A global issue

Starting with the most recent natural disaster while over 100 fishing trawlers with some 1200 fishermen aboard went missing in the Bay of Bengal due to high waves triggered by a sudden storm on Thursday, September 20, 2007, Bangladesh frequently faces crucial natural behavior not only for its geographical position but also for the rapid changing of world climate which is largely caused by human activity.
Giving importance to strike a balance between mitigation and adaptation, Chief Adviser to the present interim government of Bangladesh Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, said to the world leaders, policy makers, scientists and environmental activists to take drastic measures against the rise of global temperature and sea level while he was delivering a lecture as co-chairman at a seminar on the "Challenges of adaptation -- From vulnerability to resilience" which was a part of daylong deliberations on "high level event on climate change" at the UN General Assembly on September 24, 2007.
"The event is not simply an occasion for negotiations. It is meant to express the political will of the world leaders at the highest level to tackle the challenge of climate change through concerted action," said the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon in the chair at the closing of that daylong deliberation.
The effort began at the UN headquarters in New York to seek to at least makes world leaders aware of the role greenhouse gasses play in warming the earth and the necessity to address the problem, secure apolitical commitment and build momentum for the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali, Indonesia on Dec. 3 to 14, 2007, where negotiations about a new international climate agreement will start. However, the question remains unanswered whether the greenhouse gasses (mainly CO2 produced by power plants and cars) are a primary cause or not?
California Governor and movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger and former US Vice President Al Gore were also set to join with more than 70 world leaders to spur global negotiations on how to cool the warming planet. They acknowledged that rich and poor countries have differing responsibilities when it comes to global warming, but it is time to stop the blame game.
However, they are not interested to look back at the Kyoto protocol, which has also been rejected by the US President George W. Bush.
The 1997 Kyoto deal requires 36 industrial nations including United States to reduce heat-trapping gases produced by power plants and other industrial, agricultural and transportation sources by an average 5 per cent below 1990 levels by 2012.
16 countries that together represent 85% of the global economy and 80% of global greenhouse-gas emissions are more or less responsible for rising temperature, according to the environment scientists. This includes the leading "Western" economies and large "developing" ones such as China, India and Brazil.
Sadly, it does not include the countries that are most at risk from the impacts of climate change: places like Bangladesh and most African nations that do not have the funds to build dykes and grow drought-resistant crops.
In much of South Asia, the irony of climate change is that it creates too little water in some places and too much in others. The summer runoff from mountain glaciers that now provides most of the drinking water to 40 percent of the world's population is rapidly disappearing. And so are myriad inhabitants, forced to leave land their families tilled for generations.
In Bangladesh, refugees who can no longer farm on drowning coastal land are falling inward to cities already crammed with jobless and desperate masses. Smaller than Illinois, US, Bangladesh has 152.6 million people, half the US population. Imagine what it will be like in 50 years, when the Bay of Bengal is predicted to cover 11 percent of Bangladesh's land.
By some estimates, a one-meter sea level rise would submerge about one-third of Bangladesh's total area, uprooting 25-30 million people. Country's recent flooding is one of the worst floods in recent times as more than one-third of the country was inundated, but in the face of such a deluge, there is little that Bangladesh can prevent this natural disaster.
The one-day gathering is meant to send a "strong political message" about the urgency of the problem of curbing the greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change, according to Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
According to a recently released study by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSDIC), the extent of sea ice now stands at 4.18 million square kilometers (1.61 million square miles). This represents an increase of 50,000 square kilometers (19,000 square miles) compared to the value of 4.13 million square kilometers (1.59 million square miles) five-day running mean extent, observed on September 16, which appears to be the 2007 minimum. The increase reflects the end of the Arctic summer and the onset of winter.
However, the NSDIC also noted: The minimum for 2007 shatters the previous five-day minimum set on September 20-21, 2005, by 1.19 million square kilometers (460,000 square miles), roughly the size of Texas and California combined, or nearly five United Kingdoms."
Because oceans are so dark compared to sea ice, the immense open water areas north of Siberia absorbed a great deal of the sun's energy through summer, hence heating the upper ocean. As the sun begins to set in autumn, this heat stored in the ocean starts to be released back to the atmosphere, which increases air temperatures. Hence, the anomalous lack of sea ice is itself partly responsible for the unusually high temperatures.
On September 17, 2007 the Arctic ice pack reached its lowest level since measurements have been taken. Glaciers are melting and the world's weather patterns are changing.
In addition, to balance public and private sector involvement in clean energy growth, leaders in the discussion also emphasised to stimulate the development and deployment of clean, low-carbon energy technologies to balance environmental protection with economic growth.
No problem is as complex, or as potentially catastrophic for the industry, as the rising temperatures in the world's oceans and atmosphere. It is time for action. World needs adaptation to climate change, because irrespective of what one's do, everybody will have to live with change in the climate.
Adaptation alone can not cope with all the projected impacts of climate change. Hence, a mix of strategies is needed, including adaptation and mitigation of greenhouse gas emissions.
Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York