India doesn't want to pay for climate change, but it's already feeling the costs

[OKIsItJustMe]

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/india-doesnt-want-to-pay-for-climate-change-but-its-already-feeling-the-costs/article1278146/

Stephanie Nolen

India doesn't want to pay for climate change, but it's already feeling the costs

Massive droughts, vicious cyclones and flash floods hampering growth

Stephanie Nolen

New Delhi — Last updated on Sunday, Sep. 06, 2009 09:18PM EDT

In the village of Pujar in the Himalayas, the burans – a species of rhododendron – flowers each spring. And the tradition in Pujar, since time immemorial, is that no one picks and eats the flowers until after the spring Shiva festival. To do otherwise is to risk the anger of the gods, explains Himal Behan, who farms near the foot of the glacier.

“But this year, the tree flowered in December. Even people who are 80 or 90 years old in my village say they have never known this to happen. And everyone is scared.”

There is more to be afraid of than just one wonky flowering tree and its gods: Their environment has gone crazy altogether. The glacier is melting, she said, and huge chunks of ice break off and cause flash floods. At the same time, the traditional fresh water sources around the village have dried up, something else the old folks say they have never seen.

“It didn't get cold enough for us to even wear our winter clothes last year,” Ms. Behan, 32, said – and that meant it wasn't cold enough to sow a wheat crop either. “We depend on agriculture to live. If there is no snow or rain in winter, there is no wheat, and we have no other way to earn an income. There are no jobs. We'll just die.”

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[jwirr]

1. Climate change is an issue that if you do not pay now you will be

paying later when the problem is worse. The whole world needs to understand that.

[OKIsItJustMe]

2. The beauty is…

…if we don't pay now, someone else will have to pay later (assuming they live that long.)

[wuvuj]

3. Dirty coal and oil...

...understand that?

[kristopher]

4. Mmmm, he's saying the same thing you are

He is just highlighting that it provides a motive for the people who don't care about anything but themselves.