Rajendra K. Pachauri

100 Places to Remember Before they Disappear is, in my opinion, an excellent concept to make people fully realise the extent of the damage that climate change can do. By bringing this to the attention of the public and highlighting 100 places that the world holds dear, this whole project is turning attention to something that hopefully will bring about decisions that might actually protect these beautiful, valuable and precious places on the Earth.

In the context of this project, there are places that are very vulnerable and in danger in a number of respects. There are problems where sea level rise is threatening small island states, low-lying areas and coastal areas in some parts of the world. There is also the threat to ecosystems. We have assessed that, if temperature rise exceeds 1.5 to 2.5°C, then 20-30% of the species we in the IPCC have looked at are under threat of extinction. Take, for example, the coral reefs. These beautiful ecosystems that we have all over the world are clearly going to be affected. There are lots of places all across the globe that will vanish if the climate is not stabilized.   

Apart from the natural attraction of these places, there are also going to be major economic losses, because most of the food grains that we consume and most of the medicines and drugs that we have in our modern system have been derived from biodiversity. If that biodiversity is damaged, we are limiting economic opportunities for future developments and for the needs that might arise in the future, both for food grains and for drugs and medicines.

I think people have to be informed, not only about those very pristine places on this planet, which we have always valued and cherished for their natural beauty, but also about the economic risks for the future.

Let us look at the melting of the glaciers. In some parts of the world, people depend on the streams that come from the glaciers for their water supplies. If those glaciers melt away, then those streams are obviously going to decline. For instance, in the Indian subcontinent we are very vulnerable. The northern part of the subcontinent, especially, could suffer from a serious reduction of water availability, because all the reserves in that region originate in the Himalayan glaciers. If they are reduced, it will have a major economic impact. 

When it comes to agricultural food grains, we will see a decline in yields in several parts of the world because of the impacts of climate change. If we have to develop new strains and species that are resistant to the new climate, we will have to do it on the basis of nature’s wealth of biodiversity. But if the species themselves are threatened, then it clearly restricts our ability to come up with new forms of agricultural crops that can thrive under the new conditions.

The public has to be told that this is not something that is going to happen in the future. It is already happening. If we don’t do something about the problem, then this treasure that the human race and all living species have could be damaged and could vanish forever.