Global warming and climate change: Implications for human security in India

Abstract

There is a measured rise in the belief that human activity has dramatically affected the environment. Many scientific studies have predicted that increased carbon dioxide emissions, due to increased use of fossil fuels, have triggered an outbreak of global warming. India signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol in August 2002. Nonetheless, the issues with regard to larger environmental degradation, environmental refugees, deforestation and other such associated environmental issues have increasingly occupied the core of development debate among the academicians, activists, policy planners and common citizens of the country for the last 60 years since India's independence. Environmental concerns of the Indian State do not match those expressed globally. Environment still remains a marginal issue for India. The six decades after independence have not shown any significant changes in the field of environment. Today, when the Himalayan glaciers are among some of the fastest receding glaciers in the world and when environment is being seen as more intimately connected with livelihood issues, it is important that we evaluate and understand the relationship between environmental concerns and human security. This paper attempts to examine and understand some of the important implications of global climate warming on the human security of the Indian subcontinent with particular emphasis on the prevailing and expected situations in India. The paper is primarily a synthesis of published papers, seminar/conference papers, scientific reports, debates among scholars in e-conferences, reputed magazines and media reports in international/national dailies, among others.