside' world of ordinary people, she said.

However, she feels, Indian scientists were reluctant to cross the threshold, from established science to emerging science.

''They prefer to play safe with what they know. In the case of climate science, they prefer to be cautious in their words, very conservative in their assessment and take refuge in the inherent uncertainty of science.

For instance, she said, it will be easy for 'safe' science to say that even if glaciers are receding at a rapid pace, it is nothing new or surprising.

They are simply passing through a phase of recession as a natural cyclic process. It will also be possible to say that even if one knows that glaciers were melting, there was no evidence to say that this will lead to any significant change in our hydrological systems.

''Why? Because our ongoing research does not show anything deviant. It is another matter that the data or method used for the research might be insufficient, or that the scientist may not have followed the slim leads that nature was disclosing about herself,'' Ms Narain said.

She feels that the Indian scientific establishment has been just an establishment, and it has chosen only to work with established science that is peer-reviewed, empirical and unchallenged.

Worse, because of the nature of its institutions-which are closed to outsiders on the one hand but subservient to officialdom on the other, it will not engage in any public discourse.

''The challenge is that even if we know little about how the accumulation of greenhouse gases will affect us, we cannot afford to wait until we have all the answers. We can't afford to be uncertain in our actions, even if we are uncertain about our science,'' Ms Narain said in a recent speech in the UN Gneral Assembly.

UNI