On the Topic of India and the Environment

India and the Environment:

India’s population, already the second largest in the world at 1.15 billion, may become the largest in coming decades as its rapid population growth outstrips even that of China. This rapidly growing population is cause for concern in India’s already congested streets. After China and the U.S., only India is expected to have to have significant growth in CO2 emissions over the next 20 years (Butler, 2006). With India’s massive population, and the introduction of a new and affordable car, the Nano, it will not take much for CO2 emissions to rise dramatically. Although India only emits 1.1 metric tons of CO2 per Capita, there are so many people in India that even such low average emissions are concerning when they are multiplied by more than a billion.

In India today the environment faces many challenges, one of the largest being climate change. Due to the vast size of India and its complex geography, climate in this part of the globe has large spatial and temporal variations, says Dash, Jenamani, Kalsi, and Panda in a journal article published in 2007. There have been extreme weather events in various parts of India that are putting a strain on the country’s people. In different regions of India there have been floods, droughts, monsoon depressions and cyclones, heat waves, cold waves, prolonged fog and snowfall. The Sundarbans in southern India have faced devastating cyclones that have wrecked homes and facilities, leaving the people there in need of drinking water and shelter. The University of Rhode Island was recently visited by a prestigious World Wildlife Fund employee by the name of Dr. Anurag Danda who works closely with the people of the Sundarbans. Dr. Danda, in a Colloquium presentation, stated that the situation in the Sundarbans is difficult. With the melting ice caps causing the sea levels to rise, the ground water in the Sundarbans is turning brackish and is no longer suitable for drinking. In trying to help create drinking water facilities with the people there, Dr. Danda has faced many challenges. Each time a cyclone rips through the Sundarbans the drinking water facilities are destroyed. However, with his work and the work of his colleagues, the new facilities are easy to repair because their simple design and the fact that the people there help create the facilities themselves.

Aside from water facilities and homes in the Sudarbans, Dr. Danda shows slides of a power point presentation that exemplify the permanent damage climate change is causing. He shows the audience a picture of an islet in the Sundarbans and then shows that same islet disappearing. If the islet were disappearing due to a natural cycle, says Dr. Danda, it would have reappeared by now. However, this is not the case and the islet remains permanently submerged by water.

India is home to over 8 percent of the Earth’s known wildlife. However, little has been done to study the impact of climate change on the wildlife in India. Prof. Kartik Shankar of the Center for Ecological Studies, who studies the habits of Olive Ridley and Leatherback turtles in India, expresses his feelings on climate change in an article published in 2007 by the IPS. According to Keya Acharya, the author of the article, Shankar feels climate change is a difficult area to study since its impacts show up only in the long term. "Apart from a few areas in Orissa where violent storms in recent years have washed away nesting sites, it's hard to distinguish what exactly can be attributed to climate change," Shankar told IPS. There is reason to believe that the wildlife in India is being affected by climate change, but there are yet no studies being conducted that show the extent of the impact of climate change on India’s wildlife.

The effects of climate change on India’s environment have been summarized, but what does this have to do with the automobile? According to the Environment Minister of India, Jairam Ramesh, the transport sector in India contributes about 15 to 20% of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the country. It is widely known that unregulated greenhouse gas emissions are one of the main causes of climate change. Ramish continues to say that with the rate the automobile sector is growing, it is estimated that automobiles could attribute to 25% of India’s total greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Ramesh is working hard to pass fuel efficiency standards to cut greenhouse gas emissions, but how much of a decrease in CO2 emissions will these new standards make when Tata Motors is releasing such an incredibly affordable car as the Nano?

The Nano is a rear-engineered, four passenger car built by Tata Motors. It gets about 26 kilometers per liter on the highway and 22 kilometers per liter in the city. It goes for about 100,000 rupees, or 2,160 U.S. dollars. Having such a family oriented, affordable car on the Market will only increase the amount of CO2 emissions released into the atmosphere, increasing greenhouse gasses. Despite the fact that the Nano will only release 101 gm/km of CO2, the shear number of consumers purchasing the Nano and increasing the traffic sector will make that somewhat impressive number almost meaningless. Johan Kiessling from the department of economics at Stockholm University predicts that during the next 20 years the number of cars in India will increase by 30 million due to economic growth and up to 8 million more due to the introduction of low-budget cars. Kiessling continues to say that “as a consequence the CO2 emissions from private cars will increase by 634% where more than one sixth of the increase is due to the introduction of low-cost cars.” Although India’s people are happy to have an affordable family car on the market, the environment will suffer.

Sources Cited (MLA):

• Dash, S.K., R.K. Jenamani, S.R. Kalsi, and S.K. Panda. "Some evidence of climate change in twentieth-century India." Climate Change 85. (2007): 299-321. Web. 08 Dec 2009. .
• " Data by Geography > India > Summary." Population Reference Bureau. 2008. Population Reference Bureau, Web. 15 Dec 2009. .
• Butler, Rhett A. "Carbon Dioxide Emissions Charts, 2005." Tropical Rainforests: Disappearing Opportunites. 2005. Mongabay.com, Web. 21 Nov 2009. .
• Acharya, Keya. "CLIMATE CHANGE: Indian Scientists Yet to Study Biodiversity Impacts." IPS (2007): n. pag. Web. 02 Dec 2009. .
• "Fuel-efficiency standards for automobile sector by 2011: Ramesh." DNA: Read the World. 23 Nov 2009. PTI, Web. 26 Nov 2009. .
• Kiessling, Johan. "The one Lakh car, economic growth and CO2 emissions in India." (2009): n. pag. Web. 4 Dec 2009. .