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ICTs can help Kerala adapt to climate change

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CIOL Bureau
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KERALA, INDIA: Kerala is vulnerable to long-term effects of climate change and increased use of ICTs will help in formulating a strategy to monitor, mitigate and adapt climate change in the state, expert said at a seminar here Saturday.

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The Consultation on "ICTs and Climate Change" held at Technopark here was jointly organized by the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS) and the International Non-Governmental Co-operation Organization for Renewable Energy (INGCORE).

Also Read:Diplomats top IT professionals at Kerala meet

At the day-long meeting there was a general consensus that Kerala is vulnerable to Climate Change from different angles such as sea level rise, saline water intrusion, rainfall decline, deforestation and land degradation, depletion of fish resources, stress in soil moisture, loss of biodiversity, drinking water depletion, loss of estuarine ecosystems and susceptibility to natural hazards.

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V.N. Rajasekharan Nair, executive vice president, Kerala State Council for Science, Technology and Environment, called for considering Climate Change as a cross-cutting input to macro-planning and policy formulation in the state.

"One of the important considerations in achieving the aggressive targets at the national and international level for containing the effects of Climate Change was Information Communication and Technologies (ICTs).

"While ICTs contributed in a small way to increased greenhouse emissions, its real potential lay in providing solutions which preserved both energy and material," said the former IGNOU vice chancellor.

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He called for efforts involving local communities as well in the process of arriving at measures to combat Climate Change effects. He also mentioned that an Open Source approach, where solution proposals were open, was perhaps the most appropriate for addressing technological solutions to Climate Change adaptations.

N.P. Kurian, director, Centre for Earth Science Studies (CESS), who presided over the meeting, said that Climate Change was one of the most complex processes known to humankind.

"Joint efforts are needed from different technical and technological communities to create solutions and a dialogue in Kerala has to begin in the use of technology to address Climate Change," said Kurian.

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