(Published in Crisis Response Journal)
The COP21 this year aims to put countries on the same page in the fight for the planet, and Pakistan needs to be making its own contribution – but as the author notes, it most likely will not. Can a developing country that is routinely battered by climate change still pretend that it isn’t a problem? That is the question.
Source: Pakistan: The Road to COP21
(Published in The Nation)
The ISS is a joint venture between the US, Russia, Japan and EU, and more than 220 people from 17 countries have visited it since the year 2000. Its purpose is to serve as a micro-gravity and space environment research laboratory and where crew members conduct experiments in a number of scientific fields. But the most exciting thing about it is that the ISS was actually assembled in space, making it the largest structure to have been built there – ever!
(Published in The Nation Pakistan)
Before this, when people talked about water on Mars, it was with reference to ancient or frozen water. Earlier this year the Curiosity Rover detected the possibility of salty water below the surface, however the MRO discovery is the first evidence for the presence of liquid water in the present time.
(Published in The Nation Pakistan)
Ladies and gents, we may very well have found Earth’s cousin, 1,400 light years away from us! NASA scientist John Grunsfeld has called this Earth 2.0. If Kepler 452 b turns out to be a rocky planet (this is yet to be confirmed), this bodes well for further research on whether there is liquid water, an atmosphere and thus some form of life on it.
(Published in The Nation)
On July 14, this coming Tuesday, a human made space craft will visit Pluto, the erstwhile planet, current dwarf planet. This is a world that is 3 billion miles away, in what is known as the Kuiper Belt (a disc of comets and small planets beyond Neptune), the farthest planet humans have ever seen and studied and the first Kuiper Belt object to be visited.
(Published in The Nation Pakistan)
Developing countries like Pakistan should contribute to global mitigation efforts, but more importantly, Pakistan needs a solid adaptation plan that will ensure that human and natural systems are made resilient to the impacts of a warming world.
(Published in The Nation)
Earth Day and for that matter many environment conservation efforts now have climate change as their central agenda. This is because our footprint on this planet has ensured that we continue to increase global temperatures to the extent that all other damage we have done through pollution and unsustainable development is exacerbated.
(Published in The Nation)
It is good to take time away from politics and indulge in furthering our education about science and specifically about the universe. Because this is important and this is the reason that other countries have gone far beyond us in so many ways (pun totally intended).
(Published in The Nation Pakistan)
Over the past two decades it has become increasingly clear that climate is changing across the globe. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) published its first assessment report in 1990, highlighting this aspect. Since then, its subsequent reports have continued to provide further and increasingly stronger evidence that human induced climate change has immense effects on societies and ecosystems, especially forests and coastal areas, both of which are crucial for human societies. Extreme events are also expected to increase in magnitude and frequency, putting human lives in danger.
