Climate change is serious and one often feels overwhelmed by the changes we are witnessing in our environment around us. With the launch of the climate impacts day, the 350 team in India began working on engaging partners and designing actions for May 5th. Our aim was to connect the dots between extreme weather and climate change and raise the issue for mainstream discourse in India.
While our brainstorming on creative tactics for the day of action went well, there was another type of storm that was wrecking homes in the state of Jammu & Kashmir. For over 30 hours this past week, the residents of the Kashmir valley faced nature’s fury as strong wind storms ravaged homes and damaged hundreds of public and private properties. Was this a freak act of nature ? Or another one of the now growing number of extreme weather events around the globe as a result of climate change? Shakeel Ramsoo, a glaciologist from Kashmir told us that the weather records of the last 50-60 years indicate a growing frequency of extreme weather in the past decade in the valley. ” It is safe to conclude that such extreme weather is a direct consequence of climate change”, he said.
Cloud bursts, disappearing springs, negative impacts on fisheries and glacial lake flooding are some of the many impacts that residents are already facing. Rising carbon emissions around the globe and the resultant rise in planetary surface temperature is impacting lives of humans all around. As this movement continues to grow, we need your help to connect the dots and show our political leaders, policy makers and the general public that moving away from fossil fuels to a cleaner energy future is the only way we can mitigate the occurrence of such disasters in the years to come. With similar growing impacts across India, connecting the dots is crucial for us to raise the awareness and push for political action.
Our top organizers Owais Raheem and Reetu Asrani helped gather these pictures and are planning some amazing actions in the valley. The pictures speak for themselves and these families will soon rebuild their homes but as humanity, we need to rebuild our civilization for the safety of our next generations.
