Climate crisis Part I

 

How prepared are we to face Climate Crisis?

By Malini Shankar

 

Digital Discourse Foundation

We often hear about and read about Climate Change and the debilitating impact it is likely to have on human civilization. It often sounds like doomsday prophecy. But Climate Crisis is a series of events unfolding from any one such deleterious watershed event. Not necessarily an asteroid hit but let’s look at urban floods and how smart city management is a must… or a volcanic explosion that may trigger a volcanic winter and the consequences of volcanic winter, or impact of sea level rise. Each one of these stand-alone manifestations of extreme weather events have a series of impacts on human societies as well as All Other Creatures Great and Small.

One extreme visualization: you may have to wade through urban flash floods while negotiating terms with a crocodile that escaped from the nearby zoo… so that both of you can reach home safely!

 

Climate Change is not likely to manifest as one watershed extreme weather event… It is a debilitating slow change paralyzing civilisation. It seems more likely to manifest as hydrometeorological disasters, triggering avalanches, Blizzards, Cloudbursts, Coastal Incursion, Cyclones, Droughts, Desertification, (differential impact of) El Niño Southern Oscillation, Epidemics, earthquakes, Floods, Flash Floods, Famine, Forest Fires, Fog, Hailstorm, Landslides, Mudslides, Pandemic, Public Health Infrastructure collapse, sand storm, storm surge, Storms, squalls, thunderstorms, Tsunamis, Volcanoes as I have mentioned in detail in my Picture E Book Preparing for the Day After published on the occasion of the Asian Tsunami’s 10^th anniversary in 2014.

Of these, volcanoes and El Nino Southern Oscillation are geological and the others are impacts of hydrometeorological disasters (often abbreviated as HM disasters). A Super volcano, a super earthquake or a super cyclone / typhoon, a monster tsunami that can be triggered by say a Seamount-eruption-triggered- submarine-landslide are the kinds of extreme weather / geological events that needs communities to be prepared for.

 Side /Bar:

‘Preparation’ in Disaster Risk Reduction Parlance includes:

·         Construction and good maintenance of handicapped and nursing mothers compatible / friendly evacuation shelters,

·         Earmarking and Clear Depiction of evacuation routes and infrastructure,

·         Human Development Index - pegged sanitation and public health infrastructure,

·         Gender sensitive sanitation and hygiene standards,

·         Public health infrastructure pegged to HDI and gender ratios,

·         Food and water security calibrated on a per capita basis,

·         Livelihood security,

·         Trained evacuation personnel,

·         Inter-Agency Coordination Training for bureaucracies and Search and Rescue Teams,.

·         Transparent Governance,

·         Mock-drill familiar disaster response forces,

·         Mock-drills for different sectors like educational institutes, professional bodies, civic staff, Police Personnel, SAR Teams, Administrators, civil society, Politicians, health care providers,

·         Medical preparedness,

·         Responsive and disaster prepared animal husbandry departments,

·         A dedicated force only for Landscape Conservation

·         Public health infrastructure should be disaster prepared

·         Mental Health helplines

·         Ambulance / Public health infrastructure to be pegged to HDI

·         Multi storeyed structures in urban areas to be designed and certified as Earthquake Safe.

 

So now let us try to understand how each of these HM Disasters will play out on human civilization. No need to sensationalise the extreme weather events in themselves. What matters is the preparation and infrastructure to pander to the needs that may arise.

 

In India Andaman Nicobar Islands which bore the brunt of the remorseless impact of the Asian Tsunami – seems well prepared for the next monster Tsunami (which may recur in the next 1000 years  and not before) with temporary shelters, evacuation routes, development pegged sanitation, food security etc, but is not prepared for Climate Change induced extreme weather events. Extreme drought and water scarcity is the bane of ANI and indeed that is an understatement! 

 

Climate crisis implies severe and debilitating impact on lives, livelihoods, landscape and livestock as per Disaster Risk Reduction (DRR) theory and practice.

 

So when we say a Climate Crisis it can be something like a four year drought that Saharan Africa and South Asia faced between 1983 – 1987. We will obviously be better off if the checklist above gets the right tick for all boxes.

 While drought triggers famine, starvation, and lack of resilience can create public health concerns. Drought triggered water scarcity compromises sanitation no end. That creates epidemics like cholera which in the event of compounded sanitation deficit can annihilate populations. So Preparedness for an imminent Climate crisis calls for HDI calibrated sanitation infrastructure and water supply infrastructure / water security planned on a per capita basis in preparation for Climate Crisis. 

Other manifestations of Climate Crisis like say Urban Floods can trigger water borne diseases on epic scale especially in densely populated unplanned slums in coastal communities across South and Southeast Asia and Africa. Multipronged strategies then are the need of the hour. If one person in an urban area needs 150 – 300 Litres of fresh water per day – then for a Climate Crisis prepared that same urban citizen there is a need for 300 Litres of fresh water per day. Urban administrators need to fill the gap by planning for grey water supply systems and replenishing ground water and so on…

It underscores the need for planed urban spaces (including earthquake safe and Climate safe architecture, agro economy, aviation, ambulances, biodiversity conservation, Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation, DRR, drainage infrastructure, education, Epidemic / Pandemic Mitigation and Adaptation, flood proof and fire proof urban infrastructure, fire brigades on a per capita calibration, Pandemic preparedness, medical preparedness,). Supply chain preparation for famine mitigation? Critical yet elementary, Watson! Food Security planning on a per capita basis calls for transparent governance that’s elementary too! Per capita food security preparedness even on that last inhabited Island territory ofcourse. That’s easier said than done given the hostile tribes in North Sentinel Island ofcourse. But then, they are also food secure without hand-outs from the Government of India. Other tribes like Jarawas Onges Great Andamanese are interacting with mainstream land lubbers and the Administration.  So one size dos not fit all. Secondly ground surveys are the need of the hour. Pensionable jobs become the biggest impediment then to be a motivated field surveyor.

In this series of articles we will look at how prepared are we for different kinds of Climate Crisis. Still can’t say how many articles will surface but it depends on research inputs… let us see how prepared are we…

This article series is free for syndication / reprint / republishing but with credit to the author, courtesy of Digital Discourse Foundation.