other than leaving the only homes they have known and join the fast growing
community of climate migrants?
Keywords Climate change Á Sea level rise Á Anthropogenic Á Sunderbans
1 Introduction
Earth is the only planet which supports life amongst the other planets and it is only
the human race who are aware of this fact. But that does not mean the millions of
other living organisms of the earth, who are unaware of this fact, have any less right
on the natural capital of this planet. The Earth has gone through several revolutionary environmental changes in the past. But, for the past 10,000 years it has
remained quite stable and this period is called the Holocene period by the
Geologists. Since the beginning of Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century,
the activities of humans have been driving the environmental changes, so much so
that the scientists call it the Anthropocene period, that is, the Age of the Humans
(Rockstrom et al. 2009). We are cutting down trees, acidifying oceans, increasing
Green House Gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere to extraordinary levels, destroying
natural habitats of other species, draining the water bodies, extracting minerals
embedded in the earth’s surface; and all this for our own development. As a result
of these insensitivities, a large number of animals have become extinct or are under
threat. So much so that scientists are of the opinion that, Humanity is causing the
sixth great extinction wave of planet Earth; the earlier ones were caused by natural
dynamics (Sachs 2010).
Unfortunately, it is not the habitats of the animals alone that we have destroyed.
The future of the human race is also under duress because we have pushed the
Planetary boundaries too far (Sachs 2010). Planetary boundaries are defined as the
“safe operating space for humanity with respect to the Earth system and are
associated with the planet’s physical subsystems or processes” (Rockstrom et al.
2009, p. 1). Professor Rockstrom and his colleagues have identified nine Earth
system processes individually and also defined a particular threshold for each of
them. These nine processes are climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric
ozone depletion, global fresh water use, change in land use, chemical pollution,
interference with the Nitrogen and Phosphorus cycles and atmospheric aerosol
loading (Rockstrom et al. 2009). Regrettably, the threshold levels of climate
change, rate of biodiversity loss and nitrogen cycles have already been crossed and
for the other processes the boundaries are not very far from the danger zone.
Jeffry Sachs in his talk on Sustainable Development keeps on enforcing that in
order to achieve sustainable development, economic development is a prerequisite,
keeping in mind environmental sustainability, inclusive of social development and
for all this, good governance in a must (Sachs 2010). He goes further to say it is
356
H. Pakrashi
community of climate migrants?
Keywords Climate change Á Sea level rise Á Anthropogenic Á Sunderbans
1 Introduction
Earth is the only planet which supports life amongst the other planets and it is only
the human race who are aware of this fact. But that does not mean the millions of
other living organisms of the earth, who are unaware of this fact, have any less right
on the natural capital of this planet. The Earth has gone through several revolutionary environmental changes in the past. But, for the past 10,000 years it has
remained quite stable and this period is called the Holocene period by the
Geologists. Since the beginning of Industrial Revolution in the eighteenth century,
the activities of humans have been driving the environmental changes, so much so
that the scientists call it the Anthropocene period, that is, the Age of the Humans
(Rockstrom et al. 2009). We are cutting down trees, acidifying oceans, increasing
Green House Gases (GHGs) in the atmosphere to extraordinary levels, destroying
natural habitats of other species, draining the water bodies, extracting minerals
embedded in the earth’s surface; and all this for our own development. As a result
of these insensitivities, a large number of animals have become extinct or are under
threat. So much so that scientists are of the opinion that, Humanity is causing the
sixth great extinction wave of planet Earth; the earlier ones were caused by natural
dynamics (Sachs 2010).
Unfortunately, it is not the habitats of the animals alone that we have destroyed.
The future of the human race is also under duress because we have pushed the
Planetary boundaries too far (Sachs 2010). Planetary boundaries are defined as the
“safe operating space for humanity with respect to the Earth system and are
associated with the planet’s physical subsystems or processes” (Rockstrom et al.
2009, p. 1). Professor Rockstrom and his colleagues have identified nine Earth
system processes individually and also defined a particular threshold for each of
them. These nine processes are climate change, ocean acidification, stratospheric
ozone depletion, global fresh water use, change in land use, chemical pollution,
interference with the Nitrogen and Phosphorus cycles and atmospheric aerosol
loading (Rockstrom et al. 2009). Regrettably, the threshold levels of climate
change, rate of biodiversity loss and nitrogen cycles have already been crossed and
for the other processes the boundaries are not very far from the danger zone.
Jeffry Sachs in his talk on Sustainable Development keeps on enforcing that in
order to achieve sustainable development, economic development is a prerequisite,
keeping in mind environmental sustainability, inclusive of social development and
for all this, good governance in a must (Sachs 2010). He goes further to say it is
356
H. Pakrashi