‘We need to adapt to climate change'

Gujarat coastline, with big industrial establishments along, may have been a major pillar to the country’s economy, but it also faces a constant threat of natural calamities such as tsunami and cyclone.

Prof TS Murty, renowned meteorologist and oceanographer and a member of Expert Advisory Group for Kalpsar project, has studied a lot about the impact of natural forces on the state’s coastline.

He was in the city to deliver a talk on ‘Ocean Hazard & Climate Change’, organised by the Gujarat Institute of Civil Engineers & Architects (GICEA) at Gajjar Hall on Saturday evening.

In an exclusive talk with DNA, Prof Murty dwelt on issues such as climate change and oceanic hazards and how to cope with that.

About tsunami threat to Gujarat’s most ambitious project Kalpsar, Murty said, “Gujarat will always be facing threat from oceanic hazards like tsunami and cyclone, as it has a vast coastline, longest in the country.

There have been tsunamis on Gujarat’s coastline, the last one in 1945. So, we are looking at the possible impact of natural forces like tsunami, earthquakes and cyclone to the structure that is proposed for the Kalpsar project.”

He said, “Some of the best institutes for the study of such natural forces, like National Institute of Oceanography, Goa; National Geographical Research Institute, Hyderabad; and Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, are working for the project. We have a team of computer experts, who are generating models to study the impact of such natural forces on the design of the structure.”

Discussing the issue of climate change, he said, “Climate has constantly been changing for the last 280 million years and it will continue to change for the next 4 billion years till the Sun runs out of gas. But we, the human beings, have contributed to it in a big way.

Earlier there was 100% forest on the earth, but we have brought it down to 14 %. Climate change is also affected by the changes in the usage of land. Good thing about climate change, however, is that earlier it generated interest only among the scientists, while now you can’t study climate change in isolation.”

About the preventive measures to reduce the impact of climate change and oceanic hazards, Prof Murty said, “There is no one solution to stop the forces of nature, we will have to adapt to climate change. If we have major industrial installation on Gujarat coastline, we will have to think for engineering solutions to prevent the effects of tsunami and cyclones, like building a sea wall.

At the same time, we have to have natural solutions like mangrove plantations and increasing forest cover to prevent soil erosion and rising sea level.”