Climate Change & Global Warming
GS Paper: GS Paper III | Subject: Environment | Last updated: 2026-06-21
Prelims
(Key facts, data, schemes, laws, organizations — MCQ-ready points)
Climate Change & the Elderly (HelpAge India) (The Hindu, 16-06-2026)
- HelpAge India's "Climate Resilient Ageing" report (released on World Elder Abuse Awareness Day; surveyed 2,224 elderly across 20 districts/10 states): 78% faced ≥1 climate hazard in 3 years — heatwave 45%, flood 27%, drought 20%; 60% said their homes weren't safe in extreme heat; 52% couldn't afford essential medicines
- Older persons living alone, widows, those 80+, and those with cognitive/mental-health difficulties face disproportionately higher risk
Human Activity Drives India's 'Wild' Rainfall — IIT-Delhi Study (The Hindu, 21-06-2026)
- A study in Environmental Research Letters (IIT-Delhi + KSMDB College, Kollam) analysed rainfall 1905–2014 and used a "fingerprinting" technique (separating natural cycles like El Niño from the human signal) to show human activity is the primary driver of India's intensifying extreme rainfall
- A contest in India's skies: greenhouse gases warm the atmosphere and intensify downpours, while aerosols (vehicle/factory particles) scatter sunlight and suppress rain → the GHG signal is clearest in the core monsoon zone, esp. West Central India
- The "aerosol unmasking" risk: as India cleans its air (cuts aerosols), the cooling/masking effect vanishes, unmasking the full force of GHG warming → a likely surge in extreme rainfall now being held in check — a counter-intuitive trade-off between air-quality gains and rainfall extremes
- Policy takeaway: it may "no longer be appropriate to assume stationarity" in extreme rainfall — historical rainfall baselines alone are an unreliable guide to future flood risk for urban planners and infrastructure design
Mains
(Analysis, dimensions, significance, critique, policy angles — for 10/15 mark answers)
Climate Vulnerability is Age-Differentiated (The Hindu, 16-06-2026)
- Heat, floods and droughts compound the elderly's poor health, financial insecurity and isolation — yet heat-action plans and adaptation rarely target them. As India ages, the case is for age-inclusive adaptation (cooling shelters, assured health access, indexed pensions) — a climate-justice / intergenerational-equity dimension
- UPSC angle: differential climate vulnerability, heat-action plans, ageing society & social security, adaptation vs mitigation, climate justice