ISLAMABAD (Staff Report) – Environmental experts on Monday said that Pakistan was among top ten most vulnerable countries to climatic changes where weather patterns were making major environmental impacts.
Climatic and environmental experts told that situation might further deteriorate in the coming years if a national plan is not designed to cope with the situation.
Former Pakistan Environmental Protection Agency Director General Asif Shuja said due to massive tree cutting and rapid urbanisation temperature in Islamabad and other cities has started to regularly cross 44 degrees in summer.
Shuja said that there was a need to take satellite images of federal capital to gauge the most heat emitting areas.
Once the major heat emitting areas are detected it will help take preventive measures to control rising temperatures of the city. Then, he said the same pattern may be applied to other parts of the country, to get the exact calculations.
Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI) Environmentalist Dr Fahad Saeed said our environment was under rapid changes since last many decades.
He said loss of agricultural revenue and additional costs for managing water resources, disease and other health risks was subjected to economic activity.
Another SDPI expert Kashif Salik said Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) are greenhouse gases largely responsible for damaging the ozone layer which is directly responsible for climatic variations in the world. Massive deforestation is also another main cause of rising temperature and climatic variations in the country, he added.
He informed that the effect of climate change on regional and national economies was projected to be largely affected.
