SOCIAL PERCEPTIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE IN RAJASTHAN STATE, INDIA (original) (raw)
India's climate is both diverse and changing. The south experiences tropical climate, through to more temperature conditions to the alpine regions of the north where elevated areas receives sustained winter snowfall. India is faced with the challenge of sustaining its rapid economic growth while dealing with the global threat of climate change. This threat emanates from accumulated greenhouse gas emissions in the atmosphere, anthropogenically generated through long-term and intensive industrial growth and high consumption lifestyles in developed countries. While engaged with the international community to collectively and cooperatively deal with this threat, India needs a national strategy to firstly, adapt to climate change and secondly, to further enhance the ecological sustainability of India's development path. Climate change may alter the distribution and quality of India's natural resources and adversely affect the livelihood of its people. With an economy closely tied to its natural resource base and climate-sensitive sectors such as agriculture, water and forestry, India may face a major threat because of the projected changes in climate. India's development path is based on its unique resource endowments, the overriding priority of economic and social development and poverty eradication, and its adherence to its civilization legacy that places a high value on the environment and the maintenance of ecological balance. In charting out a developmental pathway which is ecologically sustainable, India has a wider spectrum of choices precisely because it is at an early stage of development. Our vision is to create a prosperous, but not wasteful society, an economy that is self-sustaining in terms of its ability to unleash the creative energies of our people and is mindful of our responsibilities to both present and future generations. Recognizing that climate change is a global challenge, India will engage actively in multilateral negotiations in the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, in a positive, constructive and forward-looking manner. Our objective will be to establish an effective, cooperative and equitable global approach based on the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, enshrined in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Such an approach must be based on a global vision inspired by Mahatma Gandhi's wise dictum—the earth has enough resources to meet people's needs, but will never have enough to satisfy people's greed. Thus we must not only promote sustainable production processes, but equally, sustainable lifestyles across the globe. Our approach must also be compatible with our role as a responsible and enlightened member of the international community, ready to make our contribution to the solution of a global challenge, which impacts on humanity as a whole. The success of our national efforts would be significantly enhanced provided the developed countries affirm their responsibility for accumulated greenhouse gas emissions and fulfill their commitments under the UNFCCC, to transfer new and additional financial resources and climate friendly technologies to support both adaptation and mitigation in developing countries. We are