Climate change needs united fight: Mauritius President Ameenah Gurib

Chennai: Not many know Mauritius, a beautiful tourist destination where one can savour nature's bounty, is highly vulnerable to the adverse effects and variability of climate change, the island's first woman President, Bibi Ameenah Firdaus Gurib-Fakim,  said on Friday, while delivering the millennium  lecture on ‘Climate Change’ at M.S. Swaminathan research foundation (MSSRF). She made a passionate appeal to countries like India to combat the menace and save the planet.

Culturally, India and Mauritius could be two different countries. However, both the nations share similar environmental challenges — beach erosion and ocean acidification.

The Indian-origin Mauritius President said that they are rehabilitating the beaches and are replanting the corals, Professor M. S. Swaminathan proposed the ideas of below sea level farming and coastal agriculture to prevent the increasing sea level in the country.

Supporting the statement with the statistics, executive director of M. S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Dr V. Selvam said, “A study conducted along the four coasts in India — Kolkata, Visakhapatnam, Chennai and Mumbai — states that the sea level has increased by 4.8 cm between the period of 1993 — 2008. It is predicted that the level would go up by 20cm by 2050 and 40cm by 2100.”

“Be it from a multi-billion economy of Singapore to Papua New Guinea to the very remote Niue, each small island developing state including Mauritius house amazing biodiversity. Yet, what they increasingly share in common is escalating environmental threats that are aggravated by economic insecurities,” the President said.

Emphasising on the need to create a global platform on key technologies like solar energy generation and biomass energy, the President said, “It should not be seen as a matter of charity or aid, rather it is an obligation of the international community as a whole.”

She also inaugurated the genetic garden of halophytes, belonging to MSSRF, at Vedaranyam of Nagapattinam through video conference.

The garden has 21 species of halophytes (saline adaptable plants) collected from Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.