Voice of climate-by Naseem Sheikh

s Ban Ki Moon said in September 2007  “ Given the nature and magnitude of the challenge, national action alone is insufficient. No nation can address this challenge on its own. No region can insulate itself from these climate changes. That is why we need to confront climate change within a global framework, one that guarantees the highest level of international cooperation” Asian countries including Pakistan face the greatest risk from severe climate change, which could force millions of people to flee their homes and trigger environmental migration, according to an Asian Development Bank report. The report titled "Climate Change and Migration in Asia and the Pacific" says Bangladesh, India, Maldives and Pakistan face the greatest risk, but Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan, China and South Korea are also especially vulnerable. Public opinion in  Pakistan in recent years has largely disapproved of how the Government of Pakistan totally ignor...

We believe that electricity exists, because its life line of the countries,and the electric company keeps sending us bills for it, although we cannot consume it all 24 hours. ” Pakistan is in the grip of a serious energy crisis that is affecting all sectors of the economy and the various segments of the society. Luckily Pakistan has blessed by many types of resources but lack of attention and sincerity among authority leaders and concerned department all resources are just for name of appreciations rather than utilization. For years, the matter of balancing Pakistan's supply against the demand for electricity has remained a largely unresolved matter. Pakistan faces a significant challenge in revamping its network responsible for the supply of electricity. Pakistan ’s energy infrastructure is not well developed, to a certain extent it is considered to be underdeveloped and poorly managed. Currently the country is facing severe energy crisis. Even despite the fact that of stro...

The Earth’s temperature is rising. We can argue about whether it is a short-term or long-term trend, or whether it is natural variation or man-induced, but it is warming. But now it’s our duty to pay something to cure our mother earth. A normal person helps it by just planting a tree because trees absorb Co2. But is there something we can do to absorb CO2 beyond trees. The idea of forming   synthetic tress  has been worked on for some  time by by Dr Klaus Lackner, of Columbia University.it is hoped that these "synthetic trees" will be able to collect and trap carbon about 1000 times faster than the real thing. Basically as the wind blows though plastic "leaves," the carbon is trapped in a chamber,compressed and stored as liquid carbon dioxide. The technology is similar to that used to capture carbon from flue stacks at coal-fired power plants, but the difference is that the "synthetic tree" can catch carbon at any place and at any time . A...

The United Nations has launched the Decade on Biodiversity with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging humanity to live in harmony with nature and to preserve and properly manage its riches for the prosperity of current and future generations. It is now widely recognized that climate change and biodiversity are interconnected. Biodiversity is affected by climate change, with negative consequences for human well-being, but biodiversity, through the ecosystem services it supports, also makes an important contribution to both climate-change mitigation and adaptation. After extended negotiations in Durban , the 194 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreed on a package of decisions, known as the Durban Platform, which include the launch of a protocol or legal instrument that would apply to all members, a second commitment period for the existing Kyoto Protocol and the launch of the Green Climate Fund. The 194 countries negotia...

From the World Bank commissioned report in 2009: “Public attitudes toward climate change: findings from a multi-country poll”,comes this interesting look at country wide attitudes to climate change. So it's interesting to look at how these views affected country attitudes at Durban recently. It is pertinent to mention here that Asia has been worst hit by severe climate change.  Pakistan is one of the countries that have been severely hit in the recent years by disastrous effects of climate change including flash floods and devastating earthquakes. “Developed nations are not guilty of causing the climate change that developing nations claim they are suffering,” said Tom Harris, executive director of ICSC which is headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. “Climate changes all the time—both warming and cooling—due to natural causes and there is nothing that we can do to stop it. However, to the degree possible, and considering our economic circumstances, developed nations stil...

The United Nations today launched the Decade on Biodiversity with Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urging humanity to live in harmony with nature and to preserve and properly manage its riches for the prosperity of current and future generations. It is now widely recognised that climate change and biodiversity are interconnected. Biodiversity is affected by climate change, with negative consequences for human well-being, but biodiversity, through the ecosystem services it supports, also makes an important contribution to both climate-change mitigation and adaptation. After extended negotiations over the weekend, the 194 parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) agreed on a package of decisions, known as the Durban Platform, which include the launch of a protocol or legal instrument that would apply to all members, a second commitment period for the existing Kyoto Protocol and the launch of the Green Climate Fund. The 194 countries negotiating here also agreed tha...

Although we should not promote coal as energy resource as its really very toxic and not environmental friendly but now days Pakistan is in the grip of a serious energy crisis that is affecting all sectors of the economy and the various segments of the society. In Pakistan, political instability, indecision, corruption, terrorism and security problems have kept exploration and production of possible alternative energy sources at a standstill both in Thar and Baluchistan. This Petroleum lobby is very strong in Pakistan and they are against any other means of power generation except for the imported oil. This lobby is major beneficiary of the increasing oil bill that is estimated above 15 billion dollars for the country this year. The energy sector requires efficient and clean energy supplies. In case of coal, we would have to ensure higher efficiencies, environmental acceptance, prolonging its availability and proper replacement for oil and natural gas. This is only possi...

Pakistan is in the grip of a serious energy crisis that is affecting all sectors of the economy and the various segments of the society. Luckily Pakistan has blessed by many types of resources but lack of attention and sincerity among authority leaders and concerned department all resources are just for name of appreciations rather than utilization. Coal- the Black Gold is one of major energy source which is contributing in world’s energy systems with the share of 23.80% and 23.75% of production and consumption respectively. In order to obtain clean fuels, the liquefaction and gasification of the world’s most abundant fuel i.e., coal, have gained increasing attention. And coal field holds to the energy security of Pakistan, being one of the largest coal (lignite) deposits in the world comprising of 184,123 billion tons which can produce 1000,000 MW of electricity for next three hundred years. Pakistan's largest coal reserves are found in Sindh with approximately 184...

This year will be world’s tenth warmest on record since 1850, and the highest ever in a year which experienced a La Niña event, a meteorological phenomenon which is supposed to have a cooling influence on Earth’s atmosphere, a United Nations agency reported this week.. The report was released in The 17th Conference of the Parties (COP17) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Durban, South Africa, (from November 28 –December 9, 2011), where thousands of representatives from governments, international organizations and civil society are meeting to advance ways to cut global carbon emissions and pollution. Geography compounded with high levels of poverty and population density has rendered Asia and the Pacific countries e specially vulnerable to the impacts of climate change with increase in temperature. Climate change is existent and the region faces scary climate-related improvement challenges. Asia and the Pacific, with over 50% of the world’s ...

Noise has become a very important "stress factor" in the environment of man. The term "noise pollution" has been recently used to signify the hazard of sounds which are consequence of modern day development, leading to health hazards of different type. Continuous exposure to high decibel noise can result in some adverse effects on your health. One of these hazards is acoustic trauma to the ears caused when they are subjected to the sound of an intensity of 85 dB or more without respite. The health hazards of noise pollution can be categorized into physiological and psychological hazards. While the former includes hearing loss, hypertension, disturbance in sleep patterns etc., the later includes problems such as annoyance, aggression and stress.  According to a medical health guide lines, although high levels of noise for short time can lead to noise induced hearing loss early but usually 10 years of exposure is generally required for significant hearing loss t...