Global Warming

The Environment Ministry starting to become something other than a rubber-stamp body

For a long time, the Election Commission of India was a rubber-stamp body, about which nobody took any notice, and about which political parties really did not take too much notice. And then came the man called TN Seshan, who was to all practical purposes, a former cabinet secretary, put into a smooth official job after retiring from his top secretary status. And boy, did he shake the system. He defied all political parties, putting the Election Commission in the midst of all sorts of action, controversies, and so on; and even then he was frequently censured by the Supreme Court, he established a much more empowered body whom no political party takes for granted, and whose top posts are a matter of debate and controversy.
A similar position is that of the Union Environment Ministry, which was typically seen as a body where politicians were posted who were not being given the top post of home, finance, industry, commerce, food, etc, a ministry which was seen as having somewhat of a low profile; and somewhat irrelevant in a time when there was a lot of frantic development happening, a lot of industrialization happening, and so on.
And then came a number of factors, but I would consider three essential factors – the emergence of the Maoists, the emergence of global warning as a significant issue, and the arrival of Jairam Ramesh as the new environment minister. The Maoists are primarily based in the more tribal, more forested and wilder areas of the country, and in many of the areas of conflict, there is a conflict between the needs of industry and that of the dwellers of the area. Over a period of time, there has been a growing emergence of thought that it is not so simple to simply take resources wherever they are based, but the rights of the tribals and other natives is important, and the environment ministry is a powerful voice in that area. And Jairam Ramesh has not been in the least hesitant to jump into such fights, even when other ministers in the Government are frustrated by the apparent objections shown by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.
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Climate deal brokered by some of the countries at Copenhagen

After so much media attention, finally “some sort of deal” was struck in Copenhagen. But you can imagine the constraints in reaching a conclusion:
1. The science for Climate change is such that there will always be doubters, and unfortunately, the best proof will be only available when the effects of climate change will truly kick in (you already have Artic ice melting, shelfs of the Antartic splitting, glaciers retreating, coastal erosion, and so on). However, it is only when more catastrophic effects start kicking in will there be a realization that maybe things are now too late
2. The economics are staggering. To pull back on emissions means that changes have to happen economy wide, and with the recession going on, economies are loath to make such committments (although many of the economies were unwilling to commit even when they were not in recession)

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Massive changes in the Artic weather and ice levels happening

In the last few years, there have been a spate of reports on how global warming is continuing to march ahead, irrespective of the debate among countries and politicians about the steps needed to stop the emissions that contribute to global warming. Global warming is supposed to have a horrific impact on the ice levels of the polar regions and Greenland, with large scale reduction of the Artic and Antartic ice shelfs, along with melting of the huge amount of ice present in Greenland. This melting will release enough water to increase sea water levels, in turn devastating many low lying islands and low lying coastal regions. Scientists further fear that we are moving to an accelerated level of changes due to global warming, where global warming will become unsustainable (as an example, less ice covering the water means that the blue dark water will absorb more energy rather than the light reflected by white ice).
Global warming is already devastating the habitat of animals in the colder regions in the extreme North. The impact on polar bears is already pretty well known, but there are a whole range of animals that are affected (link to article):

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