Cement, Energy and Environment

reverse decline and still meet future demands for food," the Telegraph quoted Crawford as saying. Latest forecasts predict the world's population will grow from 6.8 billion to more than 9 billion by 2050, placing even further pressure on food production and farming. Courtesy: The Times of India, February 6, 2010, P 17. CLIMATE CHANGE - OATA FROM INDIAN SUB– CONTINENT The data are collected by meteorologists and other climate scientists from around India, furnished below: • Orissa has been experiencing average temperature increase of 1QC between 1951 and 1990 as well as more frequent cyclones - 12 in 2006 and 14 in 2007. • Andhra Pradesh has seen a rise of 1 degree C rise in maximum temperatures between 1946 and 2000 with intense rainfall events increasing in districts away from the coast. • Madhya Pradesh has been experiencing varying temperature trends - while Gwalior is cooling, Jabalpur is warmer in summers and colder in winter as well as decline in rainfall. • In Gujarat, the increase in temperature per decade since 1958 ranges from 0.2- 0.5 degrees while rainfall has increased in Anand and decreased in Junagarh districts. • Maharashtra has seen a 1 degree rise in m1mmum temperature and 0.2 degree rise in maximum tempere~ure between 1968 and 2007. It gets more rains in May and June than July and August. • Karnataka has seen a shift in peak rainfall month from September to October. The state gets lower rains in July and more in August; less rain in the coastal districts and more in the interior districts. • Kerala experienced a 0.8 degree temperature increase between 1961 and 2003. Rainfall declined in June -July with a marginal increase in August· September. • In Chhattisgarh, temperature rose in most districts, more so in October and November between 1950 and 2006. Drop in rainfall in most districts. Says Ajit Tyagi, Director General of the Indian Meteorological Department (IMD), "Maximum and minimum temperatures all over India - as in the rest of the world - have risen and there are minor changes in rainfall patterns which is showing up as changes in local weather patterns. For instance, the frequency and intensity of dust storms in northern India have come down dramatically indicating a cooling in the northwestern India, while the summer monsoon rains come in shorter and rnore intense bursts." Future predictions of changes include a rise in the maximum and m1n1mum temperatures by 2-5 degrees in Tamil Nadu by 2080. The state is also likely to receive more southwest monsoon and lesser northeast monsoon in the southern parts. Courtesy: the energy business, February 2010, Pp 18- 19. t. FORESEEING A CLIMATIC CATASTROPHE FOR MUMBAI! The financial capital of India could face damages worth Rs. 35,00,000 crore by 2050 because of climate change. Between 1901 and 2007, it registered a mean temperature rise of 1.62' C. The sea level around the island city is rising by 2.4 mm every year. Together they would unleash a chain of disasters: flash floods, disease outbreaks, building collapses, dislocation and death. Courtesy: Down to Earth, December 1-15, 2009, P46. NITROGEN- THE POTENT GLOBAL WARMER? Tiasa Adhya Biology, chapter 23, Nitrogen fixing, notes: This element is essential to life and is the building block of proteins. Photosynthesis and plant growth is impossible without it. The element is nitrogen. Although the Earth's atmosphere is an abundant source, it cannot be used by plants until it is 'fixed'. This means converting gaseous nitrogen into forms usable by living organisms. Usually cooperative bacteria that live in soils or in harmony with plants do the fixing. Life would not be possible if the nitrogen cycle was disrupted. The part that any chapter is yet to include: global warming can disrupt the nitrogen cycle. Warmer climates could lead to loss of nitrogen from desert soils in the form of gas. Desert plants already have limited supply of nitrogen. Desert ecology would be doomed. Over the years scientists observed that nitrogen losses from arid zones could not be -- _... ...---- -~ ··- 1 .... v 43 \