New Delhi: Global warming is at your doorstep. And climate change is a reality in India. Pushkar Singh Negi from Ratapani, in Pohri Garhwal, knows this best.
His fields are rich and like all the farmers in the district, he says it's the blessing of the river a few hundred kilometres downstream.
In Gajewali village near Haridwar, 55-year-old Sita Ram couldn't agree more. Beginning at the Gangotri, the Himalayan Glacier-fed Ganga is the lifeline for millions of people in Northern India.
But locals are now worried as to how long it will last. All around them, the air, water and wind have all suddenly changed.
"Bachpan mein hume do-teen sweater ki jarrorat parti thi and aag sekna parta tha. Ab toh aag sekne ka jarrorat hi nahi, ek sweater se kaa chal jaata hai (we used to wear two-three sweaters and needed bonfires when we were young. Now, no bonfires are need, and we can make do with just one sweater)" Pushkar Singh Negi, a farmer at Ratapani, testifies.
Pehle gehun, ganne, makke sab ugta tha, ab khali dhan aur ghehun, ganne toh hota hi nahi (earlier we used to cultivate so many things, nowadays it's only rice and wheat)," says Sita Ram, another farmer.
The rapid retreat of the Himalayan glaciers may affect the economic development of the country as a whole.
But the real impact of global warming are likely to be felt more at the local level in the flora and fauna for the rural folk and in the energy and water crisis and simple climatic changes in the cities.
Experts from 105 countries have warned that we have eight years to save the world from global warming.
It's been years since the Kyoto protocol came into force to restrict the emission of green house gases, but nothing much has changed, except the climate.
Last year, the Kyoto Protocol came into force. But scientists say it's a lame effort. The US still hasn't signed on the Kyoto protocol, an international legislation aimed at curbing gas emissions.
"We need to cap world emissions at 440 ppm. We are currently somewhere close to 36-370. But the world is saying we can't cap it at 440, we have to do it 550," Sunita Narain, Director of Centre for Science and Environment, points out.
From gas-guzzling cars to aerosol sprays, it's the consumers who are eating into the nature. But as India modernises, the climate change will affect all of us.
So next time you buy an SUV, remember, it releases nearly twice the emissions of a small car. Similarly, before you reach for the AC this summer, think of the big hole it's burning in the sky.
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