Global Warning
English Essay on "Global Warning" - Compositions on "Global Warning"
Anything surrounding man is his environment. The environment consists of four segments: lithosphere, hydrosphere, biosphere and atmosphere. During the course of evolution each of these four spheres was affected by interactions with the other three and with energy supplied by solar radiation or by heat escaping from below the crust.
lithosphere is the outer mantle of the solid earth, consisting of minerals occurring in the earth’s crust and the soil. The soil is the most important part of the lithosphere.
Hydrosphere includes all types of water resources; oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, canals, reservoirs, glaciers, polar icecaps and ground water. The oceans supply about 97 per cent of the earth water whereas polar ice caps provide al out 2 per cent of water. However, only 1 per cent of fresh water (surface water-rivers, lakes canals and ground water) is available for drinking purposes and other uses. The environment, which supports life and sustains various activities, is generally known as the biosphere.
Biosphere is a shallow layer compared to the total size of the earth and extends to about 20 km from bottom of the ocean to the highest point in the atmosphere at which life could survive without man-made protective devices. Not only the basic necessities of life but present day human technology and other human aids are also supplied by the biosphere.
Around the biosphere there is protective blanket of various gases called the atmosphere which sustains life on earth, controls weather and saves it from hostile environments of outer space. The total mass of the atmosphere is 5.1 x 1018 Kg, which is roughly one millionth of the earth total mass. The atmosphere is nearly within 90 km of the earth surface and is strongly word by the earth by the force of gravitation. educationsight.blogspot.com In this way the nature has saved its constituent gases. There is considerable variation of temperature (from 100-1200°C) with height, thereby, dividing the atmosphere into four regions, i.e., troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere.
Troposphere is the region next to the geosphere of the earth with an average thickness of 11 km and contains 70 per cent of the mass of atmosphere. The troposphere is more or less homogeneous, mainly due to constant movement of the air. The sphere shows negative lapse rate, i.e., temperature falls off uniformly with increasing altitude (15 to -56°C). The cold layer at the top of the troposphere is called the tropopause within which there is no fall of temperature with increasing height.
Next to troposphere s stratosphere (-56 to -2°C) which ranges from 11 km to 50 km. Stratosphere is followed by mesosphere (-2 to -92°C) which ranges from 50-85 km and above mesosphere is the thermosphere (85-500 km) with maximum temperature up to 1200°C. The region above the stratosphere ranging up to 350 km is also called as chemosphere and ionosphere due to the presence of molecular and ionic charged species, respectively.
Allah has gifted man with heart and brain. He is conquering the universe. With the unveiling of new techniques and development of new eras in all fields of life, man has improved his ways of living and is passing a luxurious life. He is doing all this at the expense of his own environment. Bernard Shaw was justified to say that science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating ten more. Really, man is attacking nature on two fronts, on one side, he is producing millions of tons of gases and chemicals which the system is not capable of assimilation and, on the other side, he is destroying earth’s support system. Now the question arises what would happen if this beautiful biosphere is polluted. The answer is simple: the world would come to an end and life disappear. Yet mart is doing all this, slowly and unconsciously changing chemistry of the atmosphere, conducting an unintended, uncontrolled and globally pervasive experiment whose ultimate consequences would be the end of life. In the Holy Quran, Allah says:
Whatever good, (0’ man!) happens to three, s from Allah, but whatever evil happens to thee is from thy (own) soul. (‘Sura Nisaa).
In fact today the scale of man’s activities and the pace of their development have now reached the point where their cumulative effects on the environment are undermining the delicate natural and geophysical equilibrium of the entire planet. “We nuclear people have made a Faustian Compact with society: We offer an inexhaustible energy source tainted with potential side effects that, if uncontrolled, could spell disaster.”
The severity of the problem is increasing day by day, and for the first time in his entire cultural history, man is facing one of the most horrible ecological crises, the global warming, threatening the survival of mankind on earth. Numerous evidences collected by satellites suggest that there are four culprits endangering heat balance of the world. These are: the green house effect, the population growth, the man-made destroyers, deforestation and desertification. Let us briefly look into each one of these phenomena.
