Voice of climate-by Naseem Sheikh

We’re gradually conscious of how plastic is polluting our atmosphere, and be the reason of a number of health and climatic hazards. Significant scientific attention has been now focused on how these notorious microplastics – tiny pieces ranging from 5 millimetres down to 100 nanometres in diameter – are migrated to seas and functioning their way into the aquatic creatures, to further food chain and food webs. Plants also badly affected due to disturbance in their nutrient absorption. Microfibers another source of plastic emerges from textiles like nylon and polyester. They often wash off clothes and enter the ecosystem through washing machine wastewater. Humans consume microplastics via many channels. We might ingest them while eating seafood, breathe them in through the air, or consume food with trace amounts of its plastic packaging. Now, a new study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology says it's possible that humans may be consuming anywhere from 39,000 to ...

According to the district administration Mirpur, the earthquake caused the road infrastructure to be completely inflamed while the main highway and several bridges along the Mangla earth were lost. On the other hand, the number of people killed in the earthquake was 46 while 450 injured are under treatment in different areas, of which dozens are said to be in critical condition. Severe earthquake has disrupted communication system in various cities of Punjab and Khabar Pakhtunkhwa including Azad Kashmir and power supply has been suspended in several areas of Azad Kashmir since yesterday afternoon.  Climate change increases the risk of earthquakes and other natural disasters many fold. Aftershocks in Azad Kashmir are proceeding and shaking tremors are felt in different areas. While women and children took refuge in local parks. According to the Disaster management authority,Pakistan, the magnitude earthquake at 4 pm on Tuesday afternoon was 5.8 and its depth was 10 km, and...

Here are some of the precautions that can be taken to minimize the potential loss of execution. With these measures and premature awareness, we can prevent earthquake damage. [caption id="attachment_media-133" align="aligncenter" width="289"] Photo by rawpixel.com on Pexels.com [/caption] Control your senses if you feel an earthquake. Instead of panicking, jumping from the top floor and screaming without panic, they can easily get out of the building so it is better to stay where they are. Cover your head with your hands with both hands, and sit down in a corner instead of the middle of the room. If there is a strong table or bed, seek shelter under it. If no heavy furniture is nearby, seek shelter under the door frame or under the stairs, as the doors sometimes jam with jerks. When in the kitchen or in the lab, close the valve as soon as the shock is mild, try to get out. If you're on the top floor, don't go down the stairs during the tremors...

At McGill, a university that boasts a large international student body and faculty, it is no surprise that many people rely on air travel to return for the start of the semester. Globally, the number of annual airline passengers in the past 15 years  has more than doubled , increasing from 1.9 billion in 2004 to 4.3 billion in 2018. Worryingly, the transportation sector, particularly the airline industry,  is the fastest-growing emitter of greenhouse gases  and, thus, a major contributor to climate change. As individuals and institutions seek to reduce their carbon footprint, many turn to purchasing carbon offsets, sold by independent companies such as  Carbon Offset Reserve  and  Plan Vivo . Carbon offsetting is a way of   counteracting  carbon emissions: By purchasing carbon offsets, parties provide funding for greenhouse gas reduction projects and activities.  Carbon offset projects  include renewable energy programs, methane c...

A carbon offset is a credit for greenhouse gas reductions achieved by one party that can be purchased and used to compensate (offset) the emissions of another party. Carbon offsets are typically measured in tonnes of  CO2 -equivalents (or  CO2 e) and are bought and sold through a number of international brokers, online retailers and trading platforms. For example, wind energy companies often sell carbon offsets. The wind energy company benefits because the carbon offsets it sells make such projects more economically viable. The buyers of the offsets benefit because they can claim that their purchase resulted in new non-polluting energy, which they can use to mitigate their own greenhouse gas emissions. The buyers may also save money as it may be less expensive for them to purchase offsets than to eliminate their own emissions. Many types of activities can generate carbon offsets. Renewable energy such as the wind farm example above, or installations of...

The most current report from the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) (drafted on Aug. 7, 2019) highlights the vulnerability of global food sanctuary to deviations in climate and land use. The report emphasized that adaptive strategies to reduce total carbon production and preserve natural ecosystems are humanity’s best chance at mitigating the climate emergency’s effects on food production.   The report stressed the extent of human dependency on land systems. Humans are currently using one quarter to one third of available land’s potential production capacities. Essential products that come from land use, including feed and natural energy sources such as fossil fuels, are crucial to agricultural yields and the sustainability of the food supply chain. Land degradation is a general term describing negative trends in land condition, such as loss in biological productivity and ecological value to humans, Civilization is consuming assets at an exceptional degree. T...

Public personalities play an ever-important role in advancing sustainable development issues. Some raise public awareness about the challenge of land degradation, desertification and drought. Others are drawing the attention of decision makers and other stakeholders to the importance of placing land use planning and management and ecosystem restoration in policy agendas. Highly regarded UNCCD Land Ambassadors can draw even greater attention to the issues promoted by the UNCCD and provide the impetus needed to fully implement the objectives of the UNCCD 2918-2030 Strategic Framework. The objective of the UNCCD Land Ambassadors programme is to raise public awareness about the work of the Convention and inspire the public and decision makers to take practical and policy action to address to achieve land degradation neutrality by 2030 and the related Sustainable Development Goals. The programme is also aimed at reaching specific target groups such as youth, children and women.  E...

