By: Shahana Khan
What is Biodiversity? The variety of plant and animal life in the world or in a particular habitat, a high level of which is usually considered to be important and desirable. Biodiversity boosts ecosystem productivity where each species, no matter how small, all have an important role to play. Greater species diversity ensures natural sustainability for all life forms.
What is climate change? A change in global or regional climate patterns, in particular, a change apparent from the mid to late 20th century onwards and attributed largely to the increased levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide produced by the use of fossil fuels. Certain gases in the atmosphere block heat from escaping. Long-lived gases that remain semi-permanently in the atmosphere and do not respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature are described as "forcing" climate change. Gases, such as water vapor, which respond physically or chemically to changes in temperature are seen as "feedbacks." Gases that contribute to the greenhouse effect include H2O, N2O, CO2, CH4. Climate change poses a fundamental threat to places, species, and people’s livelihoods.
Global Perspectives:
Ice is melting worldwide, especially at the Earth’s poles. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice. Since 1906, the global average surface temperature has increased between 1.1 and 1.6 degrees Fahrenheit – even more in sensitive polar regions.1 The heat is melting glaciers and sea ice, shifting precipitation patterns, and having the animals to move. Many species have been impacted by rising temperatures. For example, researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen by 90% or more in 30 years.
Another example is the polar bears. Polar bears depend ponderously on the sea ice environment for traveling, hunting, mating, resting, and in some areas, maternal dens. They rely particularly heavily on sea ice-dependent prey, such as ringed and bearded seals. The melting of ice forces bears to burn huge amounts of energy walking or swimming long distances to get to any remaining ice. Or they stay on land longer, spending the summer and, increasingly, the fall fasting, living off their fat from the seals they caught in the spring. When examined studies showed that the bears were active about 35% of the time and resting for the remainder, yet they burned through 12,325 calories a day, much of it from their body reserves. Wildlife research scientist Martyn Obbard has found that since the mid-1980s, with less ice on which to live and fish for food, polar bears have gotten considerably skinnier.6 Polar bear biologist Ian Stirling has found a corresponding pattern in Hudson Bay. He fears that if sea ice disappears, the polar bears will too. It is inevitable, ecosystems will change for the worse. Some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct. Malaria, for example, now appears higher up mountain slopes in Colombia and Ethiopia, as rising thermostats make way for mosquitoes at higher elevations. Leishmaniasis, a sometimes-fatal, once primarily tropical affliction, has moved into northern Texas as the sandflies that host the disease-causing parasite head north.
Climate variability and change affect birdlife and animals in several ways. Birds lay eggs earlier in the year than usual, plants bloom earlier and mammals are coming out of hibernation sooner. Distribution of animals is also affected; with many species moving closer to the poles as a response to the rise in global temperatures. Birds are migrating and arriving at their nesting grounds earlier, and the nesting grounds that they are moving to are not as far away as they used to be and in some countries, the birds don’t even leave anymore, as the climate is suitable all year round.
Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches. This will result in the destruction of nesting beaches for different types of sea turtles around the world. A sea-level rise of only 50cm could cause sea turtles to lose their nesting beaches - over 30% of Caribbean beaches are used by turtles during the nesting season and would be affected.10 The already endangered Mediterranean Monk Seals need beaches upon which to raise their pups and a rise in sea level could there could damage shallow coastal areas used annually by whales and dolphins which need shallow, gentle waters to rear their small calves.
National Perspective:
The rapidly melting of glaciers is causing many problems. It causes habitat loss to many species and it causes damage in migratory routes of many migratory species. Most of the species are moving towards poles and to higher elevations. The loss and deaths of Markhor in Chitral are occurring due to disturbances and variations in the local environmental conditions, possibly triggered by climate change. These aspects involve the melting of ice which is causing the animals to die out by being caught in their resulting floods as well as losing their habitats to these dire consequences of the change. Numbers between 2,000 and 4,000 exist in the wild, and they are reducing day by day.
Climate change has caused, again, global warming has reduced glacial cover, and weakening monsoon rains in northern Pakistan are predicted to dramatically reduce Indus River discharge within 50 years. Declining river flows have been highlighted as perhaps the greatest threat to the long-term survival of the Indus River dolphin. These dolphins occupied about 3,400km of the Indus River and the tributaries attached to it in the past. But today, it's only found in one-fifth of this previous range i.e. it has declined by 80% since 1870.
The green sea turtles are also facing these problems. Sea turtles are dependent on beaches for nesting. Uncontrolled coastal development, vehicle traffic on beaches and other human activities have directly destroyed or disturbed sea turtle nesting beaches around Pakistan. All their nesting beaches are being destroyed by over-flooding, resulting in no laying of eggs and this can kill the female turtle. In fact, according to many reports, the number of sea turtles has reduced to less than 1000 in Pakistan, which according to Dr. Firdous, is not a sustainable figure.
Climate change has been a hassle for snow leopards too. Pakistan is among 11 countries where the snow leopard is found. However, CO2 emissions in traffic congestions and careless dumping of waste from factories causing a lot of habitat losses to many animals that the snow leopards prey on; concluding to a sharp decline in their population. At present, between 4,500 and 7,500 snow leopards exist across the world, and in Pakistan, according to previous estimates, between 320 and 400 snow leopards were found in the Karakoram, Himalayas, and Hindukush.
Courses of action:
When it comes to the halting of climate change the first call is replanting trees. As trees grow, they help stop climate change by removing carbon dioxide from the air, storing carbon in the trees and soil, and releasing oxygen into the atmosphere. They offer habitats for species such as birds, they limit global warming i.e. they may stop sea levels rising and the melting of ice, birds will migrate and lay hard-shelled eggs.
There have been some campaigns on the planting of trees in different countries. Pakistan’s northwestern province, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KPK), has planted an unprecedented 1 billion trees in just more than two years and surpassed an international commitment of restoring 350,000 hectares of forests and degraded land. Imran Khan, head of the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party formerly governing the province, launched the reforestation campaign, dubbed ―Billion Tree Tsunami, in 2015. It was completed ahead of the original deadline of December 2017. Pakistan is seventh on the list of the countries most likely to be affected by global warming and has one of the highest deforestation rates in Asia. Decades of tree felling have reduced the country’s forests to less than 3% of its land area. Khan hopes his reforestation drive will decrease the effects of global warming. Similarly, with the success of the last project, Pakistan's Prime Minister-elect Imran Khan plans to "aggressively" undertake a massive countrywide campaign to plant 10 billion trees in the next five years to tackle climate change. The PTI is "fully prepared" and has launched its proposed "10 Billion Tree Tsunami" program in the first 100 days after assuming governance; on the 5th of September 2018.
Then, there’s the ―Plant a Billion Trees campaign- organized by The Nature Conservancy- that has been taking place in three countries majorly: China, Brazil, and the United States. The campaign goal’s to plant at least a billion trees by 2025 in each of these nations. The Conservancy is working with the Chinese government to help carry out its commitment to replant 40 million hectares is a way that also benefits natural and human communities. In Brazil, today, only 7 percent of the Atlantic Forest remains, and Cerrado is increasingly threatened. Preserving what is left is a critical global conservation priority.
The second most helpful priority in grounding climate change is the Paris Agreement. The main aims of this agreement are holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change. And making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development. There are 195 signatories on this agreement, including 170 parties, and they all are equally providing help in all the ways they can to limit climate change and save the biodiversity in the process.
Comentários