Green House Effect:
The phenomenon of global warming is quite simple. The earth takes a heat bath daily. Some of the sun’s heat is absorbed, but most of it is radiated to the atmosphere. The atmosphere, however, effectively acts as a thermal blanket and blocks a large fraction of this energy. The chemical composition of the atmosphere plays a primordial role in the thermal balance of the earth surface. This delicate balance is governed by solar radiations and is highly sensitive to the concentrations of certain low level gases such as carbon dioxide (C02), water vapour (H20), nitrous oxides (N20), ozone (03) and methane (CH4) called as “green house gases”. These gases occur naturally in the atmosphere and serve useful purpose in nature. They help maintain the global temperature at 15°C and sustain millions of animal and plant species on the earth. Without these gases earth would be as cold and lifeless as Mars in the solar system. So these gases are n quite undesirable. It is their secret surge due to man s activity, however, that is threatening energy balance on the earth.
The effect of earth warming caused by carbon dioxide and other green house gases is called as “green house effect”. (Carbon dioxide thus acts like the glass of a green house and on a global scale, tends to warm the air in the lower levels of the atmosphere). Now the question ai4ses what is the role of these gases in global warming. The answer is that they allow the radiations with short wavelength (ultraviolet) from the sun to penetrate the earth but prevent the heat of longer wavelength radiations (infrared) which the earth radiates from escaping the atmosphere. We can thus say that these gases act as a kind of one way thermal barrier by allowing heat from the sun to enter the atmosphere, but preventing it from leaving, thereby warming the earth’s atmosphere, land masses and accession.
Carbon dioxide is the most abundant of all gases (325 ppm). It has the minimum heat trapping ability, yet its quantity being released in the air makes it the most important of all. It is essential for life on earth. But any disruption in its natural cycle or level of concentration may have serious consequences.
During the last 32years it has been rising roughly at the rate of 1 ppm per year. From 315 ppm in 1958 it has risen to 355 ppm in the mid 1995. Its concentration is increasing chiefly as a result of burning fossil fuels --wood, coal, natural gas and oil and organic matter but also due to massive deforestation of large areas of the earth. IL is thought that if the energy use continues at the same rate, the CO2 in the air is expected to reach 600 ppm by the year 2050, raising earth’s temperature by 3 to 9 degrees. Other naturally occurring gases such as methane (CH4) whose known source is bacteria marshes, animals. This gas be increasing three times faster than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: Nitrous oxide (N20) or laughing gas produced by microbes living in the soil and water, by nitrogen fertilizers or by burning fossil fuels. Similarly, water vapours (obtained by various physico-chemical processes) and ground level ozone (produced by falling strong sunlight on carbon monoxide) are also responsible for green house effect. however, these are released in lesser quantities than GO2, but their warming effect. I far greater. They can, therefore, make significant effect even in smaller amounts.
Man-Made Destroyers:
Other heat trapping gases such as chlorofluorocarbons are exclusively man-made chemical products, which are also adding to the atmosphere burden of green house gases. They are extremely high heat absorbent, 10,000 times as much as C02, they can and already account20 per cent of warming effect. They were once considered ideal industrial chemicals because they are cheap, inert, non-toxic, non-flammable and highly stable (life time 139 years). They are extensively used to cool refrigerators and air conditioners, propel aerosol sprays, clean computer chips. These chlorofluorocarbons include Ferons (also called as Geons, Genetrons or Arctons: freon-11 (CFCI3), freon-12 (CF2CI2), freon-21 (CHCI2F), freon-142 (CH3CCIF2) and halons 1211 (CF2BrC1), 1301 (CF3Br) and 2402 (C2F4Br2). They are the worst offenders and are not only actively contributing to the green house effect but also destroying ozone in the stratosphere. The ozone layer surrounding the earth at high altitude is vital for the continued existence of all life on earth, protecting mankind from extremely harmful short wavelength radiations (UV-B in particular). Such radiation has deleterious effects on human health causing skin cancer, cataracts or even blindness, genetic damage and changes in immune system. It is also harmful for plants and sea life.
