Dear readers,

Global warming is real and it is man made. But statements about strong, ominous and immediate consequences of global warming are often exaggerated as scientists who have contributed articles to us have shown. What India perhaps requires is need-based focussed or smart solutions to put global warming in perspective. Climate change is not really the issue - adaptation is. Moreover, half baked truths of the sensationalist media, screaming doomsday headlines, trivialise issues of HIV/AIDS, malnutrition, sanitation, poverty, malaria, clean drinking water and make them utterly unimportant as compared to global warming. Although changing climatic regimes are apparent, it is a problem that needs to be tackled in the context of each concern that is affecting or likely to affect India.

This issue of G’nY has been developed with a view to understand critical issues from the perspective of climate change. The gendered manifestations of climate change, the increase in urban poverty in coming decades, the compounding shortage of low cost housing and fresh water, policy inadequacies in understanding and computing minimum ecological flows in rivers of the nation, and the unsustainable consumption patterns have been explored. I extend a very warm thanks to Dr Bahadur Kotli, Dr B M Jha and Dr A Kundu for specially taking out time to resolve our queries.