Siachen: Pakistan's climate change challenge

Siachen & Pakistan's Environmental Troubles

A Study By Michael Kugelman Wednesday, May 10, 2012 - 11:12 AM

★ Last month, an avalanche (a massive slide of snow) on the Siachen glacier in Kashmir killed 124 Pakistani soldiers and 11 civilians. The tragedy has intensified debate about the logic of stationing Pakistani and Indian troops on such inhospitable region. And it has also brought attention to Pakistan's environmental insecurity.

★ Siachen is rife with glacial melt; one study concludes the icy peak has retreated nearly two kilometers in less than 20 years. Pakistan's United Nations representative, Hussain Haroon, contends that glacial recession on Pakistani mountains has increased by 23 percent over the past decade.

★ It has also been described as "the world's highest waste dump." Much of this waste-generated from soldiers' food, fuel, and equipment-eventually finds its way to the Indus River Basin, Pakistan's chief water source.

★ Siachen, in fact, serves as a microcosm of Pakistan's environmental troubles. The nation experiences record-breaking temperatures, torrential rains (nearly 60 percent of Pakistan's annual rainfall comes from monsoons), drought, and glacial melt . Experts estimate that about a quarter of Pakistan's land area and half of its population are vulnerable to climate change-related disasters. 

★ Sindh's environment minister said that millions of people across the province face "acute environmental threats."

What Is Inside The Earth ?

STRUCTURE OF THE EARTH
 
As far as we can tell, Earth is made up of layers, Geophysical studies have revealed that the Earth has several distinct layers. Each of these layers has its own properties. 

★ The outermost layer of the Earth is the crust. This comprises the continents and ocean basins. The crust has a variable thickness, being 35-70 km thick in the continents and 5-10 km thick in the ocean basins. The crust is composed mainly of alumino-silicates.

★ The next layer is the mantle, which is composed mainly of ferro-magnesium silicates. It is about 2900 km thick, and is separated into the upper and lower mantle. This is where most of the internal heat of the Earth is located. Large convective cells in the mantle circulate heat and may drive plate tectonic processes. 

 ★ At the center is the core, which is separated into the liquid outer core and the solid inner core. The outer core is 2300 km thick and the inner core is 1200 km thick. The outer core is composed mainly of a nickel-iron alloy, while the inner core is almost entirely composed of iron. The inner core heated to such a high temperature and subjected to such a great pressure that it nature can't be imagined. Rules of conventional physics just do not apply to the Earth's core. Earth's magnetic field is believed to be controlled by the liquid outer core.  


 

Earth: Its Begining

How Did The Earth Begin ?

★ The current theory of How the EARTH and other solar system formed is that it originated Back in the mists of time ___ Over 6,000 million years ago, as a cold cloud of gas and dust floating in Space. Even now, such clouds ___ called nebulae___ can be seen through astronomical telescopes.
★  At first , gravitational attraction caused the particles of nebulae to clump together and form a mass at the center. As the cloud contracted it began to spin, and centrifugal action flattened it out into a disc.
★ The  bulk of the gas and dust concentrated at the center and began to heat up. Then the ancestral Sun formed and it began to radiate energy to the rest of the solar system.
★ The disc of material around the embryo sun began to split up into rings and the matter or the rings. Accumulated into lumps. These were to form the planets, and the other solar system bodies.

 A GOOD ESTIMATE FOR THE TIME 

★ The Earth began at 9 am on 23 October 4004BC. These were the findings of Archbishop James Ussher (1581 - 1656), Archbishop of Armagh from 1625, who worked back from the dates in the Bible to find the actual time of the Creation as described in the book of Genesis. This figure was inserted as a footnote in the Authorized Version of the Bible until the nineteenth century.

A Fault In Mount Fuji, Japan

 Fault In Japan's Mount Fuji Could Trigger A 7 Richter Scale Earthquake  

★ (Reuters) - Japan's Mount Fuji may be sitting on a large, active fault that could trigger a magnitude-7 earthquake, changing the shape of the mountain and devastating nearby communities, the education ministry said on Thursday.

A survey commissioned by the ministry found a 30-km fault beneath Japan's highest mountain, believed by many to be sacred, and research results indicate it was likely to be active, a ministry official said.

