Kashmir floods, Politics and The Global Warming

Massive floods hit northernmost parts of India and Pakistan, known as Kashmir, this week.  There are about 400 confirmed deaths,More than 2,500 villages are affected, leaving 80,000 people homeless. Infrastructural damage has been estimated to reach $100M. Kashmir being one of the favorite tourist destination would suffer much more in tourism losses.

A house destroyed by flood waters is seen in Srinagar September 12, 2014. Courtesy- Reuters

Kashmir is the region which have caused the dispute between India and Pakistan. Kashmir is a Muslim dominated region under India's rule but a part of it is occupied by Pakistan and it is known as Pakistan Occupied Kashmir or just POK. Some of the terrorist groups in Kashmir are supported by Pakistan's Intelligence agency ISI. As a result, Kashmir is continuously under religious and political tensions, and it seems that this flood hasn't changed the situation even by a little amount. Generally, in the state of natural disaster, people forget this nonsense and help others as much as possible, showing humanity only when it is close to being wiped out. That hasn't happened in Kashmir.

A man shouts religious slogans as he wades through a flooded street in Srinagar September 12, 2014.

I just can't help laughing at the stupidity. When more than half ur body is underwater, you should realize that it's time to stop talking about whom that land belongs to!! Well, but if Pakistan's prime minister, Navaz Sharif, doesn't understand this how can this poor man? Because Indian prime minister Narendra Modi, said that India will offer assistance and is willing to do rescue operations even in the regions occupied by Pakistan, Mr. Sharif said 'No, we don't need your help'. Now, he may not need India's help, but political situation in Pakistan is so tense that we can't deny the possibility of Sharif running towards India and asking to save him from the military dictatorship that may or may not be formed in Pakistan. Not to mention the fact that India is poor at disaster management and Pakistan is the worst!
Anyways, back to the topic, This is not the first time that these mountains of Himalaya, have witnessed this much devastation in the past few years. Last year, in June, massive floods hit Uttarakhand, another Indian state famous for religious tourism, just south of Kashmir. A year back, Leh, a city in Kashmir, suffered from a cloudburst. These natural disasters are striking one after the other. It's not that just these parts are being affected by the natural disasters. It's happening everywhere all over the country. This year, In the state of Maharashtra, a small village suffered from a massive landslide that killed about 100 people.  Just last month, floods hit states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, killing about 50 people. In the state of Gujarat also, flooding occurred and 20,000 people had to be evacuated. These types of incidents have been growing every year by year. It's a wonder that it has not become a topic of national concern.

Who is to blame? Why are we suffering from so many natural disasters?
The answer is-  

Global warming

Now, I'm no climate scientist. And I agree that a huge amount of scientific research has to be done in order to come to such a conclusion. But the assumption that global warming is responsible for the constantly occurring natural disasters does seem logically somewhat true. It is crystal clear that climate patterns all over the world have been disrupted just like they have been here in India. Now let us think about all the possible things that affect climate and that have been changed during past few decades.  It doesn't take a scientist to do that, does it?

Again, correlation doesn't mean causation, that's why I 100% agree that scientific research needs to be done to prove that these events are a direct result of global warming. But till the time science takes to prove that, should we not do anything and just watch these things happen and people die. My opinion is that whenever somebody's life is at stake and you have a remote chance to doing something  to save him, that too without risking your own life, you should do that regardless of thinking whether or not it will actually save his life. You should not say "Oh, there's only 2% chance that stopping global warming will help stop natural disasters, it's almost as if it won't". Hence, we should keep doing the small small things to stop or reduce global warming in our day to day life, because even if it doesn't exist there is however a very small chance that our actions might just save a life!