Ominous signs of climate change

Dear Sir,

It seems that this year the summer is much harsher than 2014.  This, it seems, is not just the case in Qatar. The rise in temperature is a global phenomenon.
It is not just the heat. The weather pattern in many parts of the world is undergoing vast changes. The monsoon has been playing hide and seek in many regions this year. Pakistan has  seen  unstable weather of late. Floods there have inundated vast areas, leaving tens of thousands of people homeless.
In Europe, the summer temperatures have been higher than normal usually around this time.
Many blame it all on El Nino, possibly the most powerful one in history, which is having all kinds of dramatic effects on weather across the world - from more intense storms in the Pacific and a gentler hurricane season in the Atlantic, to the rising temperatures  that seem likely to ensure that 2015 will be the warmest year ever.
The New Scientist magazine has recently issued a dire warning about global warming: the climate has warmed to the point where it’s now halfway towards what experts claim is dangerous global warming.
“It’s the outcome the world wants to avoid, but we are already halfway there,” according to the New Scientist. “All but one of the main trackers of global surface temperature are now passing more than 1C of warming relative to the second half of the 19th century” which is halfway to the 2C the United Nations constitutes as dangerous warming.
The New Scientist also argues the so-called “hiatus” in global warming could be over, meaning “this is just the start of a period of rapid warming”.  
But despite the warning signs, it is strange that nations are not taking any major efforts to stop the trend.
As the article, “Protect forests and people living there” (Gulf Times, August 9), points out,  when world leaders meet at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Paris later this year to craft a response to the challenges of global warming, they should put in place policies to protect tropical forests and the people who make them their home.

Rajesh Nair, rajeshnair.it@gmail.com

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