Save Our Mother Earth

 

CONTRIBUTE TO A NOBLE CAUSE
 

There is a cute small round press button at the bottom right corner of almost all monitors: Please make use of this

 
   
Stop printing out Harry Porter, Jeffrey Archer and other e-books. This is a classic example of paper wastage.
   If you have forgotten to give double-side prints, make sure you make use of the empty sides as scribbling pads or for your kids' imposition   ! 
  
 
Take two minutes from your busy schedule before hurrying back home to shut down the computer. 

 
   
All of us are big time Googlers. Have you heard of the Blackle search engine? Blackle (Google powered) is a search engine designed all in Rich Black so that your system consumes less power. So change your homepage.

  
 
 
Plastic bags these days indeed come in bright and flamboyant colours and tempt us to take them home with us. But the saying, "Appearances are deceptive" holds true for these plastic things too. Next time, hold back or go prepared to counter temptation with a cloth bag.


 
 
Roses, Jasmine, Hibiscus and Peas; All these saplings cost hardly between Rs 10 - 20 each. Can't we afford to plant these in and around our houses? Also, more importantly, caring and maintain them as they grow?

  
 
Try to segregate the different kinds of waste into Bio-Degradable (Fruit or vegetable waste) , Recyclable (waste Paper, paper products) and Electronics (Floppy disks, CD-ROMS ). Once you have segregated your thrash, look for specialized trash cans to throw them away.

 

Try to minimize the use of horns. Honking has drastically increased and this adds to the noise pollution and does not provide a conducive environment to live in.

 
 
 
Use rechargeable batteries though it's an expensive product, it's one-time purchase. Recharge when required. (Same applies to cell-phones, MP3s, iPods and Laptops)

   
The best pens to use would be ink ones. Though if you have to use a ball point pen, buy refills instead of buying new pens. Pencils are much better for rough use! (That's why we used it at school!!!)

 
 
 
Remember to close water taps before preening in front of the mirror. Of course you are beautiful, but Water is a precious resource!

 
   
Let's not just wake up and walk out of finished meetings and conferences with a sigh of relief, let us remember to turn off the lights and projectors too.

 
 
Take few minutes to learn about topics like 'Global Warming' , 'Air / Noise /Land / Water Pollution ' etc apart from constant surfing of News, Latest Gadgets, Movies and Music.

 
  
Spread this message to your friends and colleagues. They too can make a difference.

 
 
 
The Earth has already become a dangerous place to live in for the animals and birds. Soon it might be our turn. So let's pledge to save our beautiful planet so that you and your future generations can live happily and peacefully ever after.

 

  

Save the Planet







Running a half empty machine, taking a bath instead of a shower or leaving the light on for no reason destroys the planet. Remember: turn your monitor off along with the computer, unplug chargers if you don't use them and use water wisely.

A bit of attention can go a long way!

پاکستان میں جنگلات کا مستقبل FOREST FUTURE IN PAKISTAN & OUR RESPONSIBILITY

 

پاکستان میں درختوں کی کٹائی جس طرح سے ہو رہی ہے اس سے یوں لگتا ہے کہ چند سالوں میں  پاکستان  اللہ پاک کی قدرتی نعمت آکسیجن سے جلد محروم ہو جائے گا۔ ماحول کو صاف  سُتھرا اور آلودگی سے پاک  رکھنے کے لئے درخت  انتہائی ضروری ہیں۔ اور کسی بھی ملک کے لئے  20 سے 25 فی صد علاقہ جنگلات پر مشتمل ہونا چاہئے۔ لیکن بد قسمتسی سے پاکستان جنگلات سے خالی ہوتا جا رہا ہے۔

 میں اس بات سے بھی آگاہ ہوں کہ  موجودہ  دور میں  گیس کی قلت اور  بجلی کی کمی پاکستان کی صنعتوں کو تباہ کرنے میں اہم کردار ادا کر رہی ہے اور حکومت کی ناقص پالیسیوں  اور لا پرواہی سے یہ مسئلہ مزید گھمبیر ہوتا جا رہا ہے۔

