Editorial 1: Heat domes, anticyclones and climate change: What’s causing heat waves across the world?
Recent Context:
- Recently, The US scientific and regulatory agency National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced that the last month was the Earth’s hottest June since the record-keeping of global temperatures began 174 years ago.
- The average daily global temperature was recorded at 17.12 degree Celsius. Notably, this isn’t the temperature of one place or region but a measure of average over both land and ocean, including the ice sheets in the polar region and the snow of the high mountains where surface temperatures are well below zero degree Celsius.
Number of factors which are responsible for temperatures rise in different parts of the world:
- According to scientists and experts, a number of factors are fueling the soaring temperatures in different parts of the world.
- While El Nino conditions, which have developed for the first time in seven years, are partly responsible for triggering extreme heat, continents like North America, Africa, Asia and Europe have been faced intesne heat waves which are caused by either formation of heat domes or arrival of anticyclones.
- Not only this, record high sea surface temperatures have also worsened the situation.
- Apart from it, the present crisis is climate change, which has increased the frequency and intensity of extreme weather events like heat waves and mass scale floods.
The dangerous cocktail of heat domes, anticyclones and climate change
- Most parts of the world are currently experiencing intense heat due to the onset of heat waves but their cause remains different across regions.
- While in the USA and Algeria, heat domes are responsible for unleashing heat waves, Europe has suffered due to the arrival of two consecutive anticyclones that originated in Africa.
What are heat domes and anticyclones? And how do they produce heat waves?
- An anticyclone, also known as a high-pressure system, is essentially an area of high pressure in which the air goes downwards towards the Earth’s surface.
- As the air sinks, its molecules get compressed, which increases the pressure, making it warmer. This causes dry and hot weather.
- The winds remain calm and gentle during an anticyclone, and there is almost no formation of clouds because here the air sinks rather than rises.
- A heat dome, on the other hand, occurs when an area of high-pressure stays over a region for days and weeks. It traps warm air, just like a lid on a pot, for an extended period.
- The longer that air remains trapped, the more the sun works to heat the air, producing warmer conditions with every passing day.
- Heat domes, if they last for a long period, may cause deadly heat wave.
- Although heat domes and anticyclones don’t occur due to climate change, they have become more intense and longer as a result of soaring global temperatures
Impact of Green house gases emissions
- As the planet continues to get warmer due to unprecedented levels of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere, extreme weather events, much like those unfolding right now, will become more frequent.
- Moreover, if the Earth breaches the 1.5-degree Celsius global warming limit by the 2030s, there may be irrevocable damage to the ecosystem and geology, humans and other living beings, severely impacted.
Role of El-Nino in global temperature rise
- El Nino conditions are exacerbating the extreme heat around the world.
- It is a weather pattern that refers to an abnormal warming of surface waters in the equatorial Pacific Ocean, El Nino is known to “greatly increase the likelihood of breaking temperature records and triggering more extreme heat in many parts of the world and in the ocean,
Heat waves: The ‘silent killer’
- Heat waves are particularly lethal when high temperatures combine with high humidity, which is commonly referred to as a wet bulb
- In such conditions, sweat from the human body isn’t able to evaporate, failing to stabilise the body temperature, which could ultimately cause heat stroke it takes place only when the body temperature goes above 40 degrees Celsius and even death.
- Last month, more than 60 people died in Uttar Pradesh’s Ballia after the region was hit by a heat wave.
The worst affected countries
- In its recent forecast, the WMO said the country’s southern, western and mid-western regions will continue to simmer in the following days, partly also due to unusually warm waters in the Gulf of Mexico and in the western Atlantic Ocean that would exacerbate humidity in coastal areas and thwart nighttime cooling
- Meanwhile, hot temperatures have sparked numerous wildfires in South California, Similarly, flames have erupted in neighbouring Canada.
- In Asia, China, Iraq and Saudi Arabia remain some of the worst affected countries. Most significantly, a remote township in China saw temperatures touching 52 degree Celsius on July 16 — shattering the previous record of 50 degree Celsius that was set in 2015.
Conclusion:
- As, Climate change will affect the basic elements of life for people around the world – access to water, food production, health, and the environment. And Global warming is increasing day by day. If we cannot prevent it as soon as possible, our world will face undesirable consequences.
- Therefore, there is need for a collective and inclusive efforts by nations at the national and global level to counter the effect of climate change.
