Rajendra Kumar Pachauri, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner,* said that the best way to deal with climate change is to involve young people, who he asked to plant trees, consume less and eat better as they are seen as part of the solution, not the problem.Portugal can alter drastically in the next 50 years as climate change is predicted to make the country dryer, affecting beaches, agriculture, fishing and even wine, warned Pachauri, speaking at the 'Climate Change: Preparing for the Future' conference in Estoril.
Delivering a speech, 'Southern Europe: a hotspot for climate change,' the controversial environmental advocate said that sea levels and temperatures have been rising since the middle of the last century as greenhouse gas emissions have increased, adding that extreme weather conditions since 1950 are related "to human interference."
If nothing is done about these emissions, future extreme events will be more frequent and intense and the Arctic ice will melt, raising sea levels worldwide.
As for his doomsday predictions for southern Europe, Portugal will experience an encroaching sea, tourists won't come as beaches will have disappeared, agriculture will suffer from excessive temperatures and, for good measure, there will be more death and disease.
"What are we doing to our planet? We have nowhere else to go," said Rajendra Pachauri, who claimed he is an optimist, adding that three actions need to happen now to mitigate the effects of climate change: "more efficient use of energy, use of clean energy and a reduction in deforestation."
"Climate change is real, it's affecting us, it's bad, it's scientifically proven and there's still hope," said Pachauri.
"I would like my country, India, to do more," he said, concluding that without changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, life on the planet will become "much more difficult."
Along the same lines, Portugal's Assistant Secretary of State for the Environment, in the current pro-oil government, José Mendes, said that Portugal is feeling the effects of climate change, such as high temperatures, large fires and coastal erosion, but stressed that "nobody on the planet" will remain unaffected.
Carlos Carreiras, the Mayor of Cascais, who closed the conference, warned that climate change is not something that will affect the people of the future, "It's my grandchildren who will be harmed if we do nothing," said the mayor.
Rajendra Pachauri had a message for young people, "you have become part of the solution, not the problem."
If nothing is done about these emissions, future extreme events will be more frequent and intense and the Arctic ice will melt, raising sea levels worldwide.
As for his doomsday predictions for southern Europe, Portugal will experience an encroaching sea, tourists won't come as beaches will have disappeared, agriculture will suffer from excessive temperatures and, for good measure, there will be more death and disease.
"What are we doing to our planet? We have nowhere else to go," said Rajendra Pachauri, who claimed he is an optimist, adding that three actions need to happen now to mitigate the effects of climate change: "more efficient use of energy, use of clean energy and a reduction in deforestation."
"Climate change is real, it's affecting us, it's bad, it's scientifically proven and there's still hope," said Pachauri.
"I would like my country, India, to do more," he said, concluding that without changes to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, life on the planet will become "much more difficult."
Along the same lines, Portugal's Assistant Secretary of State for the Environment, in the current pro-oil government, José Mendes, said that Portugal is feeling the effects of climate change, such as high temperatures, large fires and coastal erosion, but stressed that "nobody on the planet" will remain unaffected.
Carlos Carreiras, the Mayor of Cascais, who closed the conference, warned that climate change is not something that will affect the people of the future, "It's my grandchildren who will be harmed if we do nothing," said the mayor.
Rajendra Pachauri had a message for young people, "you have become part of the solution, not the problem."
Rajendra Pachauri
* Nobel Peace Prize - Rajendra Kumar Pachauri was the chairman of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. He held the post from 2002 until his resignation in 2015, due to sexual harassment allegations (citing 'health reasons'). The IPCC was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize during his tenure. He resigned from IPCC in February 2015. At that time, The Energy and Resources Institute Governing Council also asked him to step down from the post of Director-General of the institute. The Governing Council of TERI in a meeting in February 2016 appointed Ashok Chawla, a Gujarat cadre Indian Administrative Service Office who was former Union Finance Secretary and former Chairman of the Competition Commission, as its new chairman. Ajay Mathur, a technocrat in the Bureau of Energy Efficiency, was appointed as the Director General of TERI by the Governing Council in July 2015.
The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice-President Al Gore, who had earlier criticised Pachauri when he was first elected in 2002. In its press release, the Nobel Prize Committee said:
"...the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former US Vice-President Al Gore, who had earlier criticised Pachauri when he was first elected in 2002. In its press release, the Nobel Prize Committee said:
"...the Nobel Peace Prize for 2007 is to be shared, in two equal parts, between the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and Albert Arnold (Al) Gore Jr. for their efforts to build up and disseminate greater knowledge about man-made climate change, and to lay the foundations for the measures that are needed to counteract such change."