If the fault sets off an earthquake, it could lead to a major landslide and hit communities at the foot of the 3,776-metre-high mountain. Further research was required, the official said.

Existence Of A New Unseen Planet

Unseen Planet Revealed by Its Gravity

★ (May 10, 2012) — More than a 150 years ago, before Neptune was ever sighted in the night sky, French mathematician Urbain Le Verrier predicted the planet's existence based on small deviations in the motion of Uranus. In a paper published May 10 in the journal Science online, a group of researchers led by Dr. David Nesvorny of Southwest Research Institute has inferred another unseen planet, this time orbiting a distant star, marking the first success of this technique outside the solar system.

New Weak Point Discovered in the Antarctic Ice Sheet

Antartctic Ice Sheet May Start Melting More Rapidly

(May 9, 2012) — The Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf fringing the Weddell Sea, Antarctica, may start to melt rapidly in this century and no longer act as a barrier for ice streams draining the Antarctic Ice Sheet. These predictions are made by climate researchers of the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in the Helmholtz Association in the journal Nature. They refute the widespread assumption that ice shelves in the Weddell Sea would not be affected by the direct influences of global warming due to the peripheral location of the Sea.

Dr. Hartmut Hellmer, oceanographer at the Alfred Wegener Institute and lead author of the study, and his colleagues Dr. Frank Kauker, Dr. Ralph Timmermann and Dr. Jürgen Determann as well as Dr. Jamie Rae from Met Office Hadley Centre, U.K, Using different model calculations, demonstrate that as a result of a chain reaction large ice masses could presumably slide into the ocean within the next six decades.

This chain reaction is triggered by rising air temperatures above the southeastern Weddell Sea. "Our models show that the warmer air will lead to the currently solid sea ice in the southern Weddell Sea becoming thinner and therefore more fragile and mobile in a few decades," says Frank Kauker.

Water: A Vital Resource

 Water: A Continually Renewable Resource 

Water is absolutely fundamental to life as we know it. It is difficult even to imagine a form of life that might exixt without water. Happily, Earth is virtually flooded with water.
 
★ A total volume of some 325 million cubic  miles ( 1.4 billion cubic kilometers ) covers 71% of Earth's surface.
★ About 97% of this volume is the salt water of oceans and seas.
★ The remaining 2.5% of this volume is Fresh Water with salt content less than 0.1% 
( 1,000 ppm ).
★ This is the water upon which most terrestrial biota, ecosystems , and humans depend.
★ Of 2.5%, though two-thirds is bound up in the polar ice caps and glaciers.
★ Thus only 0.77% of all water is found in lakes, wetland, rivers, ground water, biota, soil, and the atmosphere.
★ Nevertheless, evaporation from the oceans combines with precipitation to resupply that small percentage continually through the solar-powered hydrologic cycle as FRESH WATER is a continually renewable resource.    

Basic Units Of Ecosystem

Biodiveristy Impacts

Biodiversity and Other Environmental Issues 

(May 2, 2012) — Loss of biodiversity appears to impact ecosystems as much as climate change, pollution and other major forms of environmental stress, according to a new study from an international research team.

The study is the first comprehensive effort to directly compare the impacts of biological diversity loss to effects of other human-caused environmental changes.

"Loss of biological diversity due to species extinctions is going to have major impacts on our planet, and we better prepare ourselves to deal with them," said University of Michigan ecologist Bradley Cardinale, one of the authors. The study is scheduled for online publication in the journal Nature on May 2.

"These extinctions may well rank as one of the top five drivers of global change," said Cardinale, an assistant professor at the U-M School of Natural Resources and Environment and an assistant professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology.

Climatic Change Impacts

According to some studies, the Earth could warm another 2 to 11.5°F this century if  emissions from burning fossil fuels are not reduced  and deforestation rate remains the same.

Impacts of Climate Change On Earth Today

Loss Of Biodiversity
Thousands of species risk extinction from disappearing habitat, changing ecosystems and acidifying oceans. According to the IPCC, climate change will put some 20% to 30% of species globally at increasingly high risk of extinction, possibly by 2100.

Sea level is rising
During the 20th century, sea level rose about 15 cm (6 inches) due to melting glacier ice and expansion of warmer seawater. Models predict that sea level may rise as much as 59 cm (23 inches) during the 21st Century, threatening coastal communities, wetlands, and coral reefs.

