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It is time to end Global Warming--act now!!! Ask me How?
Climate change is causing the Himalayan source the Ganges, Hinduism's holiest river, to dry up. And because the 1,568-mile river holds deep religious and ritualistic significance to India's 800 million Hindus, its ultimate demise could throw into turmoil the intimate religious traditions of the nation's devotees.
The Gangotri glacier, which provides up to 70 percent of the water of the Ganges during the dry summer months, is shrinking at a rate of 40 yards per year—nearly twice as fast as it was 20 years ago, according to scientists. In March, the World Wildlife Fund listed the Ganges among the world's most endangered rivers.
"This may be the first place on earth where global warming could hurt our very religion. We are becoming an endangered species of Hindus," says a Renowned Environment Specialist.
The Himalayan glaciers that feed directly into the Ganges could vanish by 2030 because of rising temperatures, according to a UN climate report.
The shrinking glaciers also bode ill for Asia's fresh water supply—in India alone, the Ganges provides water for drinking and farming for more than 500 million people. Although the glacier recession produces a short-lived surplus of water, the supply will eventually run out. Experts predict that the Ganges will become a seasonal river largely dependent on monsoon rains.
"There has never been a greater threat for the Ganges," said an dedicated environmental lawyer who did filed lawsuits against corporations dumping toxins into the Ganges, and now redirecting his efforts toward the melting glaciers. "If humans don't change their interference, our very religion, our livelihoods are under threat."
We the sane citizents of India want our government to enforce strict reductions in greenhouse-gas emissions. During last month's Group of Eight conference of the major industrialized nations, however, India joined China and the United States in refusing to support mandatory caps on emissions.
The Sundarbans are among the world’s largest collection of river delta islands. In geological terms they are young and still under formation, cut by an intricate network of streams and tributaries that straddle the border between India and Bangladesh. Ever since the British settled them 150 years ago in pursuit of timber, the mangroves have been steadily depleted — half of the islands have lost their forest cover — and the population has grown.
Today the rising sea and destruction of forests threaten the Sundarbans’ most storied inhabitant, the royal Bengal tiger, which drinks these salty waters and has an appetite for human flesh. Environmental degradation also threatens the unsung human residents: four million people live here on the Indian side of the border alone.
The Gangotri glacier, which provides up to 70 percent of the water of the Ganges during the dry summer months, is shrinking at a rate of 40 yards a year, nearly twice as fast as two decades ago, scientists say.
The immediate effect of glacier recession is a short-lived surplus of water. But eventually the supply runs out, and experts predict that the Ganges eventually will become a seasonal river, largely dependent on monsoon rains.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change predicts that global warming, spurred by the buildup of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, could raise the ocean’s surface as much as 23 inches by 2100. "According to the panel’s latest report, released in early April, the ecology and people of this river delta system are among the most vulnerable in the world".Even as India prospers, the Sundarbans have been left with little to no protection, and certainly none of the measures that wealthy low-lying countries like the Netherlands have undertaken to deal with the ravages of the sea.
Every year at least two cyclones pound the islands; scientists say the storms have grown increasingly intense, though less frequent. The mud embankments built over the years around these young, fragile islands are too feeble to keep away the tide. One storm, and one breach, can destroy a lifetime’s labor on the land.
The government should realize that climate change will hurt not just communities, but also businesses and even the Ganga itself, our most sacred river. When the Ganga River is threatened, Indians will have to wake up the government to this crisis. So ACT NOW.
Mail me at sayak50@yahoo.co.uk to know how you can help.
