“There is no conclusive scientific evidence…”
Rt. Hon. Man Mohan Singh
Prime Minister
The Government of India
New Delhi, India
Cc. Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Minister, Ministry of Environment, The Government of India
Subject: Regarding the statement made by Honorable Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment, Government of India.
We the youth of Nepal are concerned by the statement made by Honorable Mr. Jairam Ramesh, Minister of Environment, and the Government of India that “there is no conclusive scientific evidence to link global warming and Himalayan glaciers and neither to link the black carbon in the atmosphere with the glaciers”
We would like to kindly draw your attention to the fourth assessment report of the IPCC, various scientific research and reports published carried out and published by individuals and reports published by institutions like Intergovernmental Center for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD), World Wildlife Fund (WWF) on Himalayan Glaciers. These researches substantiate the fact that climate change is accelerating glacial retreat in the Hindukush Himalayan region.
Mountaineer Mr. Apa Sherpa who has climbed Everest 19 times has observed changes in the mountain climate over the years. He reported seeing water 8, 000 meter above sea level where one has only witnessed snow in the past. Our own expedition to the Everest base camp has documented rapid changes in the mountain eco-systems. These changes in the climate have already made irreversible impacts on the life and livelihoods of the mountain community.
At the Regional Climate Change Conference FROM KATHMANDU TO COPENHAGEN A Vision for Addressing Climate Change Risks and Vulnerabilities in the Himalayas held in Kathmandu on August 31- September 1, 2009, South Asian countries, including India identified the HinduKush and Himalayan region as a climate change hot-spot to indicate changes due to climate change and how it would affect people and ecosystems from the mountains to the coasts.
We agree on the fact that this area requires further research to establish precise scientific evidences and critical knowledge gaps that exist. But observations and existing scientific literature indicate that unprecedented changes are happening very rapidly in the mountains. We need to further enhance our responses to climate change through the generation of required scientific data and also adaptation strategies at all levels with incremental adaptive steps meshing with agreed regional and global efforts to address the impacts of climate change.
We, the youth of South Asia request you to take a lead in the region to affectively tackle the problems of climate change. We also request you to raise the common voices of the region, including that of the Himalayas in the UNFCCC negotiations and other international forum.
Does one need certainty to take out insurance on a substantial asset? The arguments advanced citing the lack of “conclusive” proof are facile! Perhaps the real driver behind the unwillingness to take the actions required to mitigate the impact of climate change is that of protection of vested interests by the elites. Unless a technological means to counter the already output gas is found it is to late to prevent massive disruption. Let us hope that we can prevent a population colapse.
I don’t wish to sound like G.W. answering a reporter’s question, but…
The reason they call fossil fuels “fossil fuels” is, well uhh, umm because they’re fossils.
From Wikipedia “Fossil Fuels”
“Fossil fuels or mineral fuels are fuels formed by natural resources such as anaerobic decomposition of buried dead organisms. The age of the organisms and their resulting fossil fuels is typically millions of years, and sometimes exceeds 650 million years.[1] These fuels contain a high percentage of carbon and hydrocarbons.”
The earth has been capturing and safely storing away carbon for millions of years. Just in the last few hundred years however, we have returned approximately one half of those carbon stores back into our atmosphere. Our planet is a finite object with finite natural resources and a very complex system of symbiotic interrelationships. As with any type of complex– hence delicate, system, any prolonged periods of unusually high rates of stress will cause it to crash. As they say “never touch a running system.” Simply put we have been touching our system way to hard, and if we’re not careful, nature may need to do a reboot.
As far as I’m concerned, and you mileage may vary, climate change denial is the bad science.