Coral bleaching
Coral reefs are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature. Heat triggers corals to shed the algae that nourish them—a bleaching event that leaves coral white.

In 1998, the world's coral suffered its worst year on record, which left 16% bleached or dead.

Arctic sea ice Shrinkage
The summer thickness of sea ice is about half of what it was in 1950. Melting ice may lead to changes in ocean circulation. Plus melting sea ice is speeding up warming in the Arctic.
 

Satellite images show that the extent of Arctic summer sea ice has decreased by almost 9% per decade since 1979. 
The Arctic summer could be ice-free by mid-century, according to a study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

 Warming of Sea-surface temperatures
Warmer waters in the shallow oceans have contributed to the death of about a quarter of the world's coral reefs in the last few decades. Many of the coral animals died after weakened by bleaching, a process tied to warmed waters.

Melting glaciers
A 2005 survey of 442 glaciers from the World Glacier Monitoring Service found that 90% of the world's glaciers are shrinking as the planet warms.

Glacier National Park now has only 25 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. At the current rate of retreat, the glaciers in Glacier National Park could be gone in a matter of decades, according to some scientists.

Seawater Becoming More Acidic
Carbon dioxide dissolving into the oceans, is making seawater more acidic. There could be impacts on coral reefs and other marine life.

A surge in wildfires
Hot, dry conditions create a tinderbox ideal for wildfires. This could have a devastating impact on America's Southwest.

Increased flooding
The 2007 IPCC report concludes that intense rain events have increased in frequency during the last 50 years and that human-induced global warming has been a factor.

More intense hurricanes
As the oceans warm, scientists predict that hurricane intensity could increase. The associated storm surge poses particular risk to low-lying coastal cities like Miami, Charleston (SC) and Wilmington (NC).

Facts about Global Warming

Global Warming 

 
★ The Average temperatures have climbed 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit (0.8 degree Celsius) around the world since 1880, much of this in recent decades, according to NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies.
 
★ According to a number of Climatic Change Studies world wide, the rate of warming is increasing. The 20th century's last two decades were the hottest in 400 years and possibly the warmest for several millennia.

★ The United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) reports that 11 of the past 12 years are among the dozen warmest since 1850.

★ The Arctic is feeling the effects the most.

Average temperatures in Alaska, western Canada, and eastern Russia have risen at twice the global average, according to the multinational Arctic Climate Impact Assessment report compiled between 2000 and 2004.

★ Arctic ice is rapidly disappearing, and the region may have its first completely ice-free summer by 2040 or earlier.

★ Polar bears and indigenous cultures are already suffering from the sea-ice loss.

★ Glaciers are melting, sea levels are rising, cloud forests are drying, and wildlife is scrambling to keep pace

★ Glaciers and mountain snows are rapidly melting—for example, Montana's Glacier National Park now has only 27 glaciers, versus 150 in 1910. In the Northern Hemisphere.

★ Coral reefs, which are highly sensitive to small changes in water temperature, suffered the worst bleaching—or die-off in response to stress—ever recorded in 1998, with some areas seeing bleach rates of 70 percent.

★ Experts expect these sorts of events to increase in frequency and intensity in the next 50 years as sea temperatures rise.

★ An upsurge in the amount of extreme weather events, such as wildfires, heat waves, and strong tropical storms, is also attributed in part to climate change by some experts.

★ It's becoming clear that humans have caused most  of the past century's warming by releasing heat-trapping gases as we power our modern lives.

★ Called greenhouse gases, their levels are higher now than in the last 650,000 years.

Global Environmental Initiatives Led By US

Initiatives Led By United States

In mid-February 2012, Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton was expected to announce a new international effort focused on reducing emissions of common pollutants that contribute to rapid climate change and widespread health problems.

Impatient with the slow pace of international negotiations, the United States and a small group of countries — Bangladesh, Canada, Ghana, Mexico and Sweden as well as the United Nations Environment Program — are starting a program that will address short-lived pollutants like soot (also referred to as black carbon), methane and hydrofluorocarbons that have an outsize influence on global warming, accounting for 30 to 40 percent of global warming. Soot from diesel exhausts and the burning of wood, agricultural waste and dung for heating and cooking causes an estimated two million premature deaths a year, particularly in the poorest countries

Scientists say that concerted action on these substances can reduce global temperatures by 0.5 degrees Celsius by 2050 and prevent millions of cases of lung and heart disease by 2030.

