Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Be prepared for hotter summers' that was published in Newsband

Be prepared for hotter summers

The forecast from the India Meteorological Department of above-normal temperatures over much of India in the summer months is something that should be taken seriously. A carefully planned school examination schedule could spare students the worst of the torrid season, and this should be among the top priorities. Urban water distress poses another challenge, because big cities in several States have not received adequate rainfall to replenish their reservoirs and are using up groundwater at unsustainable rates. For farmers, it will be another harsh period. What is required is a sensitive approach to their needs.

Administrative decisions for summer management will need to be refined. It is also a call for policy initiatives to build resilience by improving water harvesting and expanding tree cover, including in cities. For rural India, building surface irrigation facilities such as ponds would seem a natural choice, while urban water supply augmentation needs more reservoirs to be built.

If the prediction of Meteorological department comes true (which is most likely), & as these phenomena are inevitable in short time then it's high time for the government machinery to take right steps to mitigate its effects on common people and farmer. With help of the early warning system & technology know-how as provided by various weather & scientific agencies, all the government department should act in war-footing scale to avoid/minimize the difficulties. The media can play good role here in both waking the government and creating awareness among the people to how to face such severe climate. In the long run government must take right approach in lowering the global average temperature and to reduce GHGs to save our mother earth and its child.

Global temperature has been rising over the years and precious little has been done to save earth from getting hotter. The carbon emissions have been unchecked. The developed countries have been reluctant to implement any stringent measures. India too has been guilty of similar crime. Not only the nation must be prepared for hot summer but also other problems like water, heat strokes, disruptions in electricity, etc.

The world's scientists and academicians who know some things about Mass-Energy-Entropy equations, cannot be keeping quiet and be complacent to the terrible fact that 'Every Kg of Petroleum burned off in any engine or contrivance for Power throws off about 8 KWH of HEAT into the atmosphere'. Thus, in a country like India where we burn nearly 2.5 million barrels a day, the heat spewed into the atmosphere on a daily basis is a gigantic figure of 2.6 billion KWH. Converted into Power, that is the equivalent of more than 108,300 MW. This is the terrible Heat value environments within which every Indian lives. We have yet to study the impact of the possible holocaust effects of such continued Heat pourings into the atmosphere, due to our over killing usage of energy. As we are continuing increase this energy-apatite year after year, atmospheric temperatures are bound to increase, in an uncontrollable manner - there being limitations for natural balancing.

Time and again the El Nino is showing its evil face with high temperature and now itself. We can feel its impact and the hot summer may continue till the end of September. Water scarcity being created both in the rural and urban areas spells out the dire need to preserve ground water with rationalised uses and avoid wasting water of any nature. As it is mentioned earlier, happening of a good monsoon alone can solve the problem. But real things happen beyond predictions