Population Growth:
Another major contributing factor towards environmental destruction is a Dooms Day increase in the population growth. According to a survey, the population will increase to 6 billion in 2000. By the year 2050 the globe will have to accommodate 10 billion people, 4.3 billion more than today. This increase is due to advance technology in the field of medicine and increasing facilities of food, fuel and fiber. However, the rate of population growth is much higher than the available facilities of the various accessories of life. This population explosion has deleterious effect on our environment. Growing population is pumping more pollutants into the atmosphere, piling up more trash and driving more species to extinction. Population increases the energy consumption and the energy consumption and the energy consumption world-wide has now reached 10 billion tonnes of coal equivalent (tce) per year as compared to 800 million tce in 1900. Over 80 per cent of this energy is generated by burning fossil fuels (40 per, cent, 24 per cent and 17 per cent from oil, coal and gas, respectively) which releases about 20 billion tonnes 002. The overwhelming magnitude of this figure provides some measure of the size of the problem.
Sustainable Population Growth:
Investing in people is the key to sustained economic growth and sustainable development, as well as to balanced, sustained population growth, says this year’s State of the World Population report from UNFPL4, the United Nations Population Fund. Pakistan is well below the 41 per cent South Asian average of couples using contraceptives. There is, therefore, a very high rate of unplanned pregnancies in Pakistan which directly affect women’s life chances. Pakistan, amongst several other countries, acknowledged the urgency to review its existing policies and programmes and bring them in line with the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) recommendations. The ICPD held in Cairo in September 1994, was a landmark in a new era of population and development, where a Programme of Action was adopted placing human beings, as opposed to human numbers, at the centre of all development activities. It was agreed that global problems would be addressed through meeting individual needs by the international community.
The 20-year goals for expanded access to education, particularly for girls, reduced mortality rates and increased access to quality reproductive health services, are the key to social and economic development, as well as to population growth rates that the world can accommodate. Population development must be based on taking into consideration individual perspectives, especially the full and equal participation of women. In fact, NGO activity in Pakistan after the ICPD has become significantly higher.. The report, in accordance with the principles of the ICPD Programme of Action, also calls for gender equity and equality, making it possible for women to have and exercise choices, where reproductive health care is available throughout the world. Although the report recognises the progress made over the last 30 years regarding lower birth and death rates, as well as reduced infant mortality and increased life expectancy, great disparities continue to exist among countries and regions. The common perception that religion may erect stumbling blocks in the way of adopting the Programme of Action was dispelled with the Islamic Republic of Iran initiating “a Series of activities in furtherance of the Programme of Action;” This was important from Pakistan’s point of view as it could herald a new era where population planning is actively pointed by the government and NGO’s. The report also highlights that although education levels have risen and the gap between males and females has narrowed, out of the approximately 960 million illiterate persons in the world, at least two-thirds of them are women which accounts for their low economic status. Pakistan, as a case in point is no exception. Maternal death rates are 15 to 50 times greater in the developing countries, where half a million women die each year as a consequence of pregnancy and childbirth, most of which could be prevented. Furthermore, access to family planning, contraceptive use and average family size also vary from ‘countries and regions.’ An estimated 120 million women would practise family planning if it were acceptable to their partners, families and communities, in fact some 350 million couples lack access to a comprehensive family planning system, and its availability would not only reduce maternal morbidity and mortality, but would also prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HlV\AIDS According to the report, family planning services need to be integrated into a wider framework which address the overall health and well-beings of peop1e. Men should be encouraged to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behaviour, especially as the onset of sexual maturity and marriage increases. The international community is responding to the ICPD Programme of Action, where the United Nations is designing systems, such as the Population and Development Commission, to facilitate implementation. Bilateral agencies have also been revising their programmes and giving priority to the empowerment of women, emphasis on primary healthcare including reproductive health and on implementing the other recommendations of the Programme of Action. Throughout the world national programmes are being oriented to the new agenda and the process of converting international agreements on population and development priorities into national programmes of action is already, under way, concludes the report. However, the future depends on the follow-up arid implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, where all countries are urged to make family planning accessible through the primary healthcare system for all individuals of appropriate ages by no later than 2015. Financial resources required for this effort in developing countries and those economies in trans it are estimated at $17 billion for the year 2000, increasing to $2 1.7 billion by the year 2015. Developing countries will have to bear up to two-thirds of the cost themselves however, and the rest will come from external sources such as Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. The report argues that Cairo laid the foundations for population development, and with the blueprint for action in hand the mobilisation of financial, political, institutional and personal resources is under way. The relative success of the Cairo Conference will determine the quality of life.
Deforestation
Another factor contributing towards the build up in atmospheric CO2 is deforestation, because the timber is transformed into CO2 is either by being burned or through biological decomposition and subsequent oxidation. Similarly clearing of forests not only eliminates a huge reservoir for absorption of CO2 through photosynthesis but also makes the deforested land unsuitable for agriculture and becomes arid.
