Upside of global warming

 ^{Upside of global warming}

Top photos: Reuters
Bottom photos: Khaleej Times

Last week nature threw up a mind-boggling shock. There were heavy rains in the United Arab Emirates, which their MET department said were the heaviest in the last 75 years. News reports said this caused floods in Dubai, Sharjah and some other areas of the Emirate of Ras al Khaimah. Sadly, five persons also died in incidents related to floods. 

The heavy rain and floods also brought with them the resultant problems, disruption in normal life, people stuck inside flooded buildings, sewage contaminated water, disturbance in road and air transport, cancelled flights and stranding of passengers etc., a scenario, we, in most parts of India, are very well familiar with.

Although most experts (and non-experts) blamed cloud seeding by the authorities for this, Richard Washington, Professor, Climate Science, University of Oxford, has other views.

Parts of the Arabian Peninsula received 18 months of rainfall in 24 hours that Tuesday. The airport looked more like a harbour.

The power, intensity and organisation of a storm like this is hard to fathom. What surprised me, though, was not the majesty of nature, but an emerging set of reports blaming the ensuing rains on cloud seeding. One broadsheet even insinuated the University of Reading, a powerhouse of meteorological expertise, was responsible.

https://www.deccanherald.com/world/dont-blame-dubais-freak-rain-on-cloud-seeding-the-storm-was-far-too-big-to-be-human-made-2991917

 Image of Dubai floods sent by Copernicus Sentinel 2 of
European Space Agency

Perhaps those who oppose climate change factor, would now believe in its existence. Some of them might opine that weather gods are busy inventing and playing new kind of games. In fact, these freak weather-related occurrences should bring the world and its people together because all of them are suffering in some way or the other.

Back home too, weather system is changing. Summers are getting hotter and winters colder. It is April-end and temperatures have already crossed 42 degrees (above 107.6 degrees F) preparing to roast and grill all that is outdoors.

Our population is increasing. We need more housing and transport. So, the number of houses and denuding of forests is increasing, the number of vehicles and thus, pollution are also going up. In effect, we are the drivers of this destruction bus of our planet.

We do not sit under trees any more, we spend our lives in closed concrete apartments with more and more air-conditioners. Why, even schools lure students by promising aircons. We do not survive on lassi/ water and musk melons/mangoes/cucumbers/cooling natural sherbets, we prefer sugary concoctions which have been prepared by machines in factories spewing smoke. For the sake of comfort, convenience and economy, we have given up our labour-intensive old ways of life which depended mostly on nature and have adopted very artificial systems and appendages.

But wait, stop for a second. Why not think of the possible advantages? If I was participating in a school debate on benefits of global warming, I would say climate change would bring milder climate.

Perhaps it would cause snowfall in Delhi and Lucknow. People would not clammer to go to Shimla/Mussoorie/Darjeeling/Manali/Ooty to enjoy the snow, thus saving the hill stations from overcrowding and degradation.

If global warming does not go to alarming levels, agricultural production could increase solving the food problem to some extent. There would be less use of insecticides (even deodorants if the summers turned milder). Tempers would not run high as they generally do in summer and cases of road rage and road accidents could come down. There would be abundant rainfall and thus water, so water scarcity would not be an issue.

There would not be the next ice age and film producers would rake in millions making fresh fantasy films on the subject.

At the global level, it would get easier for people to live in hitherto uninhabited places e.g., the Arctic, Antarctic, and Greenland.

Even those being sent to Siberia would not feel it is the end of this lifecycle for them.

In better weather, perhaps Indians would start spending more time outdoors thus cutting down on their reproduction time and helping bring our population down.

On personal level, I would be able to enjoy steaming drinks and smoking hot food all the year round. Instead of fighting for supremacy over the air conditioner remote, families would live in harmony and sit to share tales of jab main chhota bachcha tha (when I was a small kid) or yaad hai? (Do you remember?).

Perhaps thousands of species in the living world would live long, thus maintaining the ecological balance.

Much as I love dwelling on the thought and enumerating the plus points of a little global warming, only two issues prick my mind: how would penguins and polar bears survive?

And a bigger one for me- Will I have to bear the fear and revolting sight of wall lizards crawling on the walls the whole year round? Yuk!

Till somebody finds a solution to my problem, I would keep my fingers crossed that global warming does an about turn and freak weather conditions do not happen anymore. 

                                                                                            -Anupama S Mani