 صنعت کار گیس کے متبادل کے طور پر  بوائلرز میں لکڑی۔ مکئی کی بغیر دانوں کے چھلی۔ چاول کا چھلکا وغیرہ استعمال کیا جارہا ہے۔ لکڑی کا استعمال بہت زیادہ ہو رہا ہے اور کئی علاقے  جنگلات سے خالی ہو رہے ہیں۔ایک میڈیم سائز کا بوائلر 24 گھنٹے میں پانچ سو من 500 من لکڑی  استعمال  ہوتی ہے۔  اس طرح صرف ایک بوائلر  ایک ماہ میں 15 ٹن لکڑی  استعمال کرتا ہے۔ شیخوپورہ ضلع میں تقریباً 200 سو سے زائد صنعتیں بوائلر استعمال کرتی ہیں جن میں سے زیادہ تر لکڑی پر ہیں صرف ضلع شیخوپورہ میں ایک ماہ میں3000 ہزار ٹن درختوں کی لکڑی استعمال ہو رہی ہے۔ اور ایک سال میں  کم از کم 36000 ٹن استعمال یے۔ یہ صرف ایک ضلع کا کم سے کم تخمینہ ہے۔ اگر پورے پاکستان کی صنعتوں کا حساب لگایا جائے تو تخمینہ بہت زیادہ بڑھ جائے گا۔ 
اگر اس طرح اور اتنی تعداد میں لکڑی  استعمال ہوگی تو  جنگلات کا مستقبل کیا ہے۔ضلع بھکر لکڑی  کی بڑی منڈی تھی مگر اب وہ ختم ہونے کے قریب ہےاسی طرح  آہستہ آہستہ جنگلات ختم ہوتے جائیں گے اور جب نہ رہیں گے تو پھر کیا ہو گا۔ کیا ہم اس کا متبادل  ڈھونڈ پائیں گے۔۔ 
 ذرا  سوچئے

