ABSTRACT
Ladies and Gentlemen - Human induced climate change is not a fiction. Since the late 19th century the global mean surface temperature has increased by about 0.5 degree Celsius. Recent years have been amongst the warmest, and global sea levels have risen by 10 to 25 cm over the past 100 years. We are all aware of the erratic 1990-95 persistent warm phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation which caused droughts and floods worldwide. By the year 2100 there will be a 2 degree Celsius mean global temperature escalation and an average sea level rise of half a metre. The number of extremely hot days will increase. The brunt of these adverse impacts will be in the tropics and subtropics, which will experience substantial agricultural productivity losses, delayed forest regeneration, irreversible desertification, coastal flooding and wide-ranging deleterious effects on human health. We, in India, are specially concerned because India’s population is predominantly dependent on the health of its agriculture, and about 8 million of our population live in the coastal areas.
