*Image Description : A photograph from the production, ‘In the Blue Houses Dream the Mountains’ in which two performers are moving in front of the background panels onto which the ideograms are projected.

Climate Change

*Image description: Ideogram tablet about global climate change.

We as a species are living through a time of drastic climate change in history. Scientific studies reveal the consequence of human activity as a major cause for this. Research speculates that carbon emissions will accelerate global warming by several degrees in the coming 100 years. This would have a high impact all over the world, destroying the human ecosystem at regional and global levels. The average temperature experienced globally, rise in sea level, heat content in the upper ocean, land-based ice melt, arctic sea ice, depth of seasonal permafrost thaw, and other variables show evidence for consistent warming of the planet. [1]

*Image description: Graph of changes in global temperature.

Graphic data source: Climate Central; Data: NASA GISS and NOAA NCEI. global temperature anomalies averaged and adjusted to early industrial baseline (1881-1910). Data as of 1/12/2023 [1]

*Image description: Ideogram tablet about global climate change effect on mountains and availability of freshwater.

Climate change in mountains is a global concern. Mountains provide freshwater to half of the world's population. Climate change will affect the availability of water. Climate change will affect the availability of water. Climate change in mountains will thus have important implications for irrigation and urbanization. [3]

*Image description: Ideogram tablet about the effect of global climate change on biodiversity hotpots in mountainous regions.

Half of the global biodiversity hotspots are in mountain regions. They are an important global heritage that is being threatened by climate change and human action. Due to emission of greenhouse gasses and global warming, extreme events such as storms, landslides, avalanches, and rockfalls are more intense in mountain areas, threatening both livelihoods and infrastructure. [3]

*Image description: Ideogram tablet about global warming and its consequences.

The IPCC attributes the causes of present-day climate change in mountains to increasing greenhouse gas emissions, leading to anthropogenic global warming (Hock et al., 2019b; Adler et al., 2022). Field observations and measured data providing evidence for the effects of anthropogenic global warming in mountains which includes a decrease in snow cover at low elevations, a decrease in mountain permafrost area, changes in the spatial patterns and timing of natural hazards, changes in seasonality and volume of mountain river discharge , and changes in ecosystem composition. [4]

*Image description: Image description: Ideogram tablet about climate change effects in the Western ghats.

Climate change effects Western Ghats and Kerala

The western ghats, UNESCO world biodiversity hotspot, and the geographical feature that regulates the warm tropical climate of the region is also under the threat of climate change. Activities like rampant stone quarrying, construction of infrastructure in fragile areas for ‘development’, and deforestation for commercial plantations have led to massive changes in these crucial Ghats. They have led to landslides, floods, droughts, and other events in which hundreds of people have died. In a presentation to the Bangalore Climate Change Initiative–Karnataka contributor to the IPCC report, Professor NH Ravindranath (retired) of the Indian Institute of Science has foretold: “About 33 percent of the biodiversity of the Western Ghats will be lost by 2050 due to extreme weather. This is irreversible." [2]

"Many parts of the state started experiencing extreme summer like situation even during January…It is the unrestrained destruction of ecologically sensitive Western Ghats, rivers, mountains and wetlands which catalyzed the impacts of climate change in Kerala," said Purushan Eloor, environmental activist.[5]

Climate change effects Mt. Kailash

Climate change due to global warming is happening three times faster on the Tibetan Plateau than anywhere else in the world. [6] Mount Kailash is located in a mountain range upon the Tibetan Plateau, near the plateau's western edges. According to local observers, the land around Mount Kailash has been growing warmer in recent years; the pilgrimage season isn't as cold as it used to be. [7] According to available data from the region, glaciers are retreating, lakes are shrinking, the amount of barren land is increasing, and the eventual thawing of the permafrost in this region may lead to uncertain effects on water resources and carbon cycles.[8]

Climate change effects Mt. Rainer

Mount Rainier is losing its glaciers. That is all the more striking as it is the most glacier-covered mountain in the contiguous United States. The changes reflect a stark global reality: Mountain glaciers are vanishing as the burning of fossil fuels heats up Earth’s atmosphere. According to the World Glacier Monitoring Service, total glacier area has shrunk steadily in the last half-century; some of the steepest declines have been in the Western United States and Canada. [9]

The western ghats, UNESCO world biodiversity hotspot, and the geographical feature that regulates the warm tropical climate of the region is also under the threat of climate change. Activities like rampant stone quarrying, construction of infrastructure in fragile areas for ‘development’, and deforestation for commercial plantations have led to massive changes in these crucial Ghats. They have led to landslides, floods, droughts, and other events in which hundreds of people have died. In a presentation to the Bangalore Climate Change Initiative–Karnataka contributor to the IPCC report, Professor NH Ravindranath (retired) of the Indian Institute of Science has foretold: “About 33 percent of the biodiversity of the Western Ghats will be lost by 2050 due to extreme weather. This is irreversible." [2]

Climate change effects Mt. Kailash

Climate change effects Mt. Rainer

References:

[1] https://climateknowledgeportal.worldbank.org/overview

[2] https://www.forbesindia.com/article/take-one-big-story-of-the-day/devastation-in-the-western-ghats-in-the-name-of-unplanned-development/71845/1#:~:text=In%20a%20presentation%20to%20the,This%20is%20irreversible.%22

[3] https://bioone.org/journals/mountain-research-and-development/volume-30/issue-1/MRD-JOURNAL-D-09-00086.1/Mountains-and-Climate-Change-A-Global-Concern/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-09-00086.1.full

[4] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9610668/

[5] Climate change in Kerala: Palakkad records India's highest temperature (deccanchronicle.com)

[6] Qiu, Jane (1 July 2008). "China: The third pole". Nature. 454 (7203): 393–396. doi:10.1038/454393a. ISSN 1476-4687. PMID 18650887.

[7] Ignoring climate change in the Himalayas | The Third Pole

[8] Zomer, Robert; Oli, Krishna Prasad (2011). Kailash Sacred Landscape Conservation Initiative: Feasibility Assessment Report. Kathmandu: ICIMOD. pp. 39–40.

[9] Climate Change Is Melting Mount Rainier’s Glaciers. - The New York Times (nytimes.com)