A world summit on climate change is taking place in Paris and Pakistan’s PM is attending the moot to discuss the potential affects of the climate change for the human life and future of earth. There are numerous areas that affect directly from climate change and ultimately indirectly affect human life and the eco-system on earth. But the potentially most dangerous areas that might directly get hit by the climate change, especially in developing countries are human-health and food supply. A global assessment of potential affects of climate change on world food supply suggests that doubling of the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration will lead to only a small decrease in global crop production. But developing countries are likely to bear the burnt of the problem and simulation of the effect of adaptive measures by farmer imply that these will do little to reduce the disparity between the developed and developing countries.
The World Health Organisation estimates that the warming and precipitation trends, due to anthropogenic climate change of the past 30 years already claim over 150,000 lives annually. Many prevalent human diseases are linked to climate fluctuations, from cardiovascular mortality and respiratory illnesses due to heat waves, to altered transmission of infectious diseases and malnutrition from crop failures. Uncertainty remains in attributing the expansion or resurgence of diseases to climate change, owing to lack of long-term, high-quality data sets as well as the large influence of socio-economic factors and changes in immunity and drug resistance. The growing evidence that climate–health relationships pose increasing health risks under future projections of climate change and that the warming trend over recent decades has already contributed to increased morbidity and mortality in many regions of the world. Potentially vulnerable regions include the temperate latitudes, which are projected to warm disproportionately, the regions around the Pacific and Indian oceans that are currently subjected to large rainfall variability due to the El Niño/Southern Oscillation sub-Saharan Africa and sprawling cities where the urban heat island effect could intensify extreme climatic events.
The extreme heat waves have already touched the sindh coasts as in Karachi many deaths were occurred due to this phenomena last year as the government functionaries were got aback of all this sudden change in the climate. Hence this is becoming very evident that we can be able to cope with the crises if occurred owing to environmental changes. The better way is to take some pre preemptive steps to at least delay such affects to touch this part of the earth.
Unfortunately the government back in this country can be bracketed as most oblivious government in the world of the affects of climate change. Just imagine that a country which is most affected of deforestation and its total forests have been reduced to the dangerous level of below 5% of total area whereas the minimum of forest should have not been less than 25% is governed by the people who are greatly interested in constructing bus terminals and motorways even without any study of their demand and supply yardsticks what to say from environmental points of view. Such projects are started with some whimsical approaches as it looks that in the night the king sees a dream and in morning issues sermon to its courtiers to bring it into the reality come what may? No proper planning is carried out; no feasibility study is done; no pros and cons are taken into consideration. Their only passion becomes to see their dreams converting in reality as early as possible. Thousand of trees and many forests are ruthlessly cut in implementing such projects but very little is thought about to minimize the damage. Ultimately it is environment that affects beyond proportionate, but who cares?
ABDUL SAMAD CHANNA,
Karachi, December 2.