Nowadays climate change is the biggest problem of the human being. It is already happening and represents one of the greatest environmental, social and economic threats facing the planet. Pakistan is also of greater importance for the climate changing effects because it is geographically spread with high mountain glaciers in northern part and deep seas in south.
The warming of the climate system is unequivocal, as is now evident from observations of increases in global average air and ocean temperatures, widespread melting of snow and ice, and rising global mean sea level. The southern parts of the country have been facing a great amount of temperature fluctuation since last two years. This phenomenon resulted in causalities because of heat stroke, and diseases spread in ruler areas of Sindh.
The northern areas of our country comprise of high green mountains and glaciers. But ,the wave of climate change has affected the life of people in those areas. For example, it has resulted into unseasonal raining and abdominal diseases. This unseasonal raining affects the crops and fruits of farmers.
The Earth’s average surface temperature has risen by 0.76° C since 1850. Most of the warming has occurred over the last 50 years.
The climate can affect every person, and our health directly through increases in temperature. Such increases may lead to more extreme heat waves during the summer while producing less extreme cold spells during the winter. Particular segments of the population such as those with heart problems, asthma, the elderly, and the very young can be especially vulnerable to extreme heat. There can be extreme floods and droughts, hurricanes.
Nowadays there are so many factories that exhale really destructive substances and pollute the air. We all know very well that air is something we can’t live without. When we breathe the polluted air, we can get seriously ill. Ground-level ozone can damage lung tissue, and is especially harmful for those with asthma and other chronic lung diseases. Sunlight and high temperatures, combined with other pollutants such as nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds, can cause the ground-level ozone to increase. We cannot escape from the polluted air-it’s everywhere, even in our homes and we are breathing it non-stop. This can cause cancer and other serious diseases.
Another huge problem is that the sea levels are rising worldwide. Also, the expansion of ocean water is caused by warmer ocean temperatures. Mountain glaciers and small ice caps are melting as well as Greenland’s Ice Sheet and the Antarctic Ice Sheet. The temperature is increasing which means that ice is melting faster and faster.
However, these are not the only problems. Another issue is the greenhouse gasses. They are gasses which trap heat in the atmosphere. Some greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide occur naturally by natural processes and other are created and emitted solely through human activities. For example, carbon dioxide is entering the atmosphere because of human activities like burning of fossil fuels (oil, natural gas, and coal). All vehicles exhale too much damaging substances. People have been trying to reduce them but the problem is still topical and I think we have to do something like ride a bike not a car to work or school; we should take the shortest route possible, and plan our drive so that we will not backtrack or travel out of our way. We also may choose a clean-burning fuel, which reduces ozone-forming pollutants and buy a car that produces fewer emissions or runs using an alternative fuel. The taxes of cars should be higher and most of the people will prefer to use the public transport and we will no longer have traffic jams and we will reduce the damaging emissions.
There is immediate need for taking appropriate action without any delay. Plantation, forestry and use of environment-friendly energy sources should be encouraged to combat the ever increasing global warming.