Voice of climate-by Naseem Sheikh

  The environmental field has experienced a major transition in the past 20 years. Climatic changes are actually happening and Earth is heating up, the glaciers melting and water is being consumed by the growing population. The changing climate leads to changes in the frequency and timing of extreme weather and climate events, and can result in unprecedented extreme weather and climate events. Geographically, Pakistan lies between 24 o and 37 o N latitude and 61 o and 75 o E longitude. With the scarcity of water, there is less food to grow and South Asia is the most vulnerable region of the world as its population is growing far too quickly and the glaciers in the Himalayas depleting very fast. There are two sources of rainfall in Pakistan: the Monsoon and the Western Depression. The former takes place from July to September and the latter from December to March. For Pakistan, the bad news is that the River Indus is 30 to 40 per cent dependent on the Himal...

  Monday, 10th December is 64th anniversary of the signing of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The UDHR sets out a broad range of fundamental human rights and freedoms to which all men and women, everywhere in the world, are entitled, without any distinction. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) was adopted on 10 December 1948. The date has since served to mark Human Rights Day worldwide. The High Commissioner for Human Rights, as the main UN rights official, and her Office play a major role in coordinating efforts for the yearly observance of Human Rights Day. This year’s theme for the Day, which is being observed through numerous events around the world, is ‘ Inclusion and the Right to Participate International law is clear: No matter who you are, or where you live, your voice counts. On this Day, let us unite to defend your right to make it heard in Public Life .’; Article 18 of UDHR. Yet far too many groups and individuals...

According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation, 2.2% or about 1,687,000 ha of Pakistan is forested. Pakistan has 340,000 ha of planted forest. And that has been declining rapidly.  Between 1990 and 2010, Pakistan lost an average of 42,000 ha or 1.66% per year. In total, between 1990 and 2010, Pakistan lost 33.2% of its forest cover or around 840,000 ha. Pakistan's forests contain 213 million metric tons of carbon in living forest biomass. It boasts  some 1027 known species of amphibians, birds, mammals and reptiles according to figures from the World Conservation Monitoring Centre. Of these, 3.5% are endemic, meaning they exist in no other country, and 5.5% are threatened. Pakistan is home to at least 4950 species of vascular plants, of which 7.5% are endemic. 4.0% of Pakistan is protected under IUCN categories I-V. Khurshid Ahmed, an environmentalist from Peshawar University, says most of the logs illegally cut from Pakistan's forests have be...

IS CO2 main culprit of global warming or not? Recently this is very debatable topic, one group says CO2 is a normal gas like hydrogen, nitrogen and oxygen and not a reason of recent global warming but there is group of believers that admit CO2 as culpable and I am believer of second group. To satisfies them I have a small logical reason as in our surrounding we have a large number of nutrients but not all of equal importance, few are micro and other are macro similarly their ratio in our diet matters a lot. If one exceed its normal limit cause in ill factor of body functioning. Similarly CO2 is main culprit for causing global warming due to presence of carbon which is main building block of nature and nature believes on balance of every thing. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is a slightly toxic, odourless, colourless gas with a slightly pungent, acid taste. it is currently occurring at an average concentration of about 390 parts per million by volume or 591 parts per millio...

World Osteoporosis Day was launched on 20 October 1996 by the United Kingdom's National Osteoporosis Society and supported by European Commission. Since 1997, the day has been organized by IOF Osteoporosis is now common. Around the world, at least one in three women and one in five men over the age of 50 will suffer a fracture caused by weak bones. In our late forties our risk of weak bones increases and in females the risk increases more. The main reasons are lack of awareness, imbalance of hormones, calcium deficiency,  wrong food, excessive dieting.T hirty-three per cent of older adults who suffer a hip fracture become physically impaired and lose their ability to live independently one year after the fracture. Bone loss can also be related to chronic inflammation (caused by body dehydration and many other factors) and by an overly acidic inner body pH (of 7.0 or less). Our inner body should have a lightly alkaline pH (greater than 7.0). Bone dehydration (in...

Cotton is considered the world's 'dirtiest' crop due to its heavy use of insecticides, the most hazardous pesticide to human and animal health. Cotton covers 2.5% of the world's cultivated land yet uses 16% of the world's insecticides, more than any other single major crop. Cotton is one of the most water and pesticide intensive agricultural commodity, is responsible for significant adverse impacts on human and animal (livestock) health, natural resources such as land and fresh water and global biodiversity. 1. Cotton production plays a primary role in degradation of agro-ecosystems by indiscriminate use of agrochemicals such as fertilizers and pesticides. In addition, adverse impacts on the communities in terms of health risks to working men and women and increase in poverty and dependency due to the high pesticides costs and indebtedness are common. 2. In many cases irrigation systems are very inefficient and therefore lead to wide spread negative impac...

