Sand art depicts global warming threat

Puri, Mar 26 (UNI) Internationally acclaimed sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik has once again chosen to use his art for a cause and this time it's to highlight the threat of global warming to India's famous monuments along the coast.

Patnaik in association with Greenpeace, created miniatures of popular heritage monuments - Jagannath temple(Puri), Shore temple at Mammalapuram (Tamilnadu) and Gateway of India (Mumbai), on the golden beach here.

The sand sculptor, through his art, cautioned that these monuments would submerge in the next 100 years if the rise in temperature was not maintained below the two degrees point.

''The issue of global warming is close to my heart,'' Patnaik said adding that flood, drought, water shortage and sea surge are all impacts of global warming and will devastate everything in forthcoming years.

He said Orissa alone would create four million climate victims as estimated in a Greenpeace report.

Greenpeace, in a report released yesterday, said more than 125 million people could be displaced in India and Bangladesh if the global temperature rose by four to five degrees Celsius.

The report warned that if greenhouse gas emissions continued to grow, the South Asian region could face a wave of migrants displaced by the impacts of climate change, including rise in sea-level, drought and monsoon variability.

The report suggested India to develop international strategies to reduce the risk of destructive climate change.

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