Water Resources Ministry's 'doubt' about global warming questioned

New Delhi, Aug 25 (UNI) An environmentalist has questioned the Ministry of Water Resource's contention that global warming is debatable.

The Ministry, quoting the Geological Survey of India (GSI), had told the Rajya Sabha that most of the glaciers in the Himalayas as well as those in other parts of the world were receding, which may be a result of subnormal snowfall, higher temperature during summer, less severe winter or a combination of all of them, and ''it might also be due to global warming, a topic which is still debatable.'' Enviornmentalist Himanshu Thakkar said the Ministry should clarify whether the Government still considered global warming a ''debatable'' topic.

'' This is very shocking, especially when there is so much scientific evidence from all over the world about the impact of global warming on climate and contribution of human activities there of. Even if the Ministry claimed it was quoting GSI opinion, its stand was still questionable as to why it found fit to quote an unscientific assertion,'' he said.

The first para of the Minister's reply stated, '' the recession of glaciers may result due to subnormal snowfall..'' , which means that agencies concerned, including the Ministry of Water Resources, had no idea about whether there had been a reduction in snowfall or not and if there was, how much of that might impact the recession of glaciers, he said.

Mr Thakkar quoted the next para which stated, ''...snow fall and precipitation, which are likely to go up with global warming...'' and questioned that if global warming led to an increase in snowfall, then from where did the question of subnormal snowfall leading to recession of glaciers arise. Theoretically, it can be said that the statement is correct, but practically, there are obvious contradictions.

Pointing out to the next statement of the Ministry's reply that ''More melting of glaciers will generate more water initially, hence there is no likelihood of northern rivers drying up in the near future'', he wanted to know if the Ministry had the data to substantiate whether rivers had more water during summer (when glaciers melt), what ''near future'' means and ''what would happen after that? '' UNI