If India Can't Handle 2007 Monsoon Rains, What Happens When Climate Really Destabilizes?

[hatrack]

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Climate change might get some blame for South Asia's catastrophic floods, but government ineptitude has dramatically magnified the misery facing tens of millions of people in India, aid groups and experts say. Global warming is likely to cause even heavier monsoons with more devastating storms in the region, and India needs to wake up fast to the risks.

"You can blame it on climate change or you can blame it on other factors, but the frequency and misery due to flooding is increasing with each passing year," said P.V. Unnikrishnan, ActionAid India's emergencies adviser. "But what we are seeing is more of a knee-jerk, reactionary response that lacks both sensitivity and vision," he added. "The government is not going the extra mile to reach out to the poor."

At least 490 people have been killed and 50 million affected by the floods hitting northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal in the past three weeks. More than 100,000 people are still marooned -- many perched on rooftops -- in Bihar, a state that is a byword for poverty at the best of times. Anger is rising at what is seen as the lackadaisical response of the state government.

Four air force helicopters were pressed into action in Bihar this week, not nearly enough to bring food and drinking water to all the victims, U.N. officials say. To add insult to injury, officials have been accused of stealing or hoarding food, while a 17-year-old boy was killed when police opened fire on an angry crowd.

EDIT

http://in.reuters.com/article/topNews/idINIndia-28877820070808

[endarkenment]

1. Mumbai might start to look like New Orleans

or someother backwater post-industrial failed state's metropolis under assault from catastrophic climate change. But India is probably up to the challenge, so it won't get that bad.

[aquart]

4. Yes, it will get that bad.

India's solution is barricades against Bangladeshi refugees. They know they'll try to come and they are planning to let them die. AND THEY WILL HAVE TO.

New Orleans, honey, is going to look like the good old days. The tsunami will look like happy times. Because there was rescue then.

You're talking as if it's only going to happen to THEM. It's going to happen to ALL of us. Think the MidWest wants refugees from New York? And Florida?

Croplands are going to be under water. Infrastructure everywhere is going to collapse.

Have a good day.

[endarkenment]

6. I think I forgot to turn on the humor light.

http://flood.firetree.net/?ll=40.7535,-73.9346&z=5&m=8&t=2

At an 8m rise New York City will not be uninhabitable.

And you like totally missed my point, which was that we are at least as bad, and in fact worse than India, in dealing with this sort of problem. So rather than paint me as some sort of racist, try reading what a wrote. The THEM you are referring to in my post is US.

[aquart]

9. Race didn't even occur to me.

The THEM I referred to was everybody else.

And the sea level rise is clearly not the only thing we have to contend with in New York. The severity of storms and the increased amount of saturation rainfall is already making huge budget inroads. We budget for snow removal, not flood control.

[aquart]

2. Now you're getting it. Millions are going to die.

If they don't drown, they'll starve. And other nations will be too stressed to help.

The ONLY question is when.

[Bobbieo]

3. The 4 Horsemen have arrived -

War, Pestilence, Flood and Famine!

[enid602]

8. 4 horsement

I thought you were referring to Bush, Cheney, Lott and Brownie.

[phantom power]

5. At some point, governments will no longer have the resources...

to rescue millions of people, time after time. That is the point at which 500 casualties will start to turn into 50 thousand, or 5 million.

It might be starting now. This disaster obviously isn't over yet.

[kestrel91316]

7. What happens? Lots more dead people. That's what happens.