Carbon dioxide is a blessing if in low concentration (.0325%). In the atmosphere it acts like glass in a green house and lets the sun’s rays through to the Earth, but traps some of the heat that would otherwise be radiated back into the space. If there is none of this gas the Earth’s temperature would have been below 0°C. Natural level of the gas (325 ppm) keep it at a comfortable 15°C making the life possible. However, increase in its level has serious repercussions oh man’s ecology due to rising temperature of man’s environment.
Deleterious effects of global warming:
The implications of this warming for hundreds of million of people may be catastrophic: rise in sea level, prolonged drought, upheaval in the Earth’s general climate.
Rises in Sea Level:
The most complex super computer programmes called general circulation models (GCMs) project that the average surface temperature will warm by 2.8 to 5.5°C by middle of the next century, the time when scientists expect carbon dioxide and other green-house gases to reach at least double when they were in the 1950s. Rising of the sea level is the most predictable result of the global -warming. The sea level is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2mm a year. This rise in turn leads to coastal erosion, which has already reached worrying proportion in many areas of the world. The rise in sea level will be accelerated through the melting of glaciers and polar ice, cap, and thermal expansion of the ocean water as it becomes warmer. Scientists estimate that sea level will rise from ½ to 2 metres by the end of next cent provided the coastal ice shelves in Antarctica remain unaffected). However, if these glaciers slip, the sea level may rise from 5 to 6 metres before the end of next century. The rise in sea level would cause inundation of low-lying areas, for example, Coral Islands, Caribbean Nations, the Maldives Islands, towns and cities built on low-lying areas and the flat areas of river deltas. Even a small rise of sea level would cause a great damage to the world’s most densely-populated areas (Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Japan, the Nile delta, the Netherlands) found at sea level. The glories of Venice, Alexandria and toxic horrors of Canvey Island would be imperiled.
Deviation of Ocean Currents:
Changes to the world’s winds, rains and ocean currents are the most damaging. The Earth will heat up unevenly, the poles warming faster than the tropics. It will certainly change the weather dramatically. Storms will become more frequent as intensity of hurricanes is related to the temperature. The iain ocean currents have a major impact on the weather temperature, rainfall in the continents that they wash, and changes might have serious implications.
This rising temperature will have serious repercussions on agriculture, animal production kind human well-being. Hot weathers may lead to dry condition (drought and agriculture is likely to see major shifts in its present pattern. Rising temperature, however, will reduce crop yields and on the whole, food availability is expected to decline. Wildlife will also be affected. Areas inhabited by wildlife are increasingly being surrounded by developed and inhabited areas. It wil1 not to possible for plants to propagate their seeds and there will be no place where animals can shift.
Green Technology, Need of the Day:
Humanity is apparently heading towards self-destruction and the earth is standing at the brink of a havoc. The problem is overwhelming and will call for all nations to make extraordinary efforts ‘for a long period of time. The tasks as is seen difficult is taking its roots and is hoped will spread throughout the world. Keeping in view the “Rio Earth Summit” in 1992, where heads of state pledged to take action against such perils as global warming and destruction of wildlife, the entire humanity should go on a world-wide crusade to protect the air, the land and the seas. In the first instance preventive measures will have to be taken, .for example, emission of all green house gases will have To be reduced considerably and thereafter completely banned. Strict energy conservation and large scale reforestation is required at all latitudes. Population growth rate should be controlled. Measures should be taken for the efficient treatment of industrial wastes.
In recent years attention has been focused on the use of Green technology in eliminating/reducing these problems. This technology which is presently growing in developed countries should be transferred to developing and underdeveloped countries should be transferred to developing and underdeveloped countries. The economic upset will cause other serious problems in the developing nations, which already need improvement in education, earth, food etc., to stand in the row of developed countries. Plain old ammonia would be the most environmentally friendly coolant for commercial refrigeration. Portable solar cookers used in place of wood fires can be found in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Electricity is now produced from solar photovoltaic cells. There is thus need that the developed countries should sell this technology to the developing countries. And above all the solution lies in the education of the people and through public awareness. New laws have to be enacted to control the effluent and emission disposals from industries and vehicles. All nations should come forwards to handle these environmental threats in a unified way.
lithosphere is the outer mantle of the solid earth, consisting of minerals occurring in the earth’s crust and the soil. The soil is the most important part of the lithosphere.
