We are very proud of Dr.Ghosh, an Hon’ble
The atmospheric CO2 concentration show
Member
an increase from 316 ppm in March 1958 to
of
Integrated
River
Basin
Management Society.
391 ppm in September 2012. Based on ice-
(Picture Source the Guardian Site)
core
SPECIAL FEATURES
concentrations have been shown to have
Climate Change and Water
been in the range of 260 to 280 ppm.
II
Geological and paleo-climatic evidence
In
the
year
Atmospheric
2000
Paul
Chemist,
Crutzen,
and
measurements,
pre-industrial
CO2
an
makes clear that the present atmospheric
Eugene
CO2 concentrations are higher than at any
Stoermer, a Biologist, propagated a radical
time in the last 15 million years.
idea that humankind’s impact on the Earth’s
Since 1959, approximately 350 billion
ecology has been so profound that it is
metric tons of carbon has been emitted
fashioning an entirely new geological epoch
through human activity, of which 55 % has
called Anthropocene. Concrete has become
been taken up by the oceans and land, with
a new kind of rock. Man has produced about
the balance remaining in the atmosphere. In
500 billion tonnes of it, which is enough for
the absence of further governmental policy
one kilo for every square metre of the
changes, global CO2 emissions (including
Earth’s surface, land and sea. The change is
emissions related to deforestation) will reach
being wrought not just by concrete and
41 billion metric tons of CO2 per year in
plastic but also by soaring extinction rates
2020.
and changes to the carbon cycle, the
While
nitrogen cycle and temperature. The new
temperature of the Earth is perhaps one of
theory says that after the Holocene Epoch,
the most noticeable changes, approximately
we have entered the new Anthropocene
93% of the additional heat absorbed by the
epoch. Time will only tell if this will be true
Earth system is stored in the ocean. This is
but the human impact on global scale is
resulting from an increase in greenhouse gas
palpable. And climate being most dynamic
concentration since 1955.
component in nature with the changes of
warming of the world’s oceans are due to
climate changes in hydrologic cycle and
the increase in atmospheric greenhouse
ecosystems are noticed at global scale.
gases. The strong trend of increasing ocean
5
Integrated River Basin Management Society
the
warming
of
the
surface
The observed