Pakistan-Energy

From 1947 to the early 1990s, the economy made considerable  progress in the transformation from a wood-burning base to modern energy sources. The  process remains incomplete. Bagasse (the woody residue left over from crushed sugarcane), dung, and firewood furnished about 32 percent of all energy in FY 1988. Some localities had been denuded of firewood, forcing the local population to use commercial energy sources, such as kerosene or charcoal. Domestic sources of commercial energy accounted for 77 percent of all commercial energy in FY 1990. The major domestic energy resources are natural gas, oil, and hydroelectric power. The remainder of energy requirements are met by imports of oil and oil products.
Crude oil production increased sharply in the 1980s, from almost 4.0 million barrels in FY 1982 to 22.4 million barrels in FY 1992. This increase was the result of the discovery and development of new oil fields. Despite this expanded production, however, about 28 million barrels of crude oil were imported annually in the early 1990s. The production from domestic oil refineries also rose in the 1980s, reaching 42 million barrels annually in the early 1990s. However, oil products imports accounted for about 30 percent of the value of all oil imports.
Pakistan vigorously pursued oil exploration in the 1980s and early 1990s and made a number of new discoveries. In the early 1990s, the most productive oil field was at Dhurnal in Punjab, accounting for 21 percent of total output in FY 1993. The Badin area in southern Sindh was the site of a number of discoveries in the 1980s, and its proportion of total output has continued to increase over the years. In the early 1990s, more favorable terms on pricing and repatriation of profits stimulated the interest of foreign oil companies. About twenty foreign companies are engaged in oil exploration, but poor security for workers and property in remote areas of Balochistan and Sindh remains a significant constraint on foreign investment.
The large Sui natural gas field in Balochistan was discovered after independence. Production at Sui began in 1955 and peaked in 1985. In the early 1990s, it remained the nation's most productive gas field, accounting for 46 percent of production in FY 1993. The second largest gas field, also located in Balochistan at Mari, accounted for 20 percent of all production. Twenty-five gas fields were operational in FY 1993. Natural gas recoverable reserves were estimated at 662.0 billion cubic meters, with an extraction rate in the early 1990s of around 14.0 billion cubic meters, up from 9.3 billion cubic meters in FY 1982 and 1.3 billion cubic meters in FY 1970.
Natural gas pipelines, in which the government owns controlling shares, link the Sui gas field and a few others to the main population centers and the major crude oil production areas. The southern pipeline leads from Sui to Hyderabad and Karachi, and a spur supplies Quetta. The northern pipeline branches at Faisalabad. One branch goes a little farther north of Lahore; the other branch is connected to the crude oil fields and supplies gas to Islamabad and Peshawar. There are plans for a new gas pipeline through which Iran would export natural gas to Pakistan.
Coal reserves were boosted substantially in May 1992 when a large coal field was discovered in the Thar Desert in Sindh. In early 1993, these reserves were estimated at 17 billion tons. However, much of Pakistan's coal has a low calorific value and a high ash and sulfur content, which limits its value. Output was 1.3 million tons in FY 1992, down from 1.8 million tons in FY 1982. The bulk of production is from small, privately owned mines whose owners generally lack funds, expertise, and interest in expanding output. A public-sector firm, the Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation, accounted for about one-fifth of output in the early 1990s. The corporation has six operational mines--at Degari, Sor Range, and Sharigh in Balochistan; Lakhra and Meting in Sindh; and at the Makerwal/Gullakhel complex straddling the border between Punjab and the North-West Frontier Province.
Hydroelectric power is an important domestic primary energy resource, and hydroelectric potential is estimated at around 10,000 megawatts. A large number of additional sites with major potential exist in the mountainous north, but the difficulty of access and the high cost of transmission to the populous south make development a distant prospect. A large proportion of hydrogenerators are located at two large multipurpose dams. The Tarbela Dam located on the Indus River in the North-West Frontier Province has an installed capacity of 2,164 megawatts, and the Mangla Dam situated on the Jhelum River in Azad Kashmir has an installed capacity of 800 megawatts.
In 1965 Pakistani officials contracted with the Canadian government for the supply of a 125-megawatt pressurized, heavy-water nuclear reactor, which in 1972 became operational near Karachi. This was Pakistan's only nuclear power plant in 1994, and its operating record is poor. In 1983 plans for a nuclear plant at Chashma, on the Indus River in Punjab, about 240 kilometers south of Islamabad, were announced. The construction of this plant was delayed, in part because of the reluctance of foreign governments to supply needed fuel and technology because of concern over possible military use of the atomic energy program. In 1993 Pakistani officials expected the plant to open in 1997 with a capacity of 300 megawatts. China is providing the necessary technology and materials for the Chashma plant. Pakistani officials expect that fuel for the plant will be provided by the uranium enrichment plant at Kahuta near Islamabad. Some observers, however, believe it is unlikely that the plant will be ready in 1997.
In FY 1992, the country had a total installed generating capacity of 9,293 megawatts, of which approximately 62.7 percent was thermal, 35.9 percent hydroelectric, and 1.5 percent nuclear. In FY 1991, industry consumed 34.2 of percent of electricity, households 31.7 percent, agriculture 21.4 percent, commercial businesses 4.3 percent, and other users 8.3 percent. A rural electrification program increased the number of villages having electricity from around 14,000 in FY 1983 to nearly 41,000 in FY 1992, leaving only about 5,000 villages without electricity. After the late 1970s, considerable improvement was made in transmission facilities. By 1983 a grid connected generators and urban centers of the more populous areas, largely in Punjab and Sindh. Installations of high-voltage transmission lines and other facilities helped reduce power losses. Nonetheless, in 1993 the World Bank estimated that 28 percent of electricity generated in Pakistan was diverted illegally in transmission and distribution, and even the government puts this figure at 12 percent.
In 1993 the government planned a rapid increase of generating capacity, in part through the expansion of existing hydroelectric and thermal units and in part through the construction of new plants. Nonetheless, observers expected shortages of electricity to continue in the early 1990s and probably longer. In much of 1993, both urban and rural areas experienced three power cuts a day lasting a total of around two hours. Industrial and commercial users are required to reduce consumption by an even greater amount, and they risk being disconnected if they violate "agreed-on levels." Peak demand for electricity is estimated to exceed the supply by around 30 percent.
In 1991 the power sector was opened to private capital, both foreign and domestic. In that year, a World Bank consortium that included investors from Britain, Saudi Arabia, and the United States agreed to finance a project for a new US$1.3 billion, 1,292 megawatt oil-fired power station at Hub Chowki in Balochistan, forty-eight kilometers west of Karachi. Construction began in September 1992. The consortium is responsible for the construction and operation of the power station, while its output is sold to the national grid. In 1992 the government announced plans to privatize the Water and Power Development Authority's thermal plants and area electricity boards, but in 1994 legal and political obstacles prevented implementation of this policy.
Some development of renewable energy sources has been undertaken, primarily for rural areas so isolated they would not otherwise have electricity in the foreseeable future. The aim is to upgrade village life while lowering urban migration, reducing reliance on firewood, and providing power to pump water for irrigation where possible. For example, a small family-owned biogas plant uses human and animal waste (from three or four water buffalo, for example) to produce around 2.8 to 4.2 cubic meters of gas a day for heating and lighting. Larger biogas plants serve a number of homes or a village. Construction costs are too high for most villagers unless the government underwrites installation.

