The "Up In Smoke" coalition, comprised of approximately twenty major international environmental and development organizations, warned in a statement yesterday that unless immediate countermeasures and actions are taken to address the threats posed by climate change to humanity and the environment, global warming will set back the social and economic development of the entire Asian region by decades. The "Up In Smoke" coalition, comprised of international non-profit organizations such as ActionAid, the London-based International Institute for Environmental Development, and Greenpeace, made the above statement in a press conference in New Delhi yesterday. The press statement cited the coalition's report, "Up In Smoke: Asia Pacific," stating that the impacts of climate change are already beginning to appear in several parts of Asia; for example, last month, a typhoon struck the southeastern coast of mainland China, affecting five million people.
According to a report cited by the "Nothing to Be Gone" coalition, established four years ago, Asia, home to more than two-thirds of the world's population, will be the first to suffer the devastating consequences of climate change. More than half of Asia's population lives in coastal areas and will be direct victims of rising sea levels caused by global warming. Many Pacific island nations, such as Vanuatu, are already in crisis.
The coalition report states that 87 percent of the world's 400 million known small villages are located in Asia, and these villages, relying on regular and reliable rainfall, are particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. For example, increased drought in northern China is destroying the livelihoods of local farmers; furthermore, it is said that about eight of the ten high-altitude glaciers in western China have already shrunk.
Mehta, the India regional director of the "Action Aid" organization, also stated in the report that India, with its 600 million people living in rural areas, is particularly sensitive to climate change in its agriculture, forestry, fishing, and animal husbandry sectors. Mehta said that the catastrophic impacts India may face include 250 million people already living in abject poverty and struggling to cope with climate change, 400 million people living in the Ganges River basin where water shortages are likely to occur in the near future, and many more suffering even more severely due to melting Himalayan glaciers and an unpredictable monsoon season. (Source: Liberty Times) |
