March 26, 2007
Global warming and Pakistan
By Sultan Ahmed
THE adverse impact of the rising global warming on human and other forms of life is becoming clearer day by day, which is adding to man kindsââ¬â¢ fear for the future. Industrial states of the world are being accused of atmospheric pollution that spurs global warming. And now developing countries like China are adding to pollution by heavily relying on coal for power generation.
Industrial states, led by the United States, add to pollution through gas and heat emissions from their factories and the fleet of big cars they use.
The US ought to be in the lead in the fight against global warming, but apparently it is not interested in the Kyoto protocol formulated after a great deal of efforts to achieve that end.
Now not only coal, which is being used by developing countries as a source of energy, add to global warming, but also the many automobiles on roads contribute a great deal to pollution and slow change in climate.
Sir Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank, who later made a review of the climatic changes for the United Kingdom government, says it is still possible to avert the worst effects of climatic change. He says that based on the current average increase in global temperature, it is feared that it will rise by two to three degrees Celsius within the next 50 years and its most severe impact will be felt through its effect on water.
At a recent seminar, sponsored by the World Bank and the IMF, Sir Nicholas said that glaciers as a result of the climatic change, would melt down, initially increasing the risk of flood and would later reduce water supplies to a great extent.
Decline in crop yields could create a famine-like situation and there would be a world- wide increase in deaths from malnutrition and heat stress in lower altitudes.
Rising sea levels will put hundreds of millions of people at risk for being flooded each year. About 15 to 40 per cent of all species could face extinction as a result of global warming.
He estimated that fighting global warming would cost about one per cent of the annual global GDP by 2050. He suggested that initially the developed countries should shoulder most of the burden.
There were calls at the meeting for the World Bank and the IMF to play a major role in this area as the US did not seem interested in the issue.
The tsunami in Southeast Asia and the further convulsions that followed are said to be the result of climatic changes. There were hints that the earthquake in the North-West Pakistan could be the outcome of climatic change. Even un-seasonal rains in Pakistan are being attributed to climatic changes.
When it comes to Pakistan, we have only guesswork instead of thorough research. What is known is that the atmospheric pollution is widespread and centres in large cities like Karachi are highly polluted by automobile fumes.
Rivers are polluted by industrial effluents dumped in them all over Pakistan. Even coastal waters around Karachi are polluted by industrial waste and chemicals dumped into the sea which poison the sea life as well.
Places like the Bolton Market, Burns Road and the Empress Market have a high- density of carbon in the air from automobile fumes which is increasing day by day.
But the greater threat is yet to come and that will be from the mining operation of coal for production of power. The Thar coal is set to be one of the largest coalmines in the world if not the largest.
Initially the Thar power project is based on using imported coal, and a coal port is being set up. The imported coal will be initially mixed with the local coal which will gradually replace the imported coal.
The automobile industry in Pakistan has set a target of half a million vehicles within five years. That is apart from the rising imports of cars which are gas guzzlers. All that will add to the pollution in a big way.
Right now an old rickshaw in the city emits more smoke than a medium-sized factory does, and the hope that such hazards would be removed seems remote. It has been suggested from time to time that auto-rickshaws should be banned, but when that would be done no one knows.
Use of gas instead of petrol and diesel oil can reduce fumes though not the heat, but the number of gas stations in the country is too small.
We live in a country where high-priced bottle water is not pure in most cases and even medicines are adulterated, not to speak of food items. That is not the kind of environment in which we can fight pollution which leads to global warming and climatic change for the worse.
Sir Nicholas Stern has identified deforestation as one of the causes of global warming. That is surely what we have to give serious thought to apart from other ecological reasons. In a world where countries are expected to have 20 per cent of their territory as forests, our share of the forest is barely three per cent and yet the trees are being felled by the thousands every day and that has to be checked and millions of saplings planted every week.
As a result of global warming, fish migrate to better environments, birds fly off to suitable places and animals move to more hospitable climates. No country can afford such losses, so global warming has to be checked.
We have to begin an entire new chapter of our ecological life and improve it constantly instead of smugly presuming ââ¬Ëwe have lived with fumes so far and can live with some moreââ¬â¢, which is a form of slow suicide.
