Greenpeace expresses concern over global warming

International environmental watchdog Greenpeace organised a press conference here on Friday on how to reduce harmful emissions within 10 years to prevent further environmental damage.

Chennai, Oct 26 : International environmental watchdog Greenpeace organised a press conference here on Friday on how to reduce harmful emissions within 10 years to prevent further environmental damage.

Speaking on the occasion, G.Ananda Padmanathan - Executive Director, Greenpeace, said, "Within the next ten years, global emissions of the green house gases, which are responsible for climate change, has to reach the peak and start declining."

"If this does not decline, scientists are telling us that we will have very dangerous weather changes for centuries to come. So, we are in a strange position where if we do not act in the next ten years to stop the emissions not only us, but our children will have to fact very dangerous consequences," he added.

Padmanathan went on to say that the most important thing that would happen in India is that Himalayan glaciers will disappear. The river Ganges on which 200 to 300 million people of this country depend will be a seasonal river. Even the sea level will rise.

Global warming threatens the livelihoods of hundreds of millions of people on the Indian subcontinent -- potentially one of the most seriously affected regions in the world.

Receding Himalayan glaciers could jeopardize water supplies for hundreds of millions of people and rising sea levels menace Indian cities like Mumbai and Kolkata, as well as neighbouring Bangladesh, scientists warn.

Nobel laureate RK Pachuri spoke at length about the harmful effects of global warming at a recent book release function.

Speaking on this topic, he said, "We have now reached a point where the damage and the danger of this are inherent and unsustainable. The danger is not something that is far away, it is something that is happening now."

He said its impacts were largely negative, as they were "cumulative."

ANI