Bangalore is getting hotter than ever. “The city has seen a two-degree increase in temperature in the last 100 years, which is one degree more than the global temperature,” said J Srinivasan, chairman, Divecha Centre for Climate Change & professor of IISc, at the Annual Conference on Environment and Sustainability.
He said: “The global levels have shown one degree increase in temperatures but, the city has seen a rise in two degrees, which is due to increase in concrete structures.”
However, the global contribution to pollution from developing world is only 50%.
“Some years ago, the US has said that their lifestyle is not negotiable. We have to wake up now before we reach those levels where we add to increasing pollution levels of the developed worlds,” he said.
Dr A Ravindra, advisor to chief minister of Karnataka, said: “In the past two decades, the state has achieved economic growth at the cost of environment. Average compliance ratio of industry is only 50% and this does not include SMEs, which contribute to more pollution than big companies. Solar power price has been declining and it should replace coal-based and fossil fuel-based power.”
On Karnataka’s place in pollution, Kanwer Pal, secretary, department of ecology & environment, said: “Two of five industrial areas are highly polluted. The expertise with industry, governments, and research institutions should be used to reduce pollution. Industries that have cleaner processes will be gainers and pollution-causing industries will be losers. Ground water is being excessively exploited and 88 taluks in the state are already dried up. So recycle, and reuse the water.”
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