Hydrosphere includes all types of water resources; oceans, seas, rivers, lakes, canals, reservoirs, glaciers, polar icecaps and ground water. The oceans supply about 97 per cent of the earth water whereas polar ice caps provide al out 2 per cent of water. However, only 1 per cent of fresh water (surface water-rivers, lakes canals and ground water) is available for drinking purposes and other uses. The environment, which supports life and sustains various activities, is generally known as the biosphere.
Biosphere is a shallow layer compared to the total size of the earth and extends to about 20 km from bottom of the ocean to the highest point in the atmosphere at which life could survive without man-made protective devices. Not only the basic necessities of life but present day human technology and other human aids are also supplied by the biosphere.
Around the biosphere there is protective blanket of various gases called the atmosphere which sustains life on earth, controls weather and saves it from hostile environments of outer space. The total mass of the atmosphere is 5.1 x 1018 Kg, which is roughly one millionth of the earth total mass. The atmosphere is nearly within 90 km of the earth surface and is strongly word by the earth by the force of gravitation. educationsight.blogspot.com In this way the nature has saved its constituent gases. There is considerable variation of temperature (from 100-1200°C) with height, thereby, dividing the atmosphere into four regions, i.e., troposphere, stratosphere, mesosphere and thermosphere.
Troposphere is the region next to the geosphere of the earth with an average thickness of 11 km and contains 70 per cent of the mass of atmosphere. The troposphere is more or less homogeneous, mainly due to constant movement of the air. The sphere shows negative lapse rate, i.e., temperature falls off uniformly with increasing altitude (15 to -56°C). The cold layer at the top of the troposphere is called the tropopause within which there is no fall of temperature with increasing height.
Next to troposphere s stratosphere (-56 to -2°C) which ranges from 11 km to 50 km. Stratosphere is followed by mesosphere (-2 to -92°C) which ranges from 50-85 km and above mesosphere is the thermosphere (85-500 km) with maximum temperature up to 1200°C. The region above the stratosphere ranging up to 350 km is also called as chemosphere and ionosphere due to the presence of molecular and ionic charged species, respectively.
Allah has gifted man with heart and brain. He is conquering the universe. With the unveiling of new techniques and development of new eras in all fields of life, man has improved his ways of living and is passing a luxurious life. He is doing all this at the expense of his own environment. Bernard Shaw was justified to say that science is always wrong. It never solves a problem without creating ten more. Really, man is attacking nature on two fronts, on one side, he is producing millions of tons of gases and chemicals which the system is not capable of assimilation and, on the other side, he is destroying earth’s support system. Now the question arises what would happen if this beautiful biosphere is polluted. The answer is simple: the world would come to an end and life disappear. Yet mart is doing all this, slowly and unconsciously changing chemistry of the atmosphere, conducting an unintended, uncontrolled and globally pervasive experiment whose ultimate consequences would be the end of life. In the Holy Quran, Allah says:
Whatever good, (0’ man!) happens to three, s from Allah, but whatever evil happens to thee is from thy (own) soul. (‘Sura Nisaa).
In fact today the scale of man’s activities and the pace of their development have now reached the point where their cumulative effects on the environment are undermining the delicate natural and geophysical equilibrium of the entire planet. “We nuclear people have made a Faustian Compact with society: We offer an inexhaustible energy source tainted with potential side effects that, if uncontrolled, could spell disaster.”
The severity of the problem is increasing day by day, and for the first time in his entire cultural history, man is facing one of the most horrible ecological crises, the global warming, threatening the survival of mankind on earth. Numerous evidences collected by satellites suggest that there are four culprits endangering heat balance of the world. These are: the green house effect, the population growth, the man-made destroyers, deforestation and desertification. Let us briefly look into each one of these phenomena.
