With the changing patterns of snowfall and its impact on environment, the human history would witness a massive social conflict in near future, probably in 2039, warned eminent environmentalist Prof Radha Mohan while inaugurating the Children’s Environment Congress at 5th Odisha Environment Congress (OEC) here on Tuesday.
He explained that excess global warming would result in heavy snowfall in high lands and sea erosion at coastal areas. “High lands will witness snowfall and low lands will be inundated with water. Consequently, people from jam-packed coastal plains will migrate to upper areas, as a result of which there would be a social conflict between the two civilizations,” opined Prof Mohan. He called for involvement of more and more children in issues related to climate change.
Among others, eminent children’s writer Dash Benhur, Professor Ashok Swain from the Uppsala University, Sweden and Director of the Centre for Environment Studies (CES) Prof Shailabala Padhi were present. later, technical sessions on topics like ‘Climate change, agriculture, forest and rural livelihood footprint’, ‘Climate change and health’ and ‘Model presentation on climate change adaptation and mitigation: experiences from the field’ held on the second day of the OEC.