Voice of climate-by Naseem Sheikh

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 today (29 th Nov2011). The report was released today 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 especially 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 ...

Natural hazards such as earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, droughts, and volcanic eruptions are found more and more in the news these days. Every year they are responsible for many deaths and serious injuries and they destroy livelihoods and damage economies. Scientists predict that climate change will affect the frequency and severity of some natural disasters like hurricanes, typhoons, and flooding. Earthquakes do occur at the boundaries between tectonic plates because of plate motions. Understanding why plates change direction and speed is key to unlocking huge seismic events such as the famous Japan earthquake, which shifted the Earth’s axis by several inches, or February’s New Zealand quake. Scientists have for the first time shown a link between intensifying climate events and tectonic plate movement in findings that could provide a valuable insight into why huge tremors occur. Tectonic movements influence climate by creating new mountains and sea trenches and vice versa also. Th...

November 13-19 was the National Geographic Society’s Geography Awareness Week. This year’s theme is The Adventure in Your Community. Geography is all around us and varies from region to region in the Pakistan. Did you know that geography and weather are very closely linked? Mountains and Rivers can influence an area’s climate by affecting both temperature and precipitation. As elevation increases, the Atmosphere becomes less dense. When it is less dense, its ability to absorb and hold thermal energy is reduced and temperature gets lower. Rivers and seas also help the climate in cooling and absorption of heat waves. Climate change is likely to have a profound effect on human societies around the World. Over the past decades much effort has concentrated on the physical science behind climate change. With the general acceptance of anthropogenic climate change, emphasis has recently shifted towards climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation. Explore some of the conne...

 In wintertime, Punjab, Khyber Pakhtun khawan and upper Sindh areas are affected by Fog. As cold air from the north recedes and day temperatures fall sufficiently, warm and humid air comes in from the sea. During this time, the warm and humid air may be cooled sufficiently by the underlying cold surface. This condensation of water vapour into droplets and hence resulted in the formation of fog. According to the Met Office, due to the falling temperatures and high level of humidity, fog is likely to thicken in the plains of the country in the days to come and there are no chances of rain anywhere in the country for at least one week. Scientists said the foggy weather was a result of calm winds. There have been alternate warm and cooler periods over north-west India. During the warm period, moist winds from the south enter the region feeding humidity. This causes conditions suitable for a weather phenomenon called inversion. Normally, the temperature decreases by 6.5 degree...