Bangalore Climate Hits Dangerous Tipping Point

The city of Bengaluru has grown rapidly over the years and the growth of urbanization has proved to be hazardous. Bengaluru known for its moderate climate over the year’s research has indicated that it is increasingly becoming vulnerable and being unable to cope with climate variability and extreme changes which results in high summer temperatures, floods etc. owing to the fast growth of industrialization and modernization of the city without any precautionary measures.

That means Bengaluru at the present moment is less likely to adapt with sudden climate changes. The development has also lead to mass deforestation which creates less chances of having adequate rain which makes the city hot and dusty. Such developing cities alter their climate to such an extent that they create their own natural environments which pose a difficult task in curbing the environmental challenges within the same city.

An inefficient public transport system, growing number of vehicles, irregular urbanization has all added up to the poisonous environment with erratic rainfall, short winters with temperatures rising 2-3 degrees above the average. Climate change can be overwhelming for cities with more extreme heat due to pollution and buildings compared to the rural areas, flooding due to poor infrastructure, droughts due to less rains and even disease epidemics will be on the rise due to increased heat and flooded areas.

There may be global treaties that aim at curbing the ill effects of expansion and urbanization on environment but developing countries like India are not bound by such rules and regulations.

The Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Studies stated that nearly 160 Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCS) have been submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention to reduce pollution and set targets for embarking upon controlling the environment and Bengaluru does not seem like it is at a strong point to achieve the objectives.

It has been reported that Bengaluru will be having a state-of-the-art climate change laboratory to be setup by the Environmental Management and Policy Research Institute (EMPRI) which will be a knowledge gaining center helping in developing in-depth studies to determine measures for a better environment and will be the center point to detect climate changes in Karnataka.

Formulating State Action Plans require massive research and can be time consuming as well. However experts believe that improvisation in subtle ways can help to alter the impact of climate changes. Sustainable architecture which is based upon houses sustaining on its own resources, municipal bodies taking stringent measures to become more energy efficient and the corporations to follow suit as well though some of them do have environmental policies in place. Environmental vulnerability has to be assessed from a scientific standpoint and plan adaptive methods to cope with the effects of climate change.