Voice of climate-by Naseem Sheikh

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