Green House Effect:
The phenomenon of global warming is quite simple. The earth takes a heat bath daily. Some of the sun’s heat is absorbed, but most of it is radiated to the atmosphere. The atmosphere, however, effectively acts as a thermal blanket and blocks a large fraction of this energy. The chemical composition of the atmosphere plays a primordial role in the thermal balance of the earth surface. This delicate balance is governed by solar radiations and is highly sensitive to the concentrations of certain low level gases such as carbon dioxide (C02), water vapour (H20), nitrous oxides (N20), ozone (03) and methane (CH4) called as “green house gases”. These gases occur naturally in the atmosphere and serve useful purpose in nature. They help maintain the global temperature at 15°C and sustain millions of animal and plant species on the earth. Without these gases earth would be as cold and lifeless as Mars in the solar system. So these gases are n quite undesirable. It is their secret surge due to man s activity, however, that is threatening energy balance on the earth.
The effect of earth warming caused by carbon dioxide and other green house gases is called as “green house effect”. (Carbon dioxide thus acts like the glass of a green house and on a global scale, tends to warm the air in the lower levels of the atmosphere). Now the question ai4ses what is the role of these gases in global warming. The answer is that they allow the radiations with short wavelength (ultraviolet) from the sun to penetrate the earth but prevent the heat of longer wavelength radiations (infrared) which the earth radiates from escaping the atmosphere. We can thus say that these gases act as a kind of one way thermal barrier by allowing heat from the sun to enter the atmosphere, but preventing it from leaving, thereby warming the earth’s atmosphere, land masses and accession.
Carbon dioxide is the most abundant of all gases (325 ppm). It has the minimum heat trapping ability, yet its quantity being released in the air makes it the most important of all. It is essential for life on earth. But any disruption in its natural cycle or level of concentration may have serious consequences.
During the last 32years it has been rising roughly at the rate of 1 ppm per year. From 315 ppm in 1958 it has risen to 355 ppm in the mid 1995. Its concentration is increasing chiefly as a result of burning fossil fuels --wood, coal, natural gas and oil and organic matter but also due to massive deforestation of large areas of the earth. IL is thought that if the energy use continues at the same rate, the CO2 in the air is expected to reach 600 ppm by the year 2050, raising earth’s temperature by 3 to 9 degrees. Other naturally occurring gases such as methane (CH4) whose known source is bacteria marshes, animals. This gas be increasing three times faster than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere: Nitrous oxide (N20) or laughing gas produced by microbes living in the soil and water, by nitrogen fertilizers or by burning fossil fuels. Similarly, water vapours (obtained by various physico-chemical processes) and ground level ozone (produced by falling strong sunlight on carbon monoxide) are also responsible for green house effect. however, these are released in lesser quantities than GO2, but their warming effect. I far greater. They can, therefore, make significant effect even in smaller amounts.
Man-Made Destroyers:
Other heat trapping gases such as chlorofluorocarbons are exclusively man-made chemical products, which are also adding to the atmosphere burden of green house gases. They are extremely high heat absorbent, 10,000 times as much as C02, they can and already account20 per cent of warming effect. They were once considered ideal industrial chemicals because they are cheap, inert, non-toxic, non-flammable and highly stable (life time 139 years). They are extensively used to cool refrigerators and air conditioners, propel aerosol sprays, clean computer chips. These chlorofluorocarbons include Ferons (also called as Geons, Genetrons or Arctons: freon-11 (CFCI3), freon-12 (CF2CI2), freon-21 (CHCI2F), freon-142 (CH3CCIF2) and halons 1211 (CF2BrC1), 1301 (CF3Br) and 2402 (C2F4Br2). They are the worst offenders and are not only actively contributing to the green house effect but also destroying ozone in the stratosphere. The ozone layer surrounding the earth at high altitude is vital for the continued existence of all life on earth, protecting mankind from extremely harmful short wavelength radiations (UV-B in particular). Such radiation has deleterious effects on human health causing skin cancer, cataracts or even blindness, genetic damage and changes in immune system. It is also harmful for plants and sea life.
Population Growth:
Another major contributing factor towards environmental destruction is a Dooms Day increase in the population growth. According to a survey, the population will increase to 6 billion in 2000. By the year 2050 the globe will have to accommodate 10 billion people, 4.3 billion more than today. This increase is due to advance technology in the field of medicine and increasing facilities of food, fuel and fiber. However, the rate of population growth is much higher than the available facilities of the various accessories of life. This population explosion has deleterious effect on our environment. Growing population is pumping more pollutants into the atmosphere, piling up more trash and driving more species to extinction. Population increases the energy consumption and the energy consumption and the energy consumption world-wide has now reached 10 billion tonnes of coal equivalent (tce) per year as compared to 800 million tce in 1900. Over 80 per cent of this energy is generated by burning fossil fuels (40 per, cent, 24 per cent and 17 per cent from oil, coal and gas, respectively) which releases about 20 billion tonnes 002. The overwhelming magnitude of this figure provides some measure of the size of the problem.
Sustainable Population Growth:
Investing in people is the key to sustained economic growth and sustainable development, as well as to balanced, sustained population growth, says this year’s State of the World Population report from UNFPL4, the United Nations Population Fund. Pakistan is well below the 41 per cent South Asian average of couples using contraceptives. There is, therefore, a very high rate of unplanned pregnancies in Pakistan which directly affect women’s life chances. Pakistan, amongst several other countries, acknowledged the urgency to review its existing policies and programmes and bring them in line with the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) recommendations. The ICPD held in Cairo in September 1994, was a landmark in a new era of population and development, where a Programme of Action was adopted placing human beings, as opposed to human numbers, at the centre of all development activities. It was agreed that global problems would be addressed through meeting individual needs by the international community.
The 20-year goals for expanded access to education, particularly for girls, reduced mortality rates and increased access to quality reproductive health services, are the key to social and economic development, as well as to population growth rates that the world can accommodate. Population development must be based on taking into consideration individual perspectives, especially the full and equal participation of women. In fact, NGO activity in Pakistan after the ICPD has become significantly higher.. The report, in accordance with the principles of the ICPD Programme of Action, also calls for gender equity and equality, making it possible for women to have and exercise choices, where reproductive health care is available throughout the world. Although the report recognises the progress made over the last 30 years regarding lower birth and death rates, as well as reduced infant mortality and increased life expectancy, great disparities continue to exist among countries and regions. The common perception that religion may erect stumbling blocks in the way of adopting the Programme of Action was dispelled with the Islamic Republic of Iran initiating “a Series of activities in furtherance of the Programme of Action;” This was important from Pakistan’s point of view as it could herald a new era where population planning is actively pointed by the government and NGO’s. The report also highlights that although education levels have risen and the gap between males and females has narrowed, out of the approximately 960 million illiterate persons in the world, at least two-thirds of them are women which accounts for their low economic status. Pakistan, as a case in point is no exception. Maternal death rates are 15 to 50 times greater in the developing countries, where half a million women die each year as a consequence of pregnancy and childbirth, most of which could be prevented. Furthermore, access to family planning, contraceptive use and average family size also vary from ‘countries and regions.’ An estimated 120 million women would practise family planning if it were acceptable to their partners, families and communities, in fact some 350 million couples lack access to a comprehensive family planning system, and its availability would not only reduce maternal morbidity and mortality, but would also prevent the spread of sexually transmitted diseases and HlV\AIDS According to the report, family planning services need to be integrated into a wider framework which address the overall health and well-beings of peop1e. Men should be encouraged to take responsibility for their sexual and reproductive behaviour, especially as the onset of sexual maturity and marriage increases. The international community is responding to the ICPD Programme of Action, where the United Nations is designing systems, such as the Population and Development Commission, to facilitate implementation. Bilateral agencies have also been revising their programmes and giving priority to the empowerment of women, emphasis on primary healthcare including reproductive health and on implementing the other recommendations of the Programme of Action. Throughout the world national programmes are being oriented to the new agenda and the process of converting international agreements on population and development priorities into national programmes of action is already, under way, concludes the report. However, the future depends on the follow-up arid implementation of the ICPD Programme of Action, where all countries are urged to make family planning accessible through the primary healthcare system for all individuals of appropriate ages by no later than 2015. Financial resources required for this effort in developing countries and those economies in trans it are estimated at $17 billion for the year 2000, increasing to $2 1.7 billion by the year 2015. Developing countries will have to bear up to two-thirds of the cost themselves however, and the rest will come from external sources such as Japan, Germany and the United Kingdom. The report argues that Cairo laid the foundations for population development, and with the blueprint for action in hand the mobilisation of financial, political, institutional and personal resources is under way. The relative success of the Cairo Conference will determine the quality of life.
Deforestation
Another factor contributing towards the build up in atmospheric CO2 is deforestation, because the timber is transformed into CO2 is either by being burned or through biological decomposition and subsequent oxidation. Similarly clearing of forests not only eliminates a huge reservoir for absorption of CO2 through photosynthesis but also makes the deforested land unsuitable for agriculture and becomes arid.