We have a ministry of environment, but nobody knows what it does?
http://www.dawn.com/2007/03/26/ebr16.htm
Global warming and Pakistan
By Sultan Ahmed
THE adverse impact of the rising global warming on human and other forms of life is becoming clearer day by day, which is adding to man kindsââ¬â¢ fear for the future. Industrial states of the world are being accused of atmospheric pollution that spurs global warming. And now developing countries like China are adding to pollution by heavily relying on coal for power generation.
Industrial states, led by the United States, add to pollution through gas and heat emissions from their factories and the fleet of big cars they use.
The US ought to be in the lead in the fight against global warming, but apparently it is not interested in the Kyoto protocol formulated after a great deal of efforts to achieve that end.
Now not only coal, which is being used by developing countries as a source of energy, add to global warming, but also the many automobiles on roads contribute a great deal to pollution and slow change in climate.
Sir Nicholas Stern, former chief economist of the World Bank, who later made a review of the climatic changes for the United Kingdom government, says it is still possible to avert the worst effects of climatic change. He says that based on the current average increase in global temperature, it is feared that it will rise by two to three degrees Celsius within the next 50 years and its most severe impact will be felt through its effect on water.
At a recent seminar, sponsored by the World Bank and the IMF, Sir Nicholas said that glaciers as a result of the climatic change, would melt down, initially increasing the risk of flood and would later reduce water supplies to a great extent.
Decline in crop yields could create a famine-like situation and there would be a world- wide increase in deaths from malnutrition and heat stress in lower altitudes.
Rising sea levels will put hundreds of millions of people at risk for being flooded each year. About 15 to 40 per cent of all species could face extinction as a result of global warming.
He estimated that fighting global warming would cost about one per cent of the annual global GDP by 2050. He suggested that initially the developed countries should shoulder most of the burden.
There were calls at the meeting for the World Bank and the IMF to play a major role in this area as the US did not seem interested in the issue.
The tsunami in Southeast Asia and the further convulsions that followed are said to be the result of climatic changes. There were hints that the earthquake in the North-West Pakistan could be the outcome of climatic change. Even un-seasonal rains in Pakistan are being attributed to climatic changes.
When it comes to Pakistan, we have only guesswork instead of thorough research. What is known is that the atmospheric pollution is widespread and centres in large cities like Karachi are highly polluted by automobile fumes.
Rivers are polluted by industrial effluents dumped in them all over Pakistan. Even coastal waters around Karachi are polluted by industrial waste and chemicals dumped into the sea which poison the sea life as well.
Places like the Bolton Market, Burns Road and the Empress Market have a high- density of carbon in the air from automobile fumes which is increasing day by day.
But the greater threat is yet to come and that will be from the mining operation of coal for production of power. The Thar coal is set to be one of the largest coalmines in the world if not the largest.
Initially the Thar power project is based on using imported coal, and a coal port is being set up. The imported coal will be initially mixed with the local coal which will gradually replace the imported coal.
The automobile industry in Pakistan has set a target of half a million vehicles within five years. That is apart from the rising imports of cars which are gas guzzlers. All that will add to the pollution in a big way.
Right now an old rickshaw in the city emits more smoke than a medium-sized factory does, and the hope that such hazards would be removed seems remote. It has been suggested from time to time that auto-rickshaws should be banned, but when that would be done no one knows.
Use of gas instead of petrol and diesel oil can reduce fumes though not the heat, but the number of gas stations in the country is too small.
We live in a country where high-priced bottle water is not pure in most cases and even medicines are adulterated, not to speak of food items. That is not the kind of environment in which we can fight pollution which leads to global warming and climatic change for the worse.
Sir Nicholas Stern has identified deforestation as one of the causes of global warming. That is surely what we have to give serious thought to apart from other ecological reasons. In a world where countries are expected to have 20 per cent of their territory as forests, our share of the forest is barely three per cent and yet the trees are being felled by the thousands every day and that has to be checked and millions of saplings planted every week.
As a result of global warming, fish migrate to better environments, birds fly off to suitable places and animals move to more hospitable climates. No country can afford such losses, so global warming has to be checked.
We have to begin an entire new chapter of our ecological life and improve it constantly instead of smugly presuming ââ¬Ëwe have lived with fumes so far and can live with some moreââ¬â¢, which is a form of slow suicide.
We have a ministry of environment, but nobody knows what it does?
http://www.dawn.com/2007/03/26/ebr16.htm