Editorial 2: India and France: Upholders of strategic autonomy
Recent Context:
- Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to visit to France to participate in the Bastille Day parade. It will be seen as an important milestone in the Indo-French relationship.
About Bastille Day and its significance:
- Bastille Day is celebrated on July 14 every year as France’s national day.
- On that day in 1789, Parisians rose in revolt against Emperor Louis XVI and stormed the prison fortress, the Bastille, and released all political prisoners.
- This revolt precipitated the abolition of feudalism in France leading to the “Declaration of the Rights of Man and the Citizen”.
- It brought France the fame of being the “Les Pays Des Droits De L’Homme” or the “land of human rights”.
- AS a consequences of it, It gave birth to the concepts of “liberty, equality and fraternity”, which many countries, including India, adopted as sacred principles after emerging as independent republics.
Role of “strategic autonomy” in bilateral relation of India and France:
- Liberty involves nations enjoying freedom from being forced into taking sides and choosing what is in their national interest. It is called “strategic autonomy”.
- India and France have steadfastly upheld the principle in its relations with different countries.
- As, French President Macron during his visit to Beijing in April this year, suggested that Europe was getting caught up “in crises that are not ours” and bemoaned that it was preventing Europe from “building its strategic autonomy”.
- Therefore, Strategic autonomy brings India and France closer. The French too do not like being dictated by others.
- In 1998, when countries in the West competed in imposing sanctions on India for daring to test nuclear devices, France stood out.
- French President Jacques Chirac refused to punish India for the tests and instead gave a patient hearing to Brajesh Mishra, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s envoy. He even said it was an “anomaly” to exclude India from the global nuclear order.
- India and France became “strategic partners” the same year. France was the first country to sign the agreement for the supply of nuclear reactors to India in 2008. India-France ties continued to grow in various sectors, “from seabed to space”
Strategic autonomy requires the appreciation of two important principles
- Strategic autonomy requires the appreciation of two important principles.
- Firstly, the world must accept that “multipolarity” is a reality.
- There is palpable discomfort in sections of the Western intelligentsia in accepting that the world is reorganised into multiple state, non-state and minilateral powers that have emerged as independent poles.
- Sovereign Equality is second principle: In a multipolar world order, all states command and demand dignity. Thus, the “sovereign equality” of states becomes the second important principle.
- It is heartwarming that the French leadership described the bilateral relations with India as a “partnership of equals”.
- Both the major powers in the world today, the US and China, are used to the politics of allies and followers. China has a historic syndrome called “Zhongguo” or Middle Kingdom.
- At one time, it was just a geographical understanding of being located at the centre of the world. But it acquired political connotations wherein China assumes the status of a middle king
- India is championing the cause of the dignity of the developing world by speaking about the Global South. Even this proposition is not acceptable to some leaders who insist that there is no such thing called the Global South.
India and France can work together to upholds the principle of Sovereign Equality in Global South
- Global South is not merely a geographical or economic idea. In the next five to 10 years, at least two out of the four big economies of the world India and Indonesia will be from the Global South.
- It is a mixture of political, geopolitical and economic parameters common to countries in Asia, Latin America, Africa and the Pacific.
- For example, most countries in the Global South were colonies of the Global North. Anti-colonialism and decolonisation are common denominators for the Global South.
- India raise the voice of Africa and also call to invite the African Union as a member of the G-20 is part of its Global South campaign.
- The French government’s focus on West Asia encompasses countries in the Middle East as well as East Africa which is traditionally an area of Indian influence. Therefore, India and France can work together in both regions.
India and France role in Indo-Pacific region:
- Similarly, India’s role in the Indo-Pacific as a net peace provider can be reinforced through its bilateral engagement with France.
- While France considered itself a NATO power or a European power, it is equally an important power in the Indian Ocean region.
- It has island territories like Reunion in the Mascarene Archipelago, Mayotte in the Comoros Archipelago and Iles Eparses in the Mozambique Channel.
- It has a couple of naval bases in the IOR besides leased ports in Abu Dhabi, Dakar and Djibouti.
- Therefore, strategic location of France and proximity of India can play significant role in Indo-pacific region.
Conclusion:
- On the recent visit of Indian minister of PM Modi to France touched on all these aspects during visit although defence and other economic ties were highlighted by the media.
- Therefore, On the 25th year of their strategic partnership, the two nations announced a vision for the future, through “Horizon 2047”