Stanford Alumnus Karthika Periyathambi Talk on Global Warming at Sangam University Bhilwara
In simple terms, Global warming is the increase in the average temperature of Earth's near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century.
Online, March 19, 2014 (Newswire.com) - No one has doubt that Climate change will wreak havoc on the world and its population, causing mass migration, malnutrition and war. Climate change has long-since ceased to be a scientific curiosity, and is no longer just one of many environmental and regulatory concerns.
As the United Nations Secretary General has said, climate change indeed is the major, overriding environmental issue of our time, and the single greatest challenge facing environmental regulators. It is a growing crisis with economic, health and safety, food production, security, and other dimensions.
According to a recent report by UN, global warming is unequivocal and human influence has been the dominant cause since the mid-20th century, and atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, already at levels not seen in at least 800,000 years, will persist for many centuries.
At the core of international efforts to address climate change are the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and its Kyoto Protocol which represent the international response so far to the compelling evidence, compiled and repeatedly confirmed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, that climate change is occurring, and that it is largely due to human activities.
On 5 Mar 2014, Miss Karthika Periyathambi, presently Design Engineer at Intel Santa Clara California, Recipient of Prestigious Stanford Graduate Fellowship MS Electrical Engineering (2011), Google Scholar Anita Borg Institute USA (2010), Gold Medalist & Batch Topper with 10 CGPA B.E (Hons) EEE Birla Institute of Technology and Science - BITS Pilani (2009), Hon'ble PM of India's special guest for Republic Day Parade (Jan 2006), Goldman Sachs Global Leader Award Winner, CBSE Western Zone Topper (2005), Gold Medal in National Science Olympiad (2005), NCERT NTSE Scholar (2003) gave a talk on Global Warming to the students and faculty of Sangam University Bhilwara.
With pictures of Greenland ice sheet, Portage Glacier Alaska and Colorado River at two different points of time, Karthika highlighted the grim realities of global warming. Explaining the natural greenhouse effect and human enhanced greenhouse effect due to gases such as nitrous oxide, carbon dioxide, methane, sulfur hexafluoride etc she pointed out that global warming is a more serious threat than nuclear war.
Emphasizing that the consequences could be warmer waters and more hurricanes, increased probability and intensity of droughts and heat waves, increase in frequency of volcanic eruptions and forest fires, she urged the audience to follow three "R"s - Reuse, Reduce and Recycle. Showing scenes from Hollywood hit sci-fi films such as 2012 and the Day after Tomorrow, she warned that such films may be science fiction today but would turn out to be reality tomorrow.
Prof BR Natarajan President - Vice Chancellor Sangam University who anchored the proceedings including the interactive Q/A session, thanked Karthika for sparing her very valuable time to cross latitudes and longitudes to give an inspiring talk on a top of the shelf topic such as global warming.