Is this too climate change?

Parts of Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh are worst hit by recent heavy rains and floods. More than 4,000 villages were flooded, rendering people in lakhs homeless, in Karnataka alone. For those affected this Deepavali turned out to be a festival of darkness.

After traveling in a few affected areas, one question has been bothering me very much. Is flooding and unprecedented rains also signs of climate change?

It is difficult get a satisfactory answer to this question.

In August, I attended a media briefing workshop on climate change organised by Centre for Science and Environment based in Delhi. Sunita Naraian of the Centre, said she too had come up with similar questions, whenever Bihar faced floods and other calamities struck the nation. She said though it was difficult to attribute such disasters to climate change scientifically, nobody could argue that they had nothing do with change in climate.

The most serious issue in the efforts to counter climate change is that a section of the globe is facing hardship because of the mistakes committed by others. The countries which undertook industrialisation in a major way contributed to climate change liberally. But, when it comes to act upon the crisis they are too rigid. They do not want to minimise the emissions. Certainly, this is the serious issue involving - economics, industrialisation and development - at the present moment.