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Showing posts from November, 2012

Pakistan- The Link Between Deforestation and Flooding

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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...

Carbon dioxide: Main culprit of global warming like Methane

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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

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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-major cash giving but world's 'dirtiest' crop

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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...