JOIN USDr Raghu Murtugudde, a senior climate scientist from the University of Maryland, USA, called upon people to make an attempt to internalise certain nature-friendly behavioural patterns so that there is some hope in preventing the bad effects of climate change.
“It would be a misnomer to say that Earth would be destroyed. In fact, we would be destroyed due to the severe effects of climate change,” he warned.
He was delivering a special talk on ‘Climate change, Sustainability and the Global Scenario’ organised under the aegis of Gandhian Centre for Philosophical Arts and Sciences.
Dr Murtugudde said, he disliked both the extreme views about climate change; in the sense, nothing will happen because of climate change (climate change is a myth) or life will be doomed anytime due to climate change.
“Both views are problematic. I am certainly aware of the effects of climate change but I hope to believe that some kind of solution will prevent this trend. There could be a game-changer,” he said.
Urging people to look at climate change as a ‘real’ scientific phenomenon, Dr Murtugudde advised against seeking a political solution.
“Politicians may have their eye on elections. But scientists need to speak the truth so that generations to come will live happily,” he said.
Dr Murtugudde blamed both individual and corporate behaviour for climate change.
The scientist said it is necessary that both individuals and corporates develop eco-friendly practices. There could be several theories and models. But the challenge is to turn it into action,
he said.
Earlier, GCPAS director prof Varadesh Hiregange said that like the rhythm in music, if ‘rhythm’ is lost, nature is lost and we are also lost.
MIT joint director Dr B H V Pai said, “Earth is not our inheritance; but something which we have borrowed from our children.”