Winter is Coming – Part 3 :: Droughts, Floods, Tsunamis and Disasters.

In previous two parts of this blog series, we have discussed how environmental disturbance is leading towards disastrous situations such as an ice age and extinction of many living beings. If you haven’t read it till yet, please go through the following links and read them. The link will open in a new tab.

Winter is Coming – Part 1

Winter is Coming – Part 2

In this part, I am informing about the natural disasters, that global warming has brought to us and it will be bringing them many more times….!

1) Droughts

Such a familiar term isn’t it…? Oh…how much litres of water did you waste today for your bathing…? Can you just reduce your use of dishwashers and washing machines to 50%..? Can you just stop using showers even when your region has enough water supply…? I’m sure you won’t….but you must. Because the world is running out of water, faster than ever before…!!!

Earth’s surface has almost 72% of the water. 97 percentile of the water is in oceans. The rest 3 percentile of water is comprised of ice and water. 2 percentile is ice and only 1 percentile is what we use. The water in rivers, ponds, lakes, dams all over the world is just 1% of the total water on entire planet. This isn’t wonder. This is highschool taught geographic information.

As explained in previous blogs, extreme climatic conditions and irregular climatic changes have lead disturbance in rainfalls. Almost every nation in the world is facing droughts every year. India, Pakistan, China, The US, Africa…the drought is everywhere.

We have dams on rivers. Whenever rain falls in the seasons, the rivers get flooded with water and the dams are filled. The dams keep providing us water round the clock. Small towns, Cities and Metros have access to the dams. Villages have local irrigation systems such as small dams, lakes, canals, rivers, wells, borewells etc. When any monsoon disappoints, the first victims are villages. They run out of water earlier than anywhere. The dam still holds water. But now that rain had shortfall, their pace of emptying becomes faster. So, small towns are cut off from the water supply gradually. Then small cities are also provided with less water. This continues till water in the dams vanishes. This happened in Maharashtra recently. 2011 was the year when the monsoon was full of rainfalls and dams filled 100%. But for four subsequent years, monsoon disappointed Maharashtra, especially the region of Marathwada. 2016 was the year when 40% of the dams in Maharashtra were completely empty. Almost every other dam was below 40% of the reserves. Latur city and the District in Maharashtra literally ran out of all sources of water. The dams, backwater dams, canals, rivers, wells, borewells all were dry. This was a very gruesome period when Latur was provided water by railway tankers for almost 3 months.

(—The Water Carrying Rail Tanker in Latur—)

This was one scenario of drought. Let’s see some more. Droughts obviously affects agriculture. Crops are burnt in absense of water. Farmers suffer huge losses, stuck in the loans and suicide.

(—Maharashtra Major Drought 2018—)

This was the ground reality. Now let’s talk some more about the reasons of drought. Lack of monsoon is a problem, yes, but the massive rate of drilling millions of cusecs of underground water is a trouble. The underground water table is the only source when rivers run dry. But massive drilling of it is leading to desertification of land and invitation of droughts.

The world has 3 major ice shelfs. South Pole, North Pole and the Himalayas. Himalaya is the source of water for more than 4 to 5 major rivers such as Ganga, Yamuna, Jhelum, Ravi etc. Ganga originates at Gangotri in Himachal Pradesh. The natives say that the origin point of Ganga has gone far back upto 7 Kilometres in the last 40 years. Did you get it…? No..? If no, then please stop reading this.

(—Ice melting in Himalayas—)

Global Warming is a killer. Himalayan rivers will gradually run dry. Then the entire region North India, Pakistan, Tibet and Kashmir will suffer from major and long term droughts, if Himalayan ice reserve melts. Oh, forgot to mention, the melting of Himalayan ice reserves will firstly cause severe floods. Floods especially in Summers. Ice will melt till end and floods will come. Massive floods that will kill thousands and destroy cities.

Drought will not only make us thirsty, but it will starve. Vegetables, grains and edible non veg….all will be scarce.

2)Floods and Tsunamis

(—Kerala Floods 2018—)

Extreme Climatic Conditions lead to extreme rainfall, exactly where it’s not needed. This causes massive floods and all the flood water flows through cites. Destroys properties and kills people. Floods leave so much destruction and ofcourse, diseases. Recently, Kerala faced such a vast and vicious flood. Almost 20000 crores rupees of loss was suffered in the state. These floods are killing people in Northeast India, East China and many other South Asian Countries. The most regretful thing is, the so much water which passes away in the floods, can be used in drought places, alas, we don’t have such infrastructure.

(—Tsunami Live Picture—)

Irregularity in the core of oceans leads to Tsunamis. Earthquakes under the ocean is the prior most factor for Tsunamis. Tsunami is a giant killer. It washes away the coastal cities in a matter of seconds.

3) Other Disasters

(—Satelite image of Hurricane Katrina—)

Hurricanes are caused by irregular fluctuations in the ocean temperature. They are being more frequent and more disastrous every next year. The East Coast of the US is fed up with the every year hurricane drama. Many a times they are hit with snow hurricanes, even more disastrous. Even countries like India are facing hurricanes, where hurricanes used to be rarest of the things. Hundred and one percent global warming is responsible for it.

There are and will be many more natural disasters. The list is vast and my blog must not. Thus, instead of discussing the problem anymore, look forward for the list of solutions. The next and final part of the blog series is coming soon. Stay tuned.

Warm Regards,

Dnyanesh Make “the DPM”

Email ID ::- dpm8055@gmail.com