For those focused just on North America, its sometimes good to get a more global perspective. Yesterday, a report was released on global warming impacts in India.
More than 3,200 people dead. As much as 3.2 million hectares of crops damaged, around 2.3 lakh [230,000] houses and buildings destroyed, and more than 9,400 livestock dead: all due to extreme weather events that occurred on 255 of the 274 days of the first nine months of this year across India.
I get tired of hearing from US environmental groups, for the last quarter of a century, that “its not too late” and other such ‘feel good’ BS. It is way too late. The inertia built into the massive global systems are such that by the time you start noticing, its too late. Think massive tanker ship or a long freight train. It takes a huge amount of energy to move them 1 inch but once they are moving their mass keeps them moving.
The amazing thing about Indian context is how much of the warming is diminished by the massive reduction in solar energy reaching the earth’s surface due to the severe air pollution. Only a fraction of the solar energy reaches the surface or even the lower atmosphere.
If you have not flown over or into India in the last 30 years, you have not experienced the subcontinent-wide plume of smoke that goes from the surface up to about 28,000′.
How much worse the warming would be if the subcontinent was not so polluted is an interesting question.
Check out the article and the full report.
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