The Blue Alert campaign in five Indian coastal cities witnessed hundreds calling for government action to mitigate climate change threats. An earlier report by Greenpeace has highlighted possible displacement of over 125 million people in India and Bangladesh that puts vulnerable coastlines at risk.
Citizens, celebrities and politicians joined the Blue Alert campaign to highlight what could be the coastline of the future, if the climate crisis wasn’t prevented.
In five climate vulnerable coastal cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai,
Kochi and Panjim, more than 500 people walked in a show of concern and
to demand that India take steps to prevent this humanitarian crisis.
Focus on mitigation
“India invests huge amounts in protecting its national boundaries
from military incursions, but it is ignoring the climate crisis that
can redraw its coastlines permanently and displace as many as 50
million people in India and 75 million more in Bangladesh”, said
Brikesh Singh , Climate and Energy Campaigner from Greenpeace.
“While climate change is the biggest threat facing humanity in the
coming century, India needs to recognise that mitigating the threat by
building a low carbon economy is the biggest economic opportunity of
the 21st century.
"We need to position ourselves to take advantage of the emerging
opportunities by proactively investing in the sustainable energy
technologies of the future with a view to being world leaders in them,”
added Brikesh Singh, making the case for India to focus on mitigation
as against adaptation while formulating the National Climate Action
Plan to be announced in June this year.
Climate migrants
The Blue Alert campaign, in the last three weeks has engaged
people through posting climate hazard signs, slapping eviction notices
on buildings under threat of submergence and organising climate migrant
kiosks in vulnerable localities in the five coastal cities.
More than 5,000 people have signed postcards of concern to their MPs calling for them to raise this issue in Parliament.
Responding to their concern, and the media reports, a number of
MPs including Milind Deora and Priya Dutt in Mumbai, Dr K S Manoj and
Francis George in Kochi, Krishnaswamy and Dhanuskodi Athithan from
Tamilnadu and Sujon Chakrabarti and Shamik Lahiri in Kolkata have
expressed their concern and promised to debate the wisdom of “adapting”
to a climate crisis in the coming session of Parliament in meetings
with Greenpeace campaigners.
Earlier, Greenpeace released a report focusing on the humanitarian
crisis the South Asian region could face if global warming was not kept
below the 2 degree tipping point.
“Blue Alert – Climate Migrants in South Asia: Estimates and Solutions",
a paper authored by Dr Sudhir Chella Rajan, professor of Humanities and
Social Sciences at IIT Madras, and a climate expert, estimates the
number of people who could be displaced from their homes at 125 million
in India and Bangladesh alone. To put that figure in perspective, it is
the equivalent of 10 times the migration at the time of Partition or
375 times the displacement caused by the Sardar Sarovar Dam.
