Interview with Dr. C.K.Rajan,Scientist, Climate Change::SREENI R in Cochin : interviews blog at Rediff iLand

Dr. C.K.Rajan who has
done Ph.D. in Meteorology from the Cochin University of Science and
Technology (CUSAT), Kerala, India has been involved with climate
change since 1988. Worked under various capacities such as Junior
Lecturer in College of Engineeing , Trivandrum, Asst. Meteorologist in
India Meteorological Department, Professor in Meteorology in CUSAT .
Presently he is holding charge as Hon. Director , Centre for Monsoon
Studies(CMS), Cochin University of Science and Technology (CUSAT) and
also working as President of an NGO namely "Scientific Awareness Forum"
(SAFE), to promote scientific awareness among the younger generation.
Under this Forum 2 major events namely “Vignyan Utsav -2001” , and
Vignyan Utsav -2005”, consisting of 5 days each have been conducted at
Ernakulam. The first one was to highlight the contributions of our
great persons like C.V.Raman, J.C.Bose, Vikram Sarabai and Aryabhatta
to the younger generation. The second one was to highlight the
seriousness of “Natural and Man made Disasters and the need for its
Judicious Management” to the society, especially to the younger
generation.

In an interview to Sreeni K.R ,Dr.
C.K.Rajan talks about the climate change initiatives and seeks his
perspectives on the goals of the Forum, and its progress to date.

The
argument is that there is a new cause for climate change, which is -
human beings. In which way do you think climate has varied naturally,
regardless of human intervention?
Had the climate change
happened as a natural phenomenon, it would have been gradual. But the
present scenario is entirely different. The drastic changes noticed
during the last few years cannot be attributed to natural changes in
climate. I became convinced by the evidence that was linking human
activities to changes in the climate system including the occurrences
and severity of events such as floods and droughts.

Some
people hold the view that the threat of climate change is so great that
we need to fundamentally change the way we produce and use energy.
Whats your response to this view?
I fully agree to their
view point. The global climate change we witness is due to rising lower
tropospheric temperature. The main reason for this is uncontrolled
emission of green house gases by burning fossil fuels.

Scientists agree that the earths temperature has risen . What adverse effect does it bring to our atmosphere?
Primary
impact of global warming is global sea level rise. Volumetric expansion
of sea water due to radiative heating and by discharge of large volume
of fresh water from melting of ice and snow in the western Antarctic
sheet, Arctic sea ice, Greenland ice cover and continental ice sheets
and glaciers. Other implications are those regarding the human
settlements in the coastal towns and cities, heightened coastal
erosion, loss of property, devastation of coastal and terrestrial
ecosystem, change in rainfall pattern in terms of intensity , special
distribution and shift in seasonal pattern,untimely flooding and
drought in regions unheard of, effect on human health due to rise in
incidence of vector borne diseases , heat stress , decrease in drinking
water, etc.

Industrial progress has produced a lot of
comforts for mankind? Name some chemical constituents which adversely
affect the weather?
Rightly said.Industrial progress has
produced lot of comforts to mankind. Aerosols including black carbons,
burning of fossil fuels, emission of CFCs, HCFCs, HFCs, PFCs etc are
some of the major causes for weather changes.

What is the major difference between weather and climate?
Climate
is the synthesis of the day to day weather conditions in a given area.
It is characterised by long statistics of the state of atmosphere in
that area. The physical state of the atmosphere in a given place and
time is weather.

What are the reasons you find for global warming?
Along
with the emission of uncontrolled levels of GHGs, the phenomenal
increase of automobiles in the developed and developing countries,
uncontrolled increase in the construction of high rise buildings, large
scale deforestation, filling of water bodies, etc can cause global
warming.

Weather forecast would talk about things that
might happen over the next day or two. But climate would be something
like a more average pattern over a longer period of time, like a
season. Do you agree ?
Weather prediction can be
categorized into 3 types- Short , Medium and Long range. Short range
prediction is for 24 to 48hrs ahead. Medium range is for 3 to 7 days
period. Long or extended range prediction is for a month or more ahead.
Though climate is the average condition of weather for a region, clear
change of the average condition is termed as climate change.

What are the methods used to monitor climate changes in India? How effectively has it produced result?
The
decadal averages of various weather parameters of various regions along
with the extremes, are monitored. The severity of the climate changes
is being felt only in the recent years. New methods are being evolved
to clearly understand this phenomenon in order to help in taking timely
precaution.

Inspite of all the effort by the scientist
community, where do you think you have failed to address the major
issues concerning climate?
Inspite of all the effort by
the scientist community,in the previous years we have failed to
address the the major issues concerning climate. Now a days things
have almost changed . Govt. institutions,   NGOs and the real stake
holders come under one umbrella and face the problem with full
sincerity. Sincere efforts are taken to bring the experts into the
field. Kerala Agricultural University, under the able leadership of the
present Vice Chancellor, has already taken the lead in this direction
with the active cooperation of ISRO. We expect real benefits under his
leadership in the coming days to mitigate the ill effects of this
phenomenon to a great extent.

What are the methods used to bring awareness about the changes in climate among the general public?
A
new oriented awareness campaign along the   length and breadth of
Kerala is being planned. Kerala Agricultural University[KAU] will be
taking a lead in this direction. The main aim of this venture is to
take the society into confidence and make them fully prepared to face
the climate change scenario to their benefit.

From your personal diary, you have published many works at the national and international level. Which are they?
I have published popular books on “Climate of Kerala” in English and another detailed version “ Keralathinte Kalavasta” in Malayalam , a few years ago. A book on “Mazha” in Malayalam has also been published a few years before. A book on “ Rain, its facts and facets”
explaining all its aspects will be published shortly. A number of
research papers have been published in national and international
journals of repute related to Meteorology and Oceanography.

INTERVIEW