OH, MY POOR FARMER…WHY WERE YOU BORN??

Intensification of droughts, floods and cyclones is one of the predictable impacts of climate change and climate instability. The failure of monsoons in India and the consequent droughts have impacted two-thirds of India, especially the bread basket of the country’s fertile Gangetic plains. The monsoons recharge the groundwater and surface water systems. This year, because of droughts there will be reduced recharge.

The India Prime Minister will leave for Copenhagen Climate Change Summit in a few days amidst the controversial voluntary cuts by India in carbon emissions. It seems India has been again bended under US pressure. We, the people of third world countries, are paying the price for break-neck industrialisation by developed countries like the US.

The Indian farmer is again the first one to face the brunt of climate change. Here is one such story from a small village called Pi on the Rajasthan border.
Ramlaal...a small farmer who depends on the monsoons for the irrigation of his fields hasn't seen a drop falling from the sky for the last two years. Every year he sows his fields and waits for the rain gods to bless him and his family. Ramlaal told me that he can only see the clouds and rains in his dreams.

The man and his family who must have negligible contribution towards the world's carbon emissions are possibly bearing the burden of the actions of those thousands of miles away from them.

Comments

crookedlinesDecember 13, 2009 at 1:45 PM
Very poignant and yet a slap on the face of those engaging in farcical parleys in Copenhagen in order to find so-called "solutions" to a crisis that is their own creation .... in the answers too, they will undoubtedly seek profitability.
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