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Preface
The current book Climate Change and the White World is the outcome of the 4th
Conference on Science and Geopolitics of Himalaya, Arctic and Antarctic (SaGHAA
IV 2017) held at the Convention Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
India, on November 30 and December 1, 2017. The Arctic, Antarctica and the third
Pole-Himalaya have drawn the attention of scientists and researchers in the last few
decades like never before due to the unprecedented changes in the environment and
morphology of cryospheric regions. The region also has seen the emergence of
political interventions and strategic scientific developments especially in view of
the claims of coastal states to continental shelves beyond their exclusive economic
zones and on the issues of Antarctic Treaty System.
The year 2018 has been ranked fourth warmest on record. As per a recent report
of NASA, 18 of the 19 warmest years have occurred since 2001. The global warming and associated climate variability that scientists had been warning about are no
longer a myth. The increasing evidences in the form of extreme weather events, viz.
increase in flash floods, cloud bursts, hurricane, storms, etc., point towards an alarming reality. In fact, the current trends in the rise of temperatures are faster than that
envisaged by climate models. Though climate change is a natural process and evidences of earth’s past periods of warming are recorded in the form of alternating
interglacial and glacial periods, that anthropological factors have accelerated the
rate of global warming due to an infusion of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
is now globally accepted. The rate at which changes are occurring is a serious cause
of concern, whether in the form of rise in average air temperature or the sea level
rise, glacial retreat, etc. The worst affected regions facing the brunt of global warming are the cryospheric regions of the world – Arctic, Antarctic and the mountain
glaciers such as the Alpine, Andes, Alaska, Himalayan and Patagonian.
The Arctic region is transforming fast as the change in climate has increased
melting of sea ice and opened accessibility in the otherwise frozen Arctic Sea. The
year 2018 saw Arctic winter ice at its lowest. The magnitude of temperature increase
in the Arctic is twice as much as the global increase. The effect of Arctic climate
change will have profound local, regional and global implications. In the first half
of 2010, air temperatures in the Arctic were 4 °C warmer than between 1968 and
Preface
The current book Climate Change and the White World is the outcome of the 4th
Conference on Science and Geopolitics of Himalaya, Arctic and Antarctic (SaGHAA
IV 2017) held at the Convention Centre, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi,
India, on November 30 and December 1, 2017. The Arctic, Antarctica and the third
Pole-Himalaya have drawn the attention of scientists and researchers in the last few
decades like never before due to the unprecedented changes in the environment and
morphology of cryospheric regions. The region also has seen the emergence of
political interventions and strategic scientific developments especially in view of
the claims of coastal states to continental shelves beyond their exclusive economic
zones and on the issues of Antarctic Treaty System.
The year 2018 has been ranked fourth warmest on record. As per a recent report
of NASA, 18 of the 19 warmest years have occurred since 2001. The global warming and associated climate variability that scientists had been warning about are no
longer a myth. The increasing evidences in the form of extreme weather events, viz.
increase in flash floods, cloud bursts, hurricane, storms, etc., point towards an alarming reality. In fact, the current trends in the rise of temperatures are faster than that
envisaged by climate models. Though climate change is a natural process and evidences of earth’s past periods of warming are recorded in the form of alternating
interglacial and glacial periods, that anthropological factors have accelerated the
rate of global warming due to an infusion of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere
is now globally accepted. The rate at which changes are occurring is a serious cause
of concern, whether in the form of rise in average air temperature or the sea level
rise, glacial retreat, etc. The worst affected regions facing the brunt of global warming are the cryospheric regions of the world – Arctic, Antarctic and the mountain
glaciers such as the Alpine, Andes, Alaska, Himalayan and Patagonian.
The Arctic region is transforming fast as the change in climate has increased
melting of sea ice and opened accessibility in the otherwise frozen Arctic Sea. The
year 2018 saw Arctic winter ice at its lowest. The magnitude of temperature increase
in the Arctic is twice as much as the global increase. The effect of Arctic climate
change will have profound local, regional and global implications. In the first half
of 2010, air temperatures in the Arctic were 4 °C warmer than between 1968 and