Warning Signs Accumulate, But India's Climate Policy Does Not Even Mention Economic Change

[hatrack]

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.” Ms. Behan's is one voice among thousands being raised with growing urgency in a country that is, some say, increasingly, disastrously affected by climate change.

India is in the midst of a massive drought that could imperil basic food for millions of people; monsoon rains have failed entirely in parts of the country. At the same time, other areas have been hit with vicious cyclones that left tens of thousands of people homeless. And a giant impenetrable cloud of what's called “black carbon” is rapidly melting the Himalayan glaciers, with – as Ms. Behan points out – a host of dire consequences.

And yet, outside India, the country is known for what is perceived as intransigence on the subject of climate change – a stubborn insistence that the problem has been created by the carbon profligacy of developed countries, and that India's right to economic development cannot be imperiled by emissions caps designed to make up for Western greed.

EDIT

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

[pscot]

1. And by 2070, less than one lifetime

India's population will be approaching 2 billion. Let's not mention that either.