Press release - April 12, 2008
MUMBAI, CHENNAI, KOCHI, KOLKATA, PANJIM, India — Citizens, celebrities and politicians, joined the Blue Alert campaign today, to highlight what could be the coastline of the future, if the climate crisis wasn’t prevented. In 5 climate vulnerable coastal cities of Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Kochi and Panjim, more than 500 people walked in a show of concern and to demand that India take steps to prevent this humanitarian crisis.
Greenpeace and Mumbaikars at a candlelight vigil after the Blue Solidarity March at Carter Road to speak out against climate inaction.
"India invests huge amounts in protecting its national
boundaries from military incursions, but it is ignoring the climate
crisis that can redraw its coastlines permanently and displace as
many as 50 million people in India and 75 million more in
Bangladesh", said Brikesh Singh , Climate and Energy Campaigner
from Greenpeace. "While climate change is the biggest threat facing
humanity in the coming century, India needs to recognize that
mitigating the threat by building a low carbon economy is the
biggest economic opportunity of the 21st century. We need to
position ourselves to take advantage of the emerging opportunities
by proactively investing in the sustainable energy technologies of
the future with a view to being world leaders in them", added
Brikesh Singh, making the case for India to focus on mitigation as
against adaptation while formulating the National Climate Action
Plan to be announced in June this year.
The Blue Alert campaign, in the last three weeks has engaged
people through posting climate hazard signs, slapping eviction
notices on buildings under threat of submergence and organizing
climate migrant kiosks in vulnerable localities in the 5 coastal
cities. More than 5000 people have signed postcards of concern to
their MPs calling for them to raise this issue in Parliament.
Responding to their concern, and the media reports a number of MPs
including Milind Deora and Priya Dutt in Mumbai, Dr K S Manoj and
Francis George in Kochi, Krishnaswamy and Dhanuskodi Athithan from
Tamilnadu and Sujon Chakrabarti and Shamik Lahiri in Kolkata have
expressed their concern and promised to debate the wisdom of
"adapting" to a climate crisis in the coming session of Parliament
in meetings with Greenpeace campaigners.
Earlier, Greenpeace released a report focusing on the
humanitarian crisis the South Asian region could face if global
warming was not kept below the 2 degree tipping point. "Blue Alert
- Climate Migrants in South Asia: Estimates and Solutions, a paper
authored by Dr Sudhir Chella Rajan1, professor of Humanities and
Social Sciences at IIT Madras, and a climate expert, estimates the
number of people who could be displaced from their homes at 125
million in India and Bangladesh alone. To put that figure in
perspective, it is the equivalent of 10 times the migration at the
time of Partition or 375 times the displacement caused by the
Sardar Sarovar Dam.
Contact information
Vinuta Gopal: 
Notes to Editor
1. Dr Chella Rajan is also the coauthor of How We Can Save the Planet: Preventing Global Climate Catastrophe
LEDARS: Local Environment Development and Agricultural Research Society (LEDARS), is a non-profit and non-political organization that has been working for social, economical and environmental development of the poor and marginal people of the southwest coastal region of Bangladesh since 1996. www.ledars.org