Changes in Precipitation, Sea Level, Humidity, Wind and Temperature
The aim of this report is to discuss the ways in which climate change has been predicted to impact upon the home city. The home city is the closest to the heart whether one is born or lives the longest. Any threat to the home city whether for social cause of the environmental, make people concerned and anxious. My home city is Ongole, Andhra Pradesh which is situated in the southern part of India. This reports therefore, the environmental changes in the home city through the aspects like precipitation, temperature, wind, sea level and humidity. This report will also discuss the social impacts due to global climate change by integrating regional considerations including water supplies, food supplies and refugee movements (Crate and Nuttall 2016). It concludes with the readily apparent adaptations as well as actions taken to mitigate these impacts.
Regional climate change has affected India severely due to the increase of greenhouse gas emissions, variations in the solar radiation, large volcanic eruptions and bush fire. Among the human influencing factors there are deforestation, increase in pollution at every level of earth’s atmosphere, biosphere and lithosphere and exploitation of natural resources without thinking of sustainable growth (Weforum.org 2018). These have caused a drastic climate change and global warming in the southern part of India.
The intrinsic rainfall in the southern part of India does not has consistency. The variability of rainfall changes from year to year and season to season. Therefore, attributing the regional rainfall change can be difficult to be observed and recorded (Haddeland et al. 2014). The monsoon enters the Indian subcontinent for the south western part. This monsoon branch enters my home city by early June and the wet season starts. The recent study has stated that the trend analysis regarding annual rainfall records are showing a significant negative trend in the annual precipitation in numerous districts of Western UP, Eastern UP, Arunachal Pradesh and Rajasthan whereas the south-central states of the country like coastal Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and Goa are showing positive trend of experiencing more than 95% precipitation (Rmets.org 2018).
As the home city Ongole has only 25 km distance from the Bay of Bengal, there is a threat from rising sea levels. According to the international scientific community, there is a possibility of raising the sea level by several centimeters in the coastal district of southern India by 2050 (Rmets.org 2018). The global report based on the satellite view, has stated that the sea-level has risen by 15 to 20 cm during the last century and it is currently rising at 3mm each year (Edf.org 2018).
Social Impacts and Regional Considerations
As mentioned before, Ongole is a place situated near sea hence the humidity level is much more than the rest of the part of India. The humidity is also affected by the rising temperature. Global warming has created a lethal weather condition in this city where the humidity is much more than the expected percentage or recorded than those of the previous years.
The city is situated in the tropical rainforest part of India for which it is common that there are number of tropical cyclones in that part. However, due to change in climate, the speed of wide leading to be a tropical cyclone has enhanced (Worldbank.org 2018). According to the research report, the places of southern India experience more temperature trend are likely to face more tropical cyclones stokes affecting the natural resources and population. In case of Andhra Pradesh, the risk is higher than the neighboring states. According to the 122 years of study, this region has been registered to be the maximum cyclone hit during 2013 (Edf.org 2018). This city is one of the cyclone prone places of the state among the four eastern coastal states of Indian subcontinent.
The studies of regional climate change have pointed out similarity between the observed increase of southern part of India’s temperature with the global climate models affected by the increasing effect of the greenhouse gases. The mean changes in the temperature have been accompanied by large increase in the extreme temperature (Ray et al. 2015). The temperature records of the southern part of India since 2001 states that the extreme heat records have outstripped the extreme cool records by 3 to 1 in day and 5 to 1 in night. In the whole reason, the very warm months have exceeded the expected temperature by fivefold (Rmets.org 2018). It is also more than the temperature prevailed in the least fifteen years. In the last decade the frequency of cool months of the season has declined by a third and the home city has experienced more temperature in the cool months of December to February.
The impact of these changes is unavoidable as the human beings cannot do anything to prevent these hazards and work against these natural forces. These are affecting the people of this globe in far reaching manners and they are evident across the regions.
The environmental impact of climate can be related with the instances of wildfire, land intoxication, reduced air quality and flood, storms and extreme drought. Due to excessive climate change, the crop production and fishing has been affected. These environmental impacts are closely related with the human actions. Therefore, the impacts of sudden climate change have also affected the lives and survival process of the human beings.
Adaptation and Action Strategies
In the city of Ongole, the effect of climate change has shown its darkest face as the state of Andhra Pradesh has witnessed a series of climate related problems. This ranges from the enhanced health risks, biodiversity loss, reduced agricultural productivity, drying ponds and lakes and decreasing soil capacity (Rosenzweig et al. 2014). Despite the fact as a city, the land usage for agricultural cause is minimum, but when the climate change has affected the food supply of the region, then the people of this city has stated to realize the actual situation. The city is full of different communities who mainly survive of fishing or selling them. There are number of resorts and hotels where thousands of tourists gather (Simonneaux et al. 2015). Due to climate change, the water of the oceans is getting affected. This is again deteriorated by the pollution of water hence the fishing industry has been affected intensely.
Due to excessive urbanization in the city, the water supply system has also got affected. The global warming has reduced the natural ground water level which is affecting the water supply in the city (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2015). The scarcity of fresh water is enhanced and water needed in the farming, drinking, washing and other human activities. Global warming and consequently increase of temperature have affected the water resources by reducing water supply in the river and lakes. Moreover, as this place is the nearer to sea, there is an issue of salinization of the fresh water which is reducing the amount of safe drinking water (Worldwatch.org 2018). In addition to this, heavy rainfall due to climate change has been affecting the infrastructures of the city like roads, port facilities, rail lines and the energy infrastructures.
As mentioned before due to global climate change the temperature has been disrupted in the regions. Hence in the home city also, the supply and food has been seen to be reducing (Dankers et al. 2014). The crop production is either affected by the flood or drought and the land intoxications hence the food shortage has become a threat from the people to survive (King et al. 2015).
Due to globalization the women, children and old people are sufferings they cannot effectively adapt with the changes in the climate. With the threat of rise of sea level, the human settlement is getting affected. In the city of Ongole, the fishermen are facing sustainable problem as they are not getting enough fish for their livelihood. Due to this threat, the tourism industry is also getting affected as the tourists are avoiding this place on the ground of not having ample benefits (Nelson et al., 2015). Hence a huge number of human settlements are gradually leaving the place to survive in another region where these threats are not so alarming.
Conclusion
In order to adapt with this situation, the government of Andhra Pradesh along with the government of India have taken ample initiatives. These include-
- disaster planning to combat issues of sudden cyclone and flood
- proper infrastructure to face flash flood and drought
- proper arrangements for heat exhaustion of the citizens
- Implanting proper energy system to reduce the effects of natural disasters (org 2018).
Despite the fact the government of the city has taken such path braking initiatives, the need to secure the lives of the residents so that they do not become homeless and leave the city. With increasing importation of food and water from the neighboring regions will also help the people in the city to survive efficiently and adapt themselves with the changing climate.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that due to enhanced global warming effects, the coastal parts of the Indian subcontinent especially the south eastern districts of Andhra Pradesh have been facing drastic temperature enhancement, heavy rainfall, risk of rising sea levels and tropical cyclones. These environmental issues are directly connected with the society and affecting the food and water supply of the place. However, the government has taken initiatives to mitigate these matters, the arraignments for adapting with the situation needs more motivation.
References:
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