Are we a climate-change hotspot?

Climate can alter weather in many ways, affecting countries around the world, including our own.

It is not only the remote Pacific Islands which risk inundation by rising sea levels due to human inducted climate changes. Climate can alter weather in many other ways, affecting countries around the world, including our own.

Experts are still trying to make sense of recent instances of extreme weather including not only the Pakistan floods, but those in China, as well as unexpected drought, heat waves and wildfires in Russia. It is unclear if such weather events are part of the naturally fluctuating climate pattern cycle or else are directly linked to human induced climate changes. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change cautions that it is scientifically incorrect to claim that a single extreme weather is indicative of climate changes.

Rising temperatures are considered to pose a major threat to the Himalayan glaciers, which in the short run can increase flooding as the glacial melt increases, and then trigger water scarcities for us, as well as for India.

While we cannot do much about curbing global carbon emissions to prevent global warming on our own, several local issues are making matters worse, which do deserve more serious attention within the country.

Unsustainable land use patterns and irrigational inefficiencies have not only done much damage in terms of causing water logging and salinity, they also lessen our ability to cope with the onslaught of flooding.

Yet, in the relentless quest to use land for cultivation, inundation and drainage channels, and the natural depressions connected to them, have been encroached upon unthinkingly. Flood embankments are highly susceptible to erosion and collapse. In addition, settlements have been developed in the flood plains, adding considerably to the vulnerability of unaware populations who now reside there. On the other hand, much of the irrigation infrastructure is substandard and has not been maintained either.

Some voices are trying to highlight how the unprecedented devastation caused by the recent floods may have been averted, to some extent, if the trees on the banks of rivers and canals had not been cut down. Forests are also vital for soaking up carbon emissions but there is hardly any acknowledgement of their environmental value in Pakistan. Our national forest-cover has gone down to under 4.5 per cent. While the government vowed to enhance it to seven per cent, this doesn’t appear to be happening in practice. Instead, the Punjab and Sindh government are currently trying to convert state forests into revenue lands, which can be be handed over to potential investors or agriculturalists.

To lessen our vulnerability to natural disasters, both infrastructure and conversation attempts will have to be taken much more seriously. Simultaneously, there is also urgent need for more effective disaster response. Local level capacities have to be strengthened to provide the first line of defence against future floods, or other such disasters. A donor driven and centralised disaster management authority cannot do this fast or effectively enough.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2010.

-s :o
؆M�hNan lang=EN-US>Published in the Express Tribune, October 8^th, 2010.