Urban Climate Resilience

green-eco

Climate change is a global threat being faced by the human civilization and is unlike anything ever experienced in recorded history. The science  around climate change is now undisputed and  scientists have slowly, yet steadily, shifted from trying to prove that rapid climate change is  taking place to now studying the extent of damage being caused by it.

Climate change refers to the changes in weather pattern over decades (usually more than 30 years) at any of local, regional or global scale. Climate change over geological time scale (millennia) has taken place in the past and will continue to take place in the future. In the present day however, human activities are significantly influencing Earth’s climate system resulting in the emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) and leading to rapid climate change. Earth’s average surface temperature has risen by 0.76°C since 1850.

The summer of 2013 will perhaps go down in history as a “climate warning” from Mother Nature. The global atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration reached the 400 parts per million mark during this time. If we continue to remain oblivion to the climate crisis and sit back and do nothing about it, it will be a warning ignored. The cost of ignorance could be an entire civilization. Ours!

Urban ecosystems are contributing considerably to global warming, and are also directly impacted by the uncertainty in the climate patterns. Cities are therefore both the cause of climate change and are also greatly impacted by it.

The uERA Lab focuses on carrying out research on the impact of climate change on cities, developing campaigns and strategies for preventing rapid climate change and preparing urban centres for adapting to the vagaries of a changing climate.