Environmental issues of Pakistan

Environmental issues of Pakistan 

• 1. Environmental issues of Pakistan 
• 2. Environment• An "environment" is the whole of surrounding things OR• the surroundings of humankind
• 3. Environmental issues of Pakistan• A variety of environmental problems now affect our Pakistan. As globalization continues and the earths natural processes transform local problems into international issues.
• 4. Environmental issues of Pakistan• Some of the largest problems now affecting the Pakistan are:• Acid Rain• Air Pollution• Global Warming• Hazardous Waster• Ozone Depletion• Smog• Water Pollution• Overpopulation• Rain Forest Destruction
• 5. AIR POLLUTIONEvery day, the average person inhales about 20,000 liters of air. Every time we breathe, we risk inhaling dangerous chemicals that have found their way into the air.Air pollution includes all contaminants found in the atmosphere. These dangerous substances can be either in the form of gases or particles.
• 6. Air pollution can be found • producing increasing both outdoors and amounts of pollution as indoors. Pollutants can time has progressed, and be trapped inside they now account for the buildings, causing majority of pollutants indoor pollution that released into the air. lasts for a long time.The sources of air pollution are both natural and human-based. As one might expect, humans have been
• 7. Fundamental Causes of Air Pollution• Industrialization set in motion the widespread use of fossil fuels which are now the main drivers of pollution as we know it.
• 8. • Population growth causes the demand for food and other goods to go up, which is met by expanded production and use of natural resources. This then leads to higher levels of atmospheric pollution.
• 9. • Globalization has in a way become a facilitator of air pollution. Big industry takes advantage of lax environmental controls in developing nations and moves its manufacturing facilities to such “pollution havens” from where air pollution travels around the world without any obstacles.
• 10. Air Pollution EffectsAtmospheric pollution would be such a bigproblem, its harmful effects on humans, animals, trees and the wider environment.Air pollutants enter the body primarily through the respiratory system which thus becomes their main victim.Each air pollutant exerts their own specific adverse impacts, ranging from mild to really damaging.

