TIRUPATI: The Vice President M. Venkaiah Naidu has called upon scientists and researchers to address pressing issues such as climate change, global warming and extreme weather events so that the world was better prepared to tackle adverse situations.
Interacting with scientists and young researchers of the National Atmospheric Research Laboratory (NARL) near Tirupati in Andhra Pradesh, he said that weather and climate were posing new challenges with each passing day.
Naidu said: “We are experiencing global warming and its effects in the form of extreme weather, cyclonic storms, intense thunderstorms, torrential rain, and droughts. Changing weather and climate patterns also affect our agriculture and economy”.
Referring to challenges like an increase in high impact weather systems, water scarcity, drying up of rivers, growing pollution and survival threat to several animal and plant species due to climate change, he said that it was highly imperative for scientists and researchers to address these issues.
Exhorting the scientists to work on state-of-the-art observational instruments to generate high-quality data on climate models suitable for India’s tropical climate, the Vice President cautioned them to guard against erroneous results generated by data from elsewhere and called for accurate assessment and prediction.
The Indian subcontinent has distinct climatic zones and their interaction with global climate patterns needs to be studied on a priority basis for our long term well-being, he added.
