Biodiversity

Indian Biodiversity Congress (IBC) 2010

Theme: Biodiversity and Development: Mainstreaming Biodiversity into Policy-Making

There has been growing public and policy preoccupation in recent years with potential climate impacts on water security in the wake of the worsening risk of global warming. In 1991, then–UN secretary general Boutros Boutros-Ghali pronounced that “the next war will be fought over water, not politics.” In 2001, Kofi Annan warned that “fierce competition for fresh water may well become a source of conflict and wars in the future.” And present UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon has argued that the ongoing Darfur crisis grew at least in part from desertification, ecological degradation, and a scarcity of resources, foremost among them water. Apart from this chorus of concern, many policy scholars have asserted that, as population growth and economic development raise pressures on demand and environmental pressures degrade supplies, resource scarcities could precipitate violent international conflicts, with shared rivers an especially dangerous flashpoint.

This presentation by ACWADAM deals with the importance of groundwater. It is well-known fact that groundwater forms a very crucial source of water supply in the national scenario on water resources today. And yet, it continues to remain a resource that is both abused and misused. Often, watershed projects suffer from insufficient inputs, especially hydrogeological to address the problem(s) of groundwater within the watersheds.

This presentation by ACWADAM on earth system deals with the interactions between the four elements that make up this system. The complexity of the earth system, in which spatial and temporal variability exists on a range of scales, requires that an organized scientific approach be developed for addressing the complex, interdisciplinary problems that exist.

The presentation by ACWADAM on earth system deals with the four elements that make up this system. Earth science generally recognizes four spheres, the lithosphere, the hydrosphere, the atmosphere, and the biosphere; these correspond to rocks, water, air, and life. These four interdependent parts or the earth's spheres are described as:

• the lithosphere, which contains all of the cold, hard, solid rock of the planet's crust (surface), the hot semi-solid rock that lies underneath the crust, the hot liquid rock near the center of the planet, and the solid iron core (center) of the planet
• the hydrosphere, which contains all of the planet's solid, liquid, and gaseous water,
• the atmosphere, which contains all of the planet's air, and
• the biosphere, which contains all of the planet's living organisms.

This set of case studies is a part of a book prepared by Lokayan in collaboration with the Planning Commission titled “Seeds of Hope", covering themes of agriculture, biodiversity, education, forestry, governance, health, movements and water. The case studies related to agriculture and food security are summarised below: