Essay on Climate Change in Pakistan for Students

Essay on Climate Change in Pakistan for Students

As per the World watch Institute,

Climate change holds a greater safety warning than Terrorism.

CONCEPTUALIZING THE PHENOMENON OF CLIMATE CHANGE

Before beginning to the main topic, let's understand first the concept of Climate and Climate Change. Climate is the anticipated weather condition at a given temperature over time. It can be

evaluated at many geographical scales- by such statistics as the average number of rainy days; average temperature etc. while Climate Change refers to the changes in these statistics( average no. of rainy days, temperature, etc)  over the years, decades, or even centuries.

As many of the climate scientists agree that human actions especially the flaming of fossil fuels (coal, oil, and gases) are accountable for most of the climate change.

HOW GREENHOUSE GASES AFFECT CLIMATE CHANGE?

Process of Green House Effect

Process Of GreenHouse Effect: When the Gardener used to grow non-seasonal plants under glass roof/ glass walls. Glass roof can trap temperature that can be increased or decreased as per the requirement. The greenhouse effect works much the same way on earth.

CO2 (Carbon dioxide) + CH4 (Methane) + N2O (Nitrusoxide)

These gases are responsible for the Green House Effect, known as Green House gases. It comes from using cheap oil and petrol in daily use vehicles. Smoke from vehicles or industries raises Green House Gases.

GREENHOUSE GASES RESULT IN GLOBAL WARMING

The Sun radiates heat the whole day when its time to release all-day heat to the atmosphere. Although a small amount of heat succeeded to get into the atmosphere the remaining amount of heat trap into these layers of greenhouse gases (GHG), not allowing heat towards the atmosphere it means radiated towards the earth back. As a result, Global warming occurs which means an increase in Earth’s average temperature over a long period.

According to the World Bank, List of Countries producing more CO2:

NAME OF COUNTRIES	% OF PRODUCTION OF CO2
China	29.4%
USA	14.3%
EEA	9.8%
India	6.8%
Russia	4.9%
Japan	3.5%
Rest of countries including Pakistan	31.5%

                             

According to the above-mentioned figures, Pakistan is considered as one of those countries which has the lowest contribution towards Green House Gases (GHG) emissions due to its low level of development but still Pakistan is one of the biggest victims of climate change.

THE COUNTRY OVERVIEW (PAKISTAN)

Pakistan is located just above the Tropic of Cancer records high summer temperatures and is among the hotter countries of the world. Pakistan can be classified as one of the aridest countries of the world, around 80% of the land is arid or semi-arid,12% is dry sub-humid and the rest 8% as humid. About 59% of annual rainfall is due to the monsoon season. The homes of about 180 Million people and probably a bigger portion is most in danger to climate change. Large numbers of inhabitants live in low coastal areas or river deltas where sea-level rise and flooding are the likeliest devastating consequences of rises in global temperatures as the climate shifts.

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CLIMATE CHANGE AFFECTED PAKISTAN OVER THE PAST FEW YEARS

Pakistan faced a tremendous loss of human lives, infrastructure, and natural resources over the past years. According to the Asian Development Bank, the figure below shows the disasters due to climate change in Pakistan:

YEAR	CITY/ DISTRICT	NATURAL DISASTERS DUE TO CLIMATE CHANGE	% OF OCCURENCE
2015	Karachi	Heat waves(stroke)	Took more than 1200 lives in Karachi.
2010(August)	Pakistan(southern Sindh, areas of Punjabnorth eastern Baluchistan)	Floods by monsoon	20million Pakistanis were directly affected (1/5 of Pakistan total land area)
2017 (August)	Karachi	Rainfall	Initially recorded 50mm, after 10 days it exceeded to 130mm
2018 (April)	Nawabshah in Sindh	Heatwaves	Recorded the highest temperature ever globally (50.4 degree Celsius)

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON AGRICULTURE, LIVESTOCK & FORESTRY SECTOR OF PAKISTAN

AGRICULTURE SECTOR OF PAKISTAN	LIVESTOCK SECTOR OF PAKISTAN	FORESTY SECTOR OF PAKISTAN
Agriculture sector contributes 21% to (GDP), irrigated areas with the percentage by province of 77% in Punjab, 14% in Sindh, 5% in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, and 4% in Baluchistan	Pakistan, the livestock sector contributes 56.3% of agriculture sector output and 11.8% to the national GDP, and supports more than 8 million rural families concerned directly in raising livestock.	Forests are vital natural resource particularly in the situation of rural livelihood. It provides timber, fuelwood, food, habitat for wildlife, and various important ecosystem services, such as mitigating carbon dioxide, and controlling or dropping cyclones and storms in coastal areas. Forest area in Pakistan is 4.19 MHz, representing 5% of the total land area.
It is estimated that with rise of temperature (+0.50C–20C), agricultural productivity will decrease by around 8%–10% by 2040.	Climate change affects dairy and livestock sector due to drought, floods, and ascend in temperature.	Amount of extreme events will affect the forest severely, threatening the biodiversity status, and soil class.

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON COASTAL AREAS OF PAKISTAN

It has been observed that inhabitants adjoining northern and coastal areas of Pakistan is witnessing the worst impacts of climate. In Sindh, due to climate change mangroves are disappearing, even land is being lost, as millions of hectares of land are lost due to sea intrusion. Fast depleting mangrove forests have made the coastal areas of Pakistan in danger to harsh climatic conditions especially cyclones, floods, sea-level rise. In the northern areas, the difficulty is glacial lake outbreak floods.

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON ENERGY SECTOR

Climate Change impact on Energy sector

In Pakistan, the Energy sector is the largest contributor to GHG emissions. In 2012, Energy sector emissions accounted for 46% of the total national GHG emissions inventory.

Presently, hydropower resources of Pakistan supply about 30% electricity and are expected to provide about 32.7 million kilowatts (kW) in 2030. The main impact of global warming is the recession of Himalayan glaciers that are the largest source of Freshwater supply in the country. Uncertain water resources will diminish the consistency of the hydro-electricity supply which is a meaningful source of the country’s power division, leading to the reduced reliability of the whole electricity generation system. Natural hazards due to climate change may harm Oil and Gas Infrastructure due to heavy rainfall leading to flooding.

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON HEALTH SECTOR

Climate change can distress both environmental and social factors of health—safe drinking water, clean air, sufficient food, and secure shelter. This may play out through severe heat events, natural disasters, and uneven rainfall patterns. With the go up of temperature, the possibility of water-borne diseases

also increases. Higher numbers of dengue and malaria cases are due to changes in temperature and serious rain, possibly resulting in the increased number of reproduction of mosquitoes.

CLIMATE CHANGE THREATENED LIVING STANDARD OF PAKISTANI CITIES

Climate Change Threatened Living Standard

Sindh Province including Sukkur district & Hyderabad district	1st most vulnerable hotspot	Sindh 2 nd largest economy of Pakistan contribute 30% to National GDP	Changes in precipitation and temperature threaten to hinder the future growth of this region
Punjab Province	2nd most vulnerable hotspot	Largest economy contributing 53.3% to national GDP

Climate change is a global threat so Pakistan is also among the list of countries ranked 8th highly vulnerable to climate change. Climate change is a reality; however, there is a little awareness in the public about it. To deal with climate change in Pakistan, the Government needs to take several steps including educating the masses, must build dams to reduce floods and increase water availability, increasing forestation, and introducing eco-friendly products such as cotton made toys.

“Climate change is not a political issue; it’s a moral and spiritual challenge to humankind"

          -Al Gore” (Environmentalist-2007)