The recent Mumbai Bhubaneswar unseasonal rains, Shimla's untimely snowfall and the heat waves scorching most parts of the country even in mid-February are all warning signs of global warming. Such uneven changes in the climate have the most serious of outcomes in the form of melting glaciers, rising sea levels, higher death tolls from heat stress, outbreaks of dengue and malaria, all these and many more that are faced by humankind in the 21st century. However, this issue of global warming was kept on the back burner as it looked like the depleted ozone layer that protects the earth from harmful ultraviolet solar rays was healing.
But thanks to the enormous demand for Air-Conditioners (ACs) in places like India and China, where the equipments mostly rely on ozone depleting refrigerants such as CFCs and HCFC-22 gases, global warming is raising its ugly head again. Though international regulations such as Montreal and Kyoto Protocol are stringent to phase out the production of such gases in the industrialized countries of America and Europe by 2020, liberal norms were formulated for developing countries until 2040. However, scientists opine that such freehanded norms for the most populated part of the world would lead to more alarming consequences of global warming. |
