Some UN agency reported that if (now it is more of a when) things reach a certain threshold, climate change will become irreversible. That report detailed how India would witness long spells of heatwave and overflowing monsoons. That will actually spur greenery in many arid zones. But the steady rise in temp would cause our perennial rivers to eventually dry up and become increasingly rain fed. Rains would be like the ones that visit Cherapunji. It is the wettest place in India but also among the driest. Because it receives massive rainfall during a certain span and that water isn't (and cannot be entirely) trapped judiciously. Rest of year, it literally goes bone dry.

Over decades these extreme swings would irreversibly cause the "sacred rivers" to dry up. Insidious and steady desertification and increasing salinity ingress from the coasts will pincer the Indo-Gangetic plain into desert eventually. Sort of what's happening with Aral Sea.

The more interesting bit is that I was privy to the internal report. And it had a public release later and got slammed as scare mongering. I lost track of it and cannot recollect the specifics. But that report seems to have disappeared.

UN often does that. Buckle under pressure. UNAIDS buckled when its report on how HIV transmission took place in Indian prisons. It confirmed opens secrets.

Climate change is an inevitable and natural process. Has been happening long before humans were born. But what we in our collective wisdom have done is to go unnatural. We have jump started it and now think that the way out is space!