Desertification is nothing new to the world, but global warming combined with human activities is accelerating this phenomenon. The old saying “rain follows the forest and desert follows man” is rather depressing, but it doesn’t have to be if we understand how deserts are created and how we can reverse the process. It is difficult to do much about another country, but we can learn from mistakes made in other places to make sure we don’t repeat them. Luckily, we live on a relatively big island. Our population is small and we have a sense of aloha aina, so let us focus on our own gardens. A garden planted with no thought given to dry spells will do well in rainy periods but deteriorates without irrigation in dry periods, even in East Hawaii. Fortunately, many garden plants in Hawaii are fairly hardy when it comes to short water supply, so we have a long list to call upon. It’s important to vegetate these areas so that our islands don’t look like Death Valley in years to come. ...

Last year, hundreds of thousands of people in the Middle East and North Africa, including Morocco, faced the worst water shortages in decades. More than 60% of the population in this region is concentrated in places affected by high or very high surface water stress, which means that water resources are heavily exploited at an unsustainable rate. I have  argued previously  that “multiple factors have contributed to the current situation, including climate change, desertification, water pollution, and misuse of natural resources. Inadequate information, education, and communication exacerbate many of these challenges, as it reinforces a lack of awareness of – much less commitment to – environmentally friendly practices. Add to that inadequate disaster-risk reduction and management by governments – many of which are dealing with other conflicts and crises – and the situation has become truly dire.” According to government statistics, Morocco’s water resources are among the...

Several bamboo varieties are used to revive a plot of land in critical condition, formerly the site of illegal gold mining, in Dharmasraya, West Sumatra. Besides being good for re-greening, bamboo absorbs mercury.  Thousands of bamboo trees about 1.5 meters tall stand in rows some five meters away from the banks of the Nyunyo River in Jorong Bukit Mendawa, Nagari Tebing Tinggi, Dharmasraya Regency, West Sumatra. The bamboo trees were deliberately planted as starter vegetation to resuscitate a plot of land formerly used as an unregistered goldmine owned by the community. “The ravaged land has to be revived back immediately so it can be used as a tourist destination and for developing local businesses,” said Dharmasraya Regent, Sutan Riska Tuanku Kerajaan, when visiting the site on Tuesday, July 16. Restoration efforts for the plot formerly used as an illegal goldmine is conducted by the Dharmasraya Regency administration in conjunction with the ministry of environment and forest...

China has lifted more than 700 million people out of poverty in the past decades and the Chinese people have enjoyed a better standard of living, which is the biggest achievement since the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, said Yongjing Zhang, associate professor of economics in the University of Ottawa’s Graduate School of Public and International Affairs. China has also made great achievements in pollution control, forest coverage, desertification control, and garbage and sewage treatment, Zhang said in a recent interview with Xinhua before the 70th anniversary of the founding of the PRC. “People in Beijing and Shanghai are seeing more days of blue sky, like this in Ottawa today,” Zhang said. Zhang added China is still on the direction of Deng Xiaoping, the architect of China’s reform and opening up since the late 1970s. “China wants its people to improve their lives.” According to China’s National Bureau of Statistics, In 2018, 121 of the 338 citi...

Although peatlands make up only 3 percent of the Earth’s surface, they store one third of the soil carbon trapped in soils globally. Preserving peatlands is therefore of paramount importance for mitigating climate change, provided that these vulnerable environments are not themselves threatened by global warming. To better determine this risk, two French scientists, including Vincent Jassey, a CNRS researcher at the Laboratoire Ecologie Fontionnelle et Environnement (CNRS/Université Toulouse III—Paul Sabatier/INP Toulouse), studied carbon uptake by the two main species of moss that make up the Le Forbonnet peatland in Frasne (Jura). They discovered that when temperatures were high and also during droughts, the two Sphagnum species behaved in opposite ways: Sphagnum medium resists drought, whereas the photosynthesis of Sphagnum fallax is negatively impacted; conversely, in very hot but humid weather, photosynthesis, and thus carbon uptake, in Sphagnum fallax increases, whereas t...

The Zimbabwean government has declared a state of disaster in all urban and rural areas following a drought that has cut crop output by more than half, the Civil Protection Unit said in the Government Gazette. The drought has affected more than 5.7 million people, according to aid agencies, and the country expects to import as much as 800,000 tons of corn. Zimbabwe’s government has appealed for $464 million to stave off famine. Zimbabwe agreed to buy 150,000 tons of South African corn after a tender five times that size failed, leaving the country short of grain as the number of people without adequate food rises, according to people familiar with the situation. The grain is being supplied by Export Trading Group, said the people, who asked not to be identified as a public announcement hasn’t been made. The deal is for white corn, a staple food in Zimbabwe, and specifically non-genetically modified grain. The southern African nation needs to import corn after a drought and...