MAJOR ISSUES ON ENVIRONMENT OF PAKISTAN

ISLAMABAD (MEDIA)
A safe environment is prerequisite for healthy life. Major environmental issues currently confronting Pakistan include water, energy, pollution and waste management, salinity and water logging, irrigated agriculture, biodiversity and climate change. Pakistan being one of the most urbanized countries of the region is facing overall deterioration in all these areas.
Environmental hazards have become a major global issue in of this century. Rapid economic development and manmade interference to the natural systems are the main reasons behind this problem. To address this issue, the initial step is to monitor the extent of these hazards.
The Institute of Space Technology (IST), Karachi Campus in collaboration with National Space Agency (SUPARCO), organized a Five Days short training on Integrating Ground Based Methods and Spatial Techniques for Environmental Monitoring, from 24-28 October, at its National Centre For Remote Sensing and Geo-Informatics Karachi, for sensitizing the above mentioned issues. The Institute of Space Technology, established in year 2002 offers graduate and undergraduate programs in a number of specialized fields of engineering and science. The objective of this course is to train various stakeholders in an area where integrated approach utilizing geospatial and ground based monitoring techniques are required to address environmental issues.
Recent advances in application of Satellite Remote Sensing (RS) for environmental monitoring have provided the capacity to acquire the needful information at spatial and temporal scales. Through integrating Remote Sensing data with ground based data, an advanced approach to study environmental issues are now possible. SUPARCO has been actively promoting uses of space science and technology for the socio economics uplift in the country as well as in the Ummah. Its research and application programs cover remote sensing for earth resources and environmental studies.
The course was inaugurated by Imran Iqbal, Member Space Applications and Research of SUPARCO. A number of participants hailing from brotherly Islamic countries are participating in is course.
This training program encompassed a number of areas such as Environmental Issues (both local and Global), Environmental Monitoring and Impact Assessment, Introduction to Satellite System and their Application,
Satellite Based Environmental Monitoring, GIS for Water Resources using hydrological, model Arc Hydro (ESRI Software), Snow and Glacier Monitoring and Modeling, Environmental problems of Pakistan and their Solutions (success stories by environmental experts of Pakistan), Hands on Exercises using Remote Sensing, GIS and Hydrologic Software.

Pakistan-Climate

Pakistan lies in the temperate zone. The climate is generally arid, characterized by hot summers and cool or cold winters, and wide variations between extremes of temperature at given locations. There is little rainfall. These generalizations should not, however, obscure the distinct differences existing among particular locations. For example, the coastal area along the Arabian Sea is usually warm, whereas the frozen snow-covered ridges of the Karakoram Range and of other mountains of the far north are so cold year round that they are only accessible by world-class climbers for a few weeks in May and June of each year.

Pakistan has are four seasons: a cool, dry winter from December through February; a hot, dry spring from March through May; the summer rainy season, or southwest monsoon period, from June through September; and the retreating monsoon period of October and November. The onset and duration of these seasons vary somewhat according to location.

The climate in the capital city of Islamabad varies from an average daily low of 2° C in January to an average daily high of 40° C in June. Half of the annual rainfall occurs in July and August, averaging about 255 millimeters in each of those two months. The remainder of the year has significantly less rain, amounting to about fifty millimeters per month. Hailstorms are common in the spring.

Pakistan's largest city, Karachi, which is also the country's industrial center, is more humid than Islamabad but gets less rain. Only July and August average more than twenty-five millimeters of rain in the Karachi area; the remaining months are exceedingly dry. The temperature is also more uniform in Karachi than in Islamabad, ranging from an average daily low of 13° C during winter evenings to an average daily high of 34° C on summer days. Although the summer temperatures do not get as high as those in Punjab, the high humidity causes the residents a great deal of discomfort.

Most areas in Punjab experience fairly cool winters, often accompanied by rain. Woolen shawls are worn by women and men for warmth because few homes are heated. By mid-February the temperature begins to rise; springtime weather continues until mid-April, when the summer heat sets in. The onset of the southwest monsoon is anticipated to reach Punjab by May, but since the early 1970s the weather pattern has been irregular. The spring monsoon has either skipped over the area or has caused it to rain so hard that floods have resulted. June and July are oppressively hot. Although official estimates rarely place the temperature above 46° C, newspaper sources claim that it reaches 51° C and regularly carry reports about people who have succumbed to the heat. Heat records were broken in Multan in June 1993, when the mercury was reported to have risen to 54° C. In August the oppressive heat is punctuated by the rainy season, referred to as barsat, which brings relief in its wake. The hardest part of the summer is then over, but cooler weather does not come until late October.