Carbon dioxide is a blessing if in low concentration (.0325%). In the atmosphere it acts like glass in a green house and lets the sun’s rays through to the Earth, but traps some of the heat that would otherwise be radiated back into the space. If there is none of this gas the Earth’s temperature would have been below 0°C. Natural level of the gas (325 ppm) keep it at a comfortable 15°C making the life possible. However, increase in its level has serious repercussions oh man’s ecology due to rising temperature of man’s environment.
Deleterious effects of global warming:
The implications of this warming for hundreds of million of people may be catastrophic: rise in sea level, prolonged drought, upheaval in the Earth’s general climate.
Rises in Sea Level:
The most complex super computer programmes called general circulation models (GCMs) project that the average surface temperature will warm by 2.8 to 5.5°C by middle of the next century, the time when scientists expect carbon dioxide and other green-house gases to reach at least double when they were in the 1950s. Rising of the sea level is the most predictable result of the global -warming. The sea level is currently rising at a rate of approximately 2mm a year. This rise in turn leads to coastal erosion, which has already reached worrying proportion in many areas of the world. The rise in sea level will be accelerated through the melting of glaciers and polar ice, cap, and thermal expansion of the ocean water as it becomes warmer. Scientists estimate that sea level will rise from ½ to 2 metres by the end of next cent provided the coastal ice shelves in Antarctica remain unaffected). However, if these glaciers slip, the sea level may rise from 5 to 6 metres before the end of next century. The rise in sea level would cause inundation of low-lying areas, for example, Coral Islands, Caribbean Nations, the Maldives Islands, towns and cities built on low-lying areas and the flat areas of river deltas. Even a small rise of sea level would cause a great damage to the world’s most densely-populated areas (Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Japan, the Nile delta, the Netherlands) found at sea level. The glories of Venice, Alexandria and toxic horrors of Canvey Island would be imperiled.
Deviation of Ocean Currents:
Changes to the world’s winds, rains and ocean currents are the most damaging. The Earth will heat up unevenly, the poles warming faster than the tropics. It will certainly change the weather dramatically. Storms will become more frequent as intensity of hurricanes is related to the temperature. The iain ocean currents have a major impact on the weather temperature, rainfall in the continents that they wash, and changes might have serious implications.
This rising temperature will have serious repercussions on agriculture, animal production kind human well-being. Hot weathers may lead to dry condition (drought and agriculture is likely to see major shifts in its present pattern. Rising temperature, however, will reduce crop yields and on the whole, food availability is expected to decline. Wildlife will also be affected. Areas inhabited by wildlife are increasingly being surrounded by developed and inhabited areas. It wil1 not to possible for plants to propagate their seeds and there will be no place where animals can shift.
Green Technology, Need of the Day:
Humanity is apparently heading towards self-destruction and the earth is standing at the brink of a havoc. The problem is overwhelming and will call for all nations to make extraordinary efforts ‘for a long period of time. The tasks as is seen difficult is taking its roots and is hoped will spread throughout the world. Keeping in view the “Rio Earth Summit” in 1992, where heads of state pledged to take action against such perils as global warming and destruction of wildlife, the entire humanity should go on a world-wide crusade to protect the air, the land and the seas. In the first instance preventive measures will have to be taken, .for example, emission of all green house gases will have To be reduced considerably and thereafter completely banned. Strict energy conservation and large scale reforestation is required at all latitudes. Population growth rate should be controlled. Measures should be taken for the efficient treatment of industrial wastes.
In recent years attention has been focused on the use of Green technology in eliminating/reducing these problems. This technology which is presently growing in developed countries should be transferred to developing and underdeveloped countries should be transferred to developing and underdeveloped countries. The economic upset will cause other serious problems in the developing nations, which already need improvement in education, earth, food etc., to stand in the row of developed countries. Plain old ammonia would be the most environmentally friendly coolant for commercial refrigeration. Portable solar cookers used in place of wood fires can be found in countries from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Electricity is now produced from solar photovoltaic cells. There is thus need that the developed countries should sell this technology to the developing countries. And above all the solution lies in the education of the people and through public awareness. New laws have to be enacted to control the effluent and emission disposals from industries and vehicles. All nations should come forwards to handle these environmental threats in a unified way.
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