Revision summary
Greenhouse gases trap long-wave radiation; the post-1850 rise is mainly anthropogenic. IPCC records show ice loss, ocean heat, and sea-level rise as fingerprints. India faces glacier, monsoon, coastal, and heat-labour risks, including in the Ganga plain. UNFCCC, Kyoto, and Paris structure the global reply; NAPCC and Panchamrit are India’s. Mitigation and adaptation must proceed together.
Model answer
Introduction
Global warming is the long-term rise in Earth’s average surface temperature caused mainly by anthropogenic greenhouse gases. A note must distinguish the physical mechanism from weather, then record impacts on ice, sea level, and the Indian monsoon, and the UNFCCC–Paris response.
Body
Mechanism and evidence
- Carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and land-use change, methane from livestock, rice, and fossil leaks, nitrous oxide from fertilisers, and industrial fluorinated gases trap outgoing long-wave radiation — the enhanced greenhouse effect.
- The IPCC’s assessment cycles show that the post-1850 warming is not explained by solar or volcanic forcing alone; the last decade has been the warmest in the instrumental record.
- Observed signs include retreat of mountain glaciers, Arctic sea-ice loss, ocean heat content rise, and global mean sea-level rise from thermal expansion and ice melt.
- Extreme heatwaves, heavier short rains, and longer dry spells are the distributional face of the same mean warming, which is why ‘global warming’ is also a story of extremes.
India, equity, and response
- For India the risks are Himalayan glacier loss feeding the Ganga–Brahmaputra–Indus, monsoon irregularity, coastal flooding on the east and west, and heat stress on labour and wheat in the Indo-Gangetic plain, including Uttar Pradesh.
- The UNFCCC (1992), Kyoto Protocol (1997), and Paris Agreement (2015) frame common but differentiated responsibility; Paris asks for nationally determined contributions and a well-below-2°C / 1.5°C effort.
- India’s National Action Plan on Climate Change (2008) eight missions, later updates, and the 2021 Glasgow Panchamrit (500 GW non-fossil capacity, 50 per cent non-fossil electricity, 1 billion tonne emissions reduction, 45 per cent intensity cut, net-zero 2070) are the domestic note.
- Mitigation (coal peak, renewables, efficiency) and adaptation (heat action plans, climate-resilient agriculture, coastal regulation) must run together; a note that only names polar bears misses the Gangetic farmer.
Flow diagram
flowchart TD G[CO2 CH4 N2O F-gases] --> W[Global mean warming] W --> I[Ice melt sea level extremes] W --> M[Monsoon Himalaya heat] P[UNFCCC Paris NAPCC] --> R[Mitigation adaptation]
Conclusion
Global warming is enhanced greenhouse forcing, already visible in ice, ocean, and extremes. India’s stake is water, food, and heat; the lawful reply is Paris NDCs plus NAPCC missions, not a debate on whether the planet is warming.
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Same topic · past papers
UPPSC has asked this before
These previous-year questions sit on the same topic. Open one to practise the earlier ask.
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2019 · Q13 · UPGS1 · 12 marks
Describe the efforts made for world peace after the Second World War at the global level.
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