Pakistan-Pollution and Environmental Issues

Little attention was paid to pollution and environmental issues in Pakistan until the early 1990s. Related concerns, such as sanitation and potable water, received earlier scrutiny. In 1987 only about 6 percent of rural residents and 51 percent of urban residents had access to sanitary facilities; in 1990 a total of 97.6 million Pakistanis, or approximately 80 percent of the population, had no access to flush toilets. Greater success has been achieved in bringing potable water within reach of the people; nearly half the population enjoyed such access by 1990. However, researchers at the Pakistan Medical Research Council, recognizing that a large proportion of diseases in Pakistan are caused by the consumption of polluted water, have been questioning the "safe" classification in use in the 1990s. Even the 38 percent of the population that receives its water through pipelines runs the risk of consuming seriously contaminated water, although the problem varies by area. In Punjab, for example, as much as 90 percent of drinking water comes from groundwater, as compared with only 9 percent in Sindh.
The central government's Perspective Plan (1988-2003) and previous five-year plans do not mention sustainable development strategies (see Development Planning , ch. 3). Further, there have been no overarching policies focused on sustainable development and conservation. The state has focused on achieving selfsufficiency in food production, meeting energy demands, and containing the high rate of population growth, not on curtailing pollution or other environmental hazards.
In 1992 Pakistan's National Conservation Strategy Report attempted to redress the previous inattention to the nation's mounting environmental problem. Drawing on the expertise of more than 3,000 people from a wide array of political affiliations, the government produced a document outlining the current state of environmental health, its sustainable goals, and viable program options for the future (see National Conservation Goals , this ch.).
Of special concern to environmentalists is the diminishing forest cover in watershed regions of the northern highlands, which has only recently come under close scrutiny. Forest areas have been thoughtlessly denuded. Deforestation, which occurred at an annual rate of 0.4 percent in 1989-90, has contributed directly to the severity of the flooding problem faced by the nation in the early 1990s.
As industry has expanded, factories have emitted more and more toxic effluents into the air and water. The number of textile and food processing mills in rural Punjab has grown greatly since the mid-1970s, resulting in pollution of its rivers and irrigation canals. Groundwater quality throughout the country has also suffered from rapidly increasing use of pesticides and fertilizers aimed at promoting more intensive cropping and facilitating self-sufficiency in food production.
The National Conservation Strategy Report has documented how solid and liquid excreta are the major source of water pollution in the country and the cause of widespread waterborne diseases. Because only just over half of urban residents have access to sanitation, the remaining urban excreta are deposited on roadsides, into waterways, or incorporated into solid waste. Additionally, only three major sewage treatment plants exist in the country; two of them operate intermittently. Much of the untreated sewage goes into irrigation systems, where the wastewater is reused, and into streams and rivers, which become sewage carriers at low-flow periods. Consequently, the vegetables grown from such wastewater have serious bacteriological contamination. Gastroenteritis, widely considered in medical circles to be the leading cause of death in Pakistan, is transmitted through waterborne pollutants (see Health and Welfare , this ch.).
Low-lying land is generally used for solid waste disposal, without the benefit of sanitary landfill methods. The National Conservation Strategy has raised concerns about industrial toxic wastes also being dumped in municipal disposal areas without any record of their location, quantity, or toxic composition. Another important issue is the contamination of shallow groundwater near urban industries that discharge wastes directly into the ground.
Water in Karachi is so contaminated that almost all residents boil it before consuming it. Because sewerage and water lines have been laid side by side in most parts of the city, leakage is the main cause of contamination. High levels of lead also have been found in water in Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Air pollution has also become a major problem in most cities. There are no controls on vehicular emissions, which account for 90 percent of pollutants. The National Conservation Strategy Report claims that the average Pakistani vehicle emits twenty-five times as much carbon monoxide, twenty times as many hydrocarbons, and more than three and one-half times as much nitrous oxide in grams per kilometer as the average vehicle in the United States.
Another major source of pollution, not mentioned in the National Conservation Strategy Report, is noise. The hyperurbanization experienced by Pakistan since the 1960s has resulted in loose controls for heavy equipment operation in densely populated areas, as well as in crowded streets filled with buses, trucks, automobiles, and motorcycles, which often honk at each other and at the horse-drawn tongas (used for transporting people) and the horse-drawn rehras (used for transporting goods).