The new normal climate

India needs to focus on adaptation

The worst fears about the likely acceleration in extreme weather events due to climate change are coming true. The behaviour of the monsoon — a key global weather system — in the recent past, as also in the current season, bears this out. The country has already suffered huge damage to life, property and infrastructure due to freakish weather events, though the month of August, the main season for floods, is still ahead. The rainfall in the ongoing monsoon season, albeit statistically almost normal — just 2 per cent short of the long period average — has been extremely erratic.

A