Climate change isn’t just about a few degrees here and there in some intellectual debate between scientists. It’s about real effects on real people.

Shrinking glaciers.

As CO2 emissions increase, global temperatures rise. As a result of this global warming, the Gangotri glacier is shrinking at the rate of 34 metres per year. If it shrinks any faster, the Ganga could dry up in just another 20 years, threatening the very survival of over 500 million people (or every second person) in India.

Acidic oceans.

CO2 emissions are acidifying the oceans, with potentially disastrous consequences for marine life. The oceans currently absorb one third of all carbon emissions, but they’re reaching a saturation point. Which means no fish to eat. With most of India’s population concentrated in coastal cities like Bombay, Trivandrum, Madras and Calcutta, what will all those people eat if the fish disappear?

Outbreaks.

Diseases like dengue and chikungunya are only a dress-rehearsal for the kind of viral diseases that are to come. As the planet gets hotter, ancient species of viruses (kept at a safe distance from human populations by temperature “buffer zones” for millions of years) will run rampant through thickly populated urban areas.

Children stand where their homes were abandoned due to rising sea levels. Hemnagar Island, Sundarbans, India.

Rising seas.

New studies are predicting sea level rises of over a metre or more by the end of this century, more than double the predictions made in 2007. A number of low-lying areas in India, from the Sunderbans to the Andamans, are already under serious threat. Where will all these people go?

Typhoons and cyclones.

Cyclone Aila has killed over 350 people, displaced another 1 million, and placed over 20 million at risk of post-disaster disease. If global temperatures keep rising, such extreme weather events will only increase in frequency and intensity. How many of our cities can withstand such havoc, year after year? Not one. Remember, a single tsunami shut down Madras, a single flood shut down Bombay, and a single cyclone shut down Calcutta.

No food security.

Already, farmers are suffering from failed crops due to erratic monsoons and increasing droughts in large parts of Orissa, Maharashtra and Bihar. If climate change continues unchecked, India’s food security – built painstakingly over the years – will face a threat greater than any terrorist act known to this nation.