Preparing for a changed monsoon

Policymakers need to create conditions for the people to adapt to climate change

The monsoon is a complex phenomenon of great importance to India. With global warming, such patterns are likely to change. One part of the evolution of the monsoon is clear: When the world is warmer, more water evaporates from the seas and finds its way back to the earth in the form of rain. Roughly speaking, when the global average temperature goes up by 1 degree centigrade the aggregate global rainfall goes up by about 7 per cent. The state of scientific knowledge on the monsoon is, however, limited. The temporal and spatial patterns of the monsoon in a warmer