Climate emigrants in focus

Greenpeace held the Blue Alert campaign in Bangalore on Wednesday. The campaign aims to catalyse citizens in climate vulnerable zones and empower them with information so that the impacted communities are able to raise their concerns with their elected representatives. The campaign has made waves in the coastal regions of Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kochi and Goa.

Greenpeace had released a report focussing on the humanitarian crisis South Asia could face if global warming is not kept below the 2 degree tipping point. Landlocked cities like Bangalore are expected to face a wave of 'climate migrants' as unchecked climate change could result in 50 million people being displaced in India by the end of the century, said a Greenpeace campaigner.

A city like Bangalore already reeling under the pressure of the present population, might very well wee more people moving in, if cities like Mumbai and Chennai are threatened by rising sea levels, the campaigner added.

Blue Alert warns that if greenhouse gas emissions continue to grow under the business-as-usual scenario as projected, leading to a rise in temperature by 4-5 degree Celsius, south Asia could face a wave of migrants displaced by the impacts of climate change, including sea level rise and drought associated with shrinking water supplies and monsoon variability.

Greenpeace accused the state of forsaking mitigation for adaptation and added that the forthcoming session of Parliament must debate the issue which has long-term consequences.