ISLAMABAD, May 16: About 29 million people could be affected from possible floods in 2012, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) official warned on Wednesday. Warning all provincial governments of the possible flood-related devastation, NDMA Chairman Zafaq Iqbal said there would be more monsoon rains this year. He said “the NDMA has asked for Rs20 billion from provincial governments to start …

MITHI, May 5: People living in a village of Thar district said they had seen a mysterious flying object come crashing down on a school building late on Friday night. Some villagers even said they were sure that the object was a meteorite. The object struck Ladki village of Diplo taluka, 60 kilometres from here. It caused a small crater …

Without fair access to land, peasant and farm workers in Pakistan have no reason to protect land from desertification (© DfID/Flickr) Land is a critical productive asset and the majority of livelihoods in the dry lands of the developing world depend on it. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) is one of the main environmental treaties, borne out of …

Neither it was the cloudburst nor the avalanche but the “glacier surge” that buried the men stationed at Siachen, Arshad H Abbasi, an expert on water and climate changes, told The News. “Glacier surge is phenomena caused either by rise in temperature or some tectonic movement, where a glacier advances substantially, moving at velocities up to 100 times faster than …

Collecting and analysing accurate data is an essential part of disaster preparedness, but the relevant authorities here don`t seem to think so. In general, our attitude towards preparing for and managing disasters is ad hoc and shambolic. This is quite troubling considering the fact that various parts of Pakistan are prone to seismic activity. For example, major earthquakes struck Balochistan …

Jan 6, Islamabad: Pakistan is fulfilling more than 80% of its resources through imports although there are a variety of minerals, metals, coal mines. Thar coal desert is the world’s third largest coal reserve. Energy crisis in Pakistan is increasing and with the passage of time it will worsen, as its requirements increase. With the decrease in energy production and …

THIS month’s prospective meeting of the Abu Dhabi Dialogue Group comprising seven states sharing the rivers rising in the Greater Himalayas would be a watershed event as the group is expected to adopt a joint initiative to minimise the impact of glacial melt. The group comprises Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, China, India and Nepal. All these countries share river basins …

Thatta, 22 December 2011: Policy planning and proper climate change adaptation is need of the hour to mitigate adverse effects of natural climate change factors. This was said in the day-long Climate Change Conference held today in the coastal city of Thatta. The SCOPE (Society for Conservation & Protection of Environment) organized the conference in collaboration with Drynet Pakistan, in …

According to the findings of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Activities, 4.3 million people (84 per cent of the affected population) are food-insecure – 2.2 million people severely food-insecure and 2.1 million people moderately food-insecure in the flood-affected areas of Sindh and Balochistan. Data collected prior to the floods and recently released as part of the National …

NEW DELHI, Dec 10 — A recent U.S. prediction of a possibly devastating earthquake in the disputed Himalayan province of Kashmir has caused alarm here in India. A study by Roger Bilham, professor of geology at the University of Colorado, Boulder, concludes that a magnitude-9 earthquake could strike in Kashmir, triggering massive landslides and plunging the picturesque valley under water. …

“Extreme weather like the droughts in Russia, China and Brazil and the flooding in Pakistan and Australia [in 2010] have contributed to a level of food price volatility we haven’t seen since the oil crisis of 40 years ago. Unfortunately, this could be just a taste of things to come because in the next few decades the build-up of greenhouse …

KARACHI — It was a brutal kidnap that turned him into an eco-warrior, and 27 years later Pakistan’s “Father of the Mangroves” still lets nothing get in the way of fighting against timber “mafia” and deforestation. “This is my life. I am very happy with it. The cause is worth living such a life,” Tahir Qureshi told AFP, walking around …

The United Nations has warned that humanitarian agencies are running out of resources to assist those affected by floods in Sindh, even as the need for basic items, shelter and health services increases among more than five million affected people. “Urgent relief is critical as families continue to suffer in the aftermath of the floods. Unless we receive new pledges …