Chowrangi

“KESC bekaar hogayee hai. Aao in kee gaarian jala dey tay hain.”

We usually do hear something like this when there are power outages in Karachi and other parts of the country. Angry businessmen and their employees lose out on a lot of business due to power outages and indeed, they are not at fault.

But is burning down the vehicles we essentially pay for with our utility bills and taxes really bring any benefits? Also, if we burn the KESC vehicles down, rendering them useless will delay the process of bringing power back on even more.

Earth has gone through cataclysms before. Almost everyone who knows a bit of science has heard about the extinction of the dinosaurs (these were animals which our mullahs have never heard about). This event took place sixty five million years ago, when a comet crashed into the surface of the earth. The impact raised a huge cloud of dust, blocking all sunshine, and causing most living things to die. It took a long time for the earth to return to normal. But before this mass extinction ago, the earth had gone through another battering. This happened about two hundred and fifty six million years ago (the earth has been in existence for over four billion years, although your religious scholars on TV don’t know it). Thousands of volcanic eruptions spewed sulfhur and methane into the atmosphere, with the result that ninety percent of all living things died a sudden death. For ten million years, it was almost a dead planet. But then, since humans were not there to do any damage, it started to recover. Now, since global warming is proceeding so rapidly, the danger is that the damage will be irreversible. And it is doubtful if humans will survive the approaching catastrophe. Which may be just as well, considering that it is humans (people like Bush) who are responsible for the vast damage to the planet.

In the last 30 years, a large number of companies have appeared in the world of market. Concentration of entrepreneurs in the new dimensions is the basic factor of success. As compared to the previous years, entrepreneurs have acquired more awareness regarding their social responsibilities. Now companies not only focus on the needs of their customers but also the needs of society and environment.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), popularity is growing day by day, as more and more companies around the globe are turning their focus towards the sustainability of environment and resources at large. Companies now have come to realize that their future as successful, large companies is dependent upon the future of environment and society to which they belong and in which they exist.

Let’s add some of our knowledge. Have you ever thought that why sea is salty? And since it is so salty, how much salt it contains??

Well the answer is; if all the salt in the sea were spread equally over the land, it would form a layer more than 500 feet [150 m] thick for about 45 stories high! Where does all that salt come from??

Scientists have discovered a number of sources.

One source is the ground beneath our feet. As rainwater soaks through soil and rocks, it dissolves tiny amounts of minerals, including salts and their chemical elements, and carries them out to sea by means of streams and rivers. This process is called weathering.

Gorillas and underwater weeds are vanishing speedily. The world conservation union has issued a list of all such endangered species due to environmental changes. They have pointed out that they will vanish out in the very near future. Though several Governments have promised to take steps to stop all this till 2010 but they are doing nothing significant for it. The world conservation union’s director Julia Martin has also reported the same.

The American environmental specialists have stated that this is all because of the rising temperature of the environment causing the ice glaciers in the south to melt quickly. This will cause the species of bear in that region to reduce to one third.

Contribute something important to the nation’s well-being.

Almost everyone loves trees, but did you know that trees can help people heal faster? It’s true. According to the International Society of Arboriculture, hospital patients have been shown to recover faster when offered a view with trees. And while trees certainly benefit any landscape i.e. whether lining residential streets, dotting urban areas, or in full resplendence in the forest, they are actually important to our daily well-being.

It goes without saying artificial beauty is nothing in front of the natural beauty. Natural Attractions cannot be replaced by the man-made artifacts and one cannot extract that pleasure from the artificial things, which one could get from the natural creations.

Pakistan’s capital Islamabad is known by its greenery and serene atmosphere, but would it be so after couple of years? Its hard to say. Swarm of traffic has compelled Capital Development Authority (CDA) to develop more roadways, and widen the existing road network. Its a good thinking, but the price is quite high.

One billion personal computers have been sold across the world, according to hi-tech consultancy Gartner Dataquest report. The number of computers is set to explode in the next few years, reaching the two billion mark by 2008. Unprecedented technology growth in deed! But this is not about the technology growth. Point here is how computer can help save the trees.

Two main environmental issues in the world today are global climate changes and local or regional air pollution. Both are results of energy consumption all over the world.

Responses to the energy usages are important to the entire planet and its inhabitants. Current and future policies and regulations designed to limit the emissions of airborne pollutants, where ever they are in place, are likely to affect the composition and growth of global energy use.

Mobile (transport) and stationary energy (industry) consumption have resulted in increasingly stringent regulation of air pollutants such as lead, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides and volatile organic compounds deteriorating the environmental and air quality in the process.

Acids that fall out of the atmosphere are called Acid Rain. Airborne acidic pollutants have highly destructive results. Acid rain is defined as a “rain with a pH of below 4.0 - 4.5.” Normal rain has a pH of about 5.6, which is slightly acidic (In chemistry, pH is a measure of acidity). Acid rain was fist discovered in 1852, when the British chemist Robert Agnus invented the term.

Air quality of the urban areas of Pakistan in general, and of the larger cities of the country with more concentration of vehicular traffic (like Karachi and Lahore) in particular, is deteriorating due to several factors including increasing use of energy. Acid rain and its effects are an issue of intense debate as one of the most pressing environmental problems of the entire world.