A company's c arbon foot print is an important part of their branding. It  means the  total amount of greenhouse gas produces by a person, company, event, product or organization. The carbon footprint can be measured by undertaking a GHG emissions assessment. Once the size of a carbon footprint is known, a strategy can be devised to reduce it, e.g. by energy saving, technological developments, better process and product management. Facebook has revealed the carbon footprint and energy use of its US data centers and has pledged to use 25 percent sustainable energy by 2015. Facebook currently gets 23 percent of its energy from clean and sustainable sources, 27 percent coal, 17 percent natural gas and 13 percent nuclear. Facebook has two US data centers, located in Oregon and North Carolina, as well as two co-location facilities, one on the East coast and one on the West. "We’re releasing this data because we believe in the power of openness, and beca...

Climatic changes are actually happening and Earth is heating up, the glaciers melting and water is being consumed by the growing population.  S outh Asia is the most vulnerable region of the world as its population is growing far too quickly and the glaciers in the Himalayas depleting very quickly. For Pakistan, the bad news is that the River Indus is 30 to 40 per cent dependent on the Himalayan glaciers. It's not only Pakistan that has experienced record-breaking extreme weather events recently. In the last couple months extreme weather has struck around the world with startling ferocity. In addition to this the monsoon downpours were some of the heaviest seen in recent years. Flooding in Indonesia, drought in South and North Korea, land slides due to heavy rain in Bangladesh.Meanwhile shifts in glacial melt and rainfall are threatening crops and water scarcity in Pakistan is of great concern. Monsoon patterns have mainly disturb severely disturbed by these globa...

Dengue fever is caused by one of four different but related viruses. It is spread by the bite of mosquitoes, most commonly the mosquito Aedes aegypti , which is found in tropic and subtropic and the Caribbean regions , usually during the rainy seasons in areas with high numbers of infected mosquitoes.Asia-Pacific countries have more than 70% of the disease burden.Dengue fever can be caused by any one of four types of dengue virus: DEN-1, DEN-2, DEN-3, and DEN-4. A person can be infected by at least two, if not all four types at different times during a life span, but only once by the same type. Dengue fever begins with a sudden high fever, often as high as 104 - 105 degrees Fahrenheit, 4 to 7 days after the infection.A flat, red rash may appear over most of the body 2 - 5 days after the fever starts with intense headache, joint and muscle pain and a rash. Mild bleeding of the nose or gums may occur.. A second rash, which looks like the measles, appears later in the d...

Man-made plastic has been a boon in many ways and has countless uses, but it is also an environmental time-bomb waiting to explode. These plastics do not decompose easily and, hence, lead to countless health and environmental hazards when disposed of carelessly. Burning of plastic bags and items leads to the creation of noxious fumes, such as carbon monoxide. The increase in the effusion of this gas has led to an upsurge in various respiratory ailments such as asthma and bronchitis. The noxious fumes have also had an injurious effect on the ozone layer, which prevents the harmful rays of the sun from flowing into the atmosphere. Plastic bottles, plastic bags and food packaging are responsible for most of our plastic waste and environmental concerns. Statistics show that we are consuming more and more plastics every year. It is estimated that an average individual uses around 130 plastic bags per year. One of the most common chemicals in plastics is Bisphenol A; more...

IN PAKISTAN, annual mean surface temperature has a consistent rising trend since the beginning of 20th century. Rise in mean temperature of 0.6-1.0°C in arid coastal areas, arid mountains and hyper arid plains, 10-15 per cent decrease in both winter and summer rainfall in coastal belt and hyper arid plains, 18-32 per cent increase in rainfall in monsoon zone especially the sub-humid and humid areas is observed. There is 5 per cent decrease in relative humidity in Baluchistan, 0.5 to 0.7 per cent Increase in solar radiation over southern half of country. In the above summarized drastic environmental changes are all due to the global warming because of insensibly usage of natural resources and in result of it production of pollutants that further causing irreversible changes to our mother land. We must adopt steps like other developed nations to reduce and further overcome these types of problems. In America, the National Green Week is the largest waste reduction campaig...

SOOT FROM diesel exhausts and the burning of wood, agricultural waste and dung for heating and cooking causes an estimated two million premature deaths a year, particularly in the poorest countries. Scientists say that concerted action on these substances can reduce global temperatures by 0.5 degrees Celsius by 2050 and prevent millions of cases of lung and heart disease by 2030. There is no way to effectively address a climate change without reducing carbon dioxide, the most dangerous, prevalent, and persistent greenhouse gas. It stays in the atmosphere for hundreds of years. The year 2012 is expected to be around 0.48 °C warmer than the long-term (1961-1990) global average of 14.0 °C, with a predicted range of between 0.34 °C and 0.62 °C, according to the Met Office annual global temperature forecast. The middle of this range would place 2012 within the top 10 warmest years in a series which goes back to 1850. Greenhouse gases can stay in the atmosphere for an amount of years ra...

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 to oc...