The Impact of Climate Change Beyond the Weather
August 1, 2015
With the world’s second- highest population and a wide- ranging infrastructure system nationwide, India could be greatly impacted by the effects of climate change.
Students on a Dialogue of Civilizations program this summer spent five weeks exploring the country and learning how cities and coastlines, as well as farmlands and power plants, there are preparing for climate change. Auroop Ganguly, a climate change expert and associate professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, led the experiential learning program. The group was joined by Jonna Iacono, director of the University Scholars program, and Ganguly’s doctoral student Devashish Kumar.
“(India) will most likely experience extraordinary impacts based on the poverty, large population, and infrastructure issues there,” said Rose Leopold, SSH’16, a student who went on the Dialogue.
An extended journey around the country
By visiting so many diverse places around India, from the southern coast to the Himalayas in the north, Leopold said the group was able to see firsthand the various ecosystems climate change could impact. The group even visited Bengal tiger natural reserves in Rajasthan and in the Sundarbans, a natural region on India’s eastern border with Bangladesh, which is already experiencing rising sea levels.