Environmentalists have warned that tropical cyclone Nargis, which has left more than 20,000 persons dead and 40,000 missing and thousands homeless, is not just a natural disaster but a man-made disaster because of climate change. Nargis, the green brigade says, happened because "the rich have failed to contain greenhouse gas emissions necessary for their growth'. Nargis, CSE Director Sunita Narian says, is a sign of things to come in the future. She is clear that "victims of these cyclones are climate change victims and their plight should remind the rich world that it is doing too little to contain its greenhouse gas emissions'. She admits that one can never pinpoint one disaster as the result of climate change but adds that there is enough scientific evidence that climate change will lead to intensification of tropical cyclones. And that climate change is urgent, real and happening and large parts of the subcontinent will be worst impacted. "This is the challenge of climate science. While we will never be able to make absolute predictions or direct correlations between events that we see around us and the warming that is now inevitable, there is enough evidence to make connections. We know rainfall in our world will become more variable, devastating for people dependent on rain-fed agriculture. And now, we can see the intensification of tropical cyclones, another prediction of climate science,' Sunita adds. The 2007 report of the IPCC had observed that cyclones would increase in their intensity as a result of global warming. "There is observational evidence of an increase of intense tropical cyclone activity in the North Atlantic since about 1970, correlated with increases of tropical sea surface temperatures,' the IPCC had said. "Based on a range of models, it is likely that future tropical cyclones (typhoons and hurricanes) will become more intense, with larger peak wind speeds and more heavy precipitation associated with ongoing increases of tropical sea surface temperatures,' it added. Environmentalists say climate change is related to economic growth and wealth creation. The bulk of emissions are related to burning of fossil fuels, for the energy that drives the world. It is no wonder then that the rich industrialised world, responsible for the bulk of the emissions in the atmosphere, has found it difficult to cut emissions. But these emissions and lifestyles are now spelling doom for countries like Myanmar and Bangladesh, and big polluters of the world, like the US, cannot escape their responsibility. The question that the world needs to answer now is how to make these countries pay for victims of climate change, Sunita says. The only way it can be done is by make them reduce their emissions drastically, 30 per cent by 2020 and 80 per cent by 2050. "There is no comparison between the emissions of countries like India or even China and rich big emitters of the world. This is the natural debt of nations, and they must pay up, says Mario D'Souza, a climate change researcher.