Early warming signs

The warning signs have stared us in the face for years. The Marrakech climate talks merely reinforce with more meteorological data what we have feared for long: about global warming bringing about drastic climate change. The UN body gave the example of Rajasthan’s Phalodi recording 51ºC last summer, besides many other red flags, to establish that 2016 may be the hottest year on record. The talks are more about agreeing on the rules to enable the landmark Paris deal, where all nations, rich or poor, clean or dirty, agreed to keep global warming well below 2ºC. The need to shut all coal-powered plants by 2050 to avoid global warming of 1.5C was stressed while 2016 temperatures, already 1.2ºC above pre-industrial levels, showed how urgent the task was.

The elephant in the room at Marrakech was, of course, US President-elect Donald Trump, who pledged in his campaign to pull the US out of the global climate deal. While it is surmised that no US President has reneged on a deal already in force, those fighting global warming are a bit uncertain as a climate science denier, who believes climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese, has been elected and will be in the White House by January. Any adverse US action on the Paris deal would have a knock-on effect on the thinking of many other nations. It will be no exaggeration to believe the Paris agreement is in jeopardy. However, it’s also becoming clear that there could be a great difference between Candidate Donald Trump and President-elect Trump!