Global warming continues to occupy center-stage amongst the concerns of modern human civilization and issues impacting the climate of the planet as whole. This, in spite of the expressions of doubt from various quarters including, at some point of time, from the Bush administration with regard to the scientific basis of global warming.

The deductions on global warming were based on work of scientists in different areas. On one hand the trends in land and sea global temperatures and on the other hand, increased CO2 concentrations in ice samples collected at the poles. For example, data from National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) sprawling network of monitoring buoys in the Pacific, and from its environmental satellites in space, detected above-average sea-surface temperatures for several months in the waters of the equatorial Pacific. This usually triggers a chain reaction of atmospheric and weather changes around the globe, including warmer, rainy weather in the southern United States during winter, and drier weather in much of Indonesia throughout El Niño's lifecycle.

These deductions did not impact a common man. That is, till now! Heat wave across America; the awry monsoons in India and the deepening crisis with prospects of drought in India, South East Asia and Australia; Floods in China and South Korea. Collapse of the 500 billion tonne Larsen iceshelf in Antarctica. And now possibility of deterioration and cracks in age old glaciers in Himalayas. A multitude of climatological happenings across the globe point towards rising global temperatures.

All this implies that perhaps global warming has moved from a future dooms-day realm to a current-day reality. The monsoons that have almost failed to appear in many parts of India have impacted the lives of the common man in India and so have conditions of drought or floods in many parts of the world. There is very little doubt now that global warming has set in and that it has been triggered by human activity. The global warming induced climate change is in real time now!

Further intensification in global warming is bound to have significant longterm implications for humanity. As we move in real time with climate change crisis, two events this year propose to launch a framework for global action. The first is the World Summit on Sustainable Development to be held in Johannesburg (August 2002) and the second is the Eighth Conference of the Parties (CoP-8) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change scheduled to be held in New Delhi during October – November 2002. While the WSSD has a broader mandate of enviro-development linkages, CoP-8 looks specifically at climate change mitigation and global sustainable development.

Jami Hossain
Winrock International India