Recently was on a short field trip and happened to witness dry river basins across several miles of dry vegetation.  This was my first experience on witnessing which over the years are common occurrences for the farming community.    This is a region near Chennai (Madras), India that has not seen rain this season.  The dry river beds stands testimony to my statement and the farming community is struggling to make ends meet.  Even youth of my age don?t remember seeing lush green vegetation for nearly a decade.  The representative picture below shows the effect due to dry weather. 

What could be done to reverse this?  Recent climate accord that was held in Paris issues important warnings for now and future.  Allowing the present state of affairs in energy consumption using fossil fuels, the situation is going to get only worse over time.  Several of my colleague ambassadors have in the past expressed deep concerns over the climatic differentials in various parts of the world due to pollution and other related ecological disasters of which most are man made. 

Many such farming communities have indeed disappeared in the past and some have switched to other professions just for the sake to making a living.  In this sad transition, several links in the ecosystem are affected.  For example the animals (e.g. cattle, etc) that are dependent on the farmers are sold to make ends meet.  And the farming lands have disappeared altogether.  This not only translates to loss of revenue for the farmer but this also triggers several other effects such as loss of cultivable land, less agricultural output, no animal husbandry, children leaving education, rise in unemployment, future generations of the farming community resorting to illegal means for living.  As we may observe, this is a chain of undesirable events that will one day lead to the collapse of the society. 

It has been determined that the single largest killer of the world ecosystem is fossil fuels which is a billion dollar business.  Voice of the youth should never fade we should strongly advocate the use of renewable energy in every forum all across the world to stop further climate changes and in the process help these affected communities by providing alternate means to make a living. 

References:

1.                                 http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/environment/global-warming/climate-change-to-have-devastating-effect-in-asia-claims-new-study/serious-matter/slideshow/59608309.cms