The United States intends to contribute $12 million and Canada $3 million over two years to get the program off the ground and to help recruit other countries to participate. The United Nations Environment Program will run the project.

Officials hope that by tackling these fast-acting, climate-changing agents they can get results quicker than through the laborious and highly political negotiations conducted under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change

Facts About Plastic

 Interesting Facts About Plastic

★ Plastic needs about 450 years just to start decomposing. Then, it takes another 50-80 years to decompose completely.

★ That means that every single produced piece of plastic has not decomposed yet.

★ 90% of the price you pay for the bottled water goes to the plastic bottle, while the water cost you only 10% of the money you give. 

★ 24 million gallons of oil are needed for producing of billion plastic bottles.

★ Only 25 recycled bottles are enough to make one adult’s fleece jacket. 

★ Sad but true, the worldwide fishing industry throws huge amounts of plastic garbage in the oceans. Amazing 150,000 tons go into the water every year, including packaging, plastic nets, lines and buoys. 

★ This thrash causes death of many animals in the seas, which mistake the garbage for food. Estimations say that the number of killed animals is over one million.

★ Over 13 billion of plastic bags are produced every year, which are about 300 per adult

★ Recycling a single plastic bottle can conserve enough energy to light a 60W bulb for up to 6 hours. 

★ Recycling plastics can save up to 2/3 of the needed energy for producing plastic from raw materials.

★ Surveys show that more than 90 percent of consumers reuse their plastic bags at least once for things like wastebasket

★ There are many countries which have banned or restricted the use of plastic bags. Australia, China, Austria, Bangladesh, Ireland and several European Union countries are among them.

Environmental Facts

Recycling :

 
★ If 10,000 people switched from 0 to 100% Post-Consumer recycled office paper for one year, the collective    annual impact is equivalent to taking 230 cars off the road for a year.
★ Recycling just 48 cans is the energy equivalent of conserving one gallon of gas.
Since 1990, the paper recovered through US recycling efforts would fill 200 football stadiums to a height of 100 feet.
★ The most recycled consumer product in America is the automobile, with 26 cars being recycled every minute.
★ Every ton of recycled paper saves17 trees and 462 gallons of oil.
One pound of newspaper can be recycled into 6 cereal boxes or egg cartons.

Environment & Health :

★ The EPA estimates indoor levels of pollutants, on average, are 2 to 5 times higher than outdoor. 50% of all illnesses are either caused or aggravated by polluted indoor air.
★ One out of every three cleaning chemicals used in US schools has been shown to cause health or environmental problems, so switch to greener cleaning products.
★ The average home today contains over sixty-two chemicals. More than 72,000 synthetic chemicals have been invented since World War II.
★ Topping off your gas tank can increase the amount of ground-level ozone and other air pollutants.

Recycling Facts

Aluminum
★ Aluminum cans made from recycled aluminum use only 8 BTUs, which is a 95% energy savings.
★ Aluminum cans made from recycled aluminum release 40% less carbon emissions.
★ Aluminum cans are made from 50% recycled aluminum. 

Steel 

★ Steel cans made from recycled steel result in a 50% energy savings.
★ Steel cans made from recycled steel emit 4 to 5 times less carbon.
★ The steel industry claims that it is the number one recycled material in North America with a 68.7%     recycling rate in 2006. 

Paper

★ Paper made from recycled paper results in a 64% energy savings.
★ Paper made from recycled paper uses up to 80% less water.
★ Recycling one ton of paper conserves 17 trees. 

Glass

★ Glass made from recycled glass results in a 50% energy savings.
★ Glass bottles made from recycled glass emit 4 to 5 times less carbon.
★ A ton of glass made from 50% recycled materials saves about 300 lbs. of mining waste. 

Plastic

★ Recycling a pound of PET plastic saves approximately 12,000 BTU's.
★ Plastic containers made from recycled plastic emit up to 8 times less carbon.
★ Recycling a ton of PET containers saves 7.4 cubic yards of landfill space