Climate Change and Environmental Impacts: Past, Present and Future Perspective

Earth’s climate varies even without human influence but the acceleration in the changing pattern with cause and effect by/to the civilisation is a matter of concern to scientists. These patterns are lessons to understand future trends and ways and means for mitigation. The extreme weather events in almost every region of the globe involving excessive loss of human life and property are causing anxiety in society and posing challenges before scientists and planners. Cyclical variations in the Earth’s climate occur at multiple time scales, from years to decades, centuries, and millennia. Cycles at each scale are caused by a variety of physical mechanisms. In the last 65 Ma only, there have been several cycles of glacial advances and retreat, with the abrupt end of the last ice age about 11,700 years ago marking the beginning of the modern climate era and human civilization. A multidisciplinary approach in studying the Earth’s changing climate will provide a holistic view and guide us in future planning and programming.

Dr. Binita Phartiyal, Scientist at Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeosciences, Lucknow, India, expertises in geomorphology, Quaternary climate, and neotectonics. She holds a Doctoral degree from Kumaun University (2000) and has been a DAAD Fellow at the University of Tuebingen, Germany. Being a geologist by training, fieldwork is her passion and she has participated in and led several expeditions to the Tethyan and Trans-Himalayan regions, as well as participated in polar expeditions. She is the first Indian woman to have taken part in the Indian Scientific Expeditions to all the three Poles viz. Antarctica, the Arctic, and the Himalaya (part of the Third Pole). Dr. Phartiyal has made significant contributions toward the reconstruction of the Quaternary climate using sedimentary archives from the Himalayan region (Ladakh, Zanskar, and Spiti), western India, and the Polar regions. She has also played a salient role in popularizing Quaternary science and bringing the Quaternary scientist community in the Indian subcontinent on one platform through the Association of Quaternary Researchers.

Dr. Rahul Mohan, is currently Scientist F and Group Director at the National Centre for Polar and Ocean Research (erstwhile NCAOR), Ministry of Earth Sciences, Goa, India. His research interests include Oceanic micropaleontology and environmental geosciences with special emphasis on paleoclimatology and paleoceanography with special interest in Southern Ocean, Antarctica lakes and Arctic as areas of current interest. With more than 27 years of research experience in oceanic micropaleontology and more than 100 published papers currently he is part of the INSA-National Committee’s of Scientific Committee on Antarctica Research (SCAR) and INSA-IUGS National Committee. Dr Rahul is also the National Coordinator from India for the Asian Forum for Polar Sciences and a Member of the SCAR CBET.

Dr. Supriyo Chakraborty is a senior scientist and is the Head of the Mass Spectrometry Group and the MetFlux India Project at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Pune. He received his Ph.D.  from the M.S. University of Baroda. He undertook postdoctoral work at the University of California at Santa Barbara and then at San Diego. His work is focused on monsoon reconstruction using the natural archives, isotope hydrology, moisture dynamical processes, ecosystem GHGs fluxes, and energy transfer processes at various natural ecosystems. He has about 30 years of research experience. He has guided students for Ph.D. and M.Sc. dissertations. He has about 80 peer-reviewed research papers to his credit. He is a recipient of the Certificate of Merit award by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Govt. of India. He is a coordinating lead author and an editor of the book Assessment of Climate Change over the Indian Region. A Report of the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), Government of India published in 2020 by Springer, Singapore.

Dr. Venkatesh Dutta is currently Professor at School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar Central University, Lucknow, India. His research interests include environmental management with special emphasis on water policy, catchment planning, river restoration and eco-hydrology. He has about twenty years of professional experience in areas of water quality management, land-use planning and environmental impact assessment. Dr. Dutta has contributed to significant changes in legislation and policy for sustainable water resource management in India. As part of his public policy work, he has served as a member of the Expert Group for the formulation of the State Water Policy of Government of Uttar Pradesh in 2020. He is a Fulbright-Nehru Fellow and a British Chevening Scholar.

Dr. Anil K. Gupta is Professor, National Institute of Disaster Management, India and is a sustainability-risk management strategist working in the area of disaster management, environment and climate resilience. He steered international and national projects of policy research - planning and capacity building and established new approaches, viz. ecoDRR, CCA-DRR integrated mainstreaming, Loss & Damage focused Climate Risk Management Framework, Industrial, Urban, Business continuity resilience and Tools like DIA (with EIA/SEA, Auditing & LCA), Mitigation analysis, PDNA, etc. Dr. Gupta has credit for preparation of National and Sectoral Disaster Management Plans, Human resource capacity development Plans, National action plan for chemical disaster management, National drought manual, Institutional expansion & strengthening plan. He has to credit over 150 publications of international and international level. He is principal editor of the Springer-Nature Book series on Disaster Resilience and Green Growth, and in the board of many research journals. He was recipient of National Science Day Young Scientist Award in Forestry & Environment in 1996, Excellence Award by the Society of Environmental & Occupational Health, and bestowed with IDRC Canada’s Thank Tank Initiative Senior Fellowship 2011 for policy research.