42 tubewells out of order due to shortage of funds Islamabad Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change on Thursday expressed serious concern over the threat to food security and scarcity of water in the future from impacts of global warming.
Director General, Ministry of Climate Change (MoCC), Irfan Tariq, told a committee ‘Production of wheat has dropped 15 percent due to shift in monsoon season.
Climate Change will have far reaching effects on Pakistan’s over all economy,’ ‘The rationing became necessary after water levels in both Simli and Khanpur dams dropped significantly.
Secretary Climate Change, Syed Abu Ahmed Akif complained that there was not a drop of water in his Sector F-6.
Senators, Sitara Ayaz and Mushahid Hussain Syed, expressed shocked over shortage of water in Islamabad.Both members urged the chairman of the committee, Senator Mir Muhammad Yousaf Badini, for a dedicated meeting on Islamabad’s water crisis.
Water in Khanpur Dam was down to 1, 925 feet compared to 1, 955 feet last year.
According to the official, out of 192 tube wells 42 were out of order due to lack of maintenance from shortage of funding.
While 20 will likely become functional within a month, remaining have become obsolete.
Secretary, Climate Change, Syed Abu Akif, proposed the government to charge residents for mining ground water.
Once completed, the twin cities will have 100 million gallons water per day each,’ said Sheikh Ansar Aziz.

A new report issued by the Center for Watershed Sciences and California Trout has found that nearly 75% of the state’s salmon and trout (salmonids) could be extinct within the next 100 years.
The good news is that the report shows that most of these fishes can continue to persist if appropriate actions are taken.
Looking at this another way, 71% of anadromous salmon and trout and 74% of inland trout in California scored as critical or high concern, indicating a high likelihood of extinction in the next 100 years.
Behavioral and life history diversity contribute to population and species resiliency under changing conditions.
Over the last century, however, the ability of most of these salmonids to adapt to changing conditions has been greatly reduced due to rapid and extreme habitat degradation and interactions of hatchery salmonids with wild salmonids.
The State of the Salmonids II report makes it clear that many native salmonids in California are on a trajectory towards extinction, if present trends continue.
The report outlines a set of solutions, termed “return to resilience,” the central tenet of which is improving behavioral and life history diversity of salmonid species.
These include the following, which are not mutually exclusive: 1) Stronghold Watersheds, or the remaining fully functioning aquatic ecosystems in California such as the Smith River, Blue Creek, and the Eel River, so that they may continue to protect and enhance salmonid diversity, 2) Source Waters such as mountain meadows, springs, and groundwater, which will be vitally important in buffering the effects of climate change and providing cold water during the late summer and drought, and 3) Productive and Diverse Habitats including floodplains, lagoons, coastal estuaries, and spring-fed rivers—these are some of the most productive aquatic systems in California which have been shown to increase salmonid growth rates, alter migration timing and life history diversity, and improve adult returns.
4) Endemic Trout Waters.
Access to historical spawning and rearing habitat may enhance population diversity and resilience to change.

Egypt food security in wake of climate change and water scarcity.
According to the Ministry of Water Resources and Irrigation, Egypt’s agriculture sector annually consumes more than 85% of the country’s share of Nile water.
With the completion of GERD, it would be able to hold around 74bn cubic metres of water.
Which is defined as the integration of conventional aquaculture (captive rearing and production of fish and other aquatic animal) with soil-less culture (growing agricultural crops without soil) according to the United Nations’ (UN) Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
A tank of fish turns fish feed into waste, and the water is then pumped out of the fish tank onto growing beds where bacteria then converts the ammonia and other fish wastes into fertilisers the plants make use of.
There is a symbiotic relationship is clear as fish contributes to plant nutrition, while plants provide oxygen and cleans the water for fish.
This helps plants grow faster and more naturally compared to planting on soil.
During the experiment, the same water within the closed system was used without change for more than 10 years, without any effect on the quality of the fish or plant growth.
Aquaponic systems are expensive, as the owner must install a full aquaculture system and a hydroponic system.
However, these inputs can be reduced by using solar panels or any other renewable electricity source, fish feed production, fish breeding, and plant propagation, but these tasks require additional knowledge and add time to the daily management.

Kiwi farmers at Field Days tackling climate change.
It’s farming’s big day out.
But ‘cut back’ is the message being sent to Kiwi farmers at Waikato Field Days.
The Government has announced its plans to reduce Green House Gases, but environmentalists are slamming the plan.
They’ve told Newshub they’re upset it doesn’t contain many firm actions, but rather plans to talk.
Climate Change Minister Paula Bennett said talking is the plan, and "they’ll host workshops and discussion groups with farmers over the next 18 months."
Greenpeace has slammed it as an excuse to continue doing nothing.
"If they were serious about tackling climate pollution and water pollution, they’d be committed to cut cow numbers now" a spokesperson told Newshub.
A Dairy New Zealand spokesperson said the key was realising what’s "practical and what is achievable right now, and hopefully understanding what we can do in the future with science and technology."
Newshub.

Most of Florida is in a drought A spokeswoman for Gore said that he was citing the United States Drought Monitor, a weekly map published on Thursdays showing drought conditions.
The last time the drought monitor showed Florida’s area of drought was as high as 71 percent was February 2013.
During two weeks in April 2012, 99.96 percent of Florida was in a drought.
"Since the Florida wet season has returned with a vengeance over the past week, and is forecast to continue over the next few weeks, the amount of Florida in drought two to four weeks from now should be substantially less than what it is today."
Experts told us that Florida is prone to periodic droughts, but rising temperatures as a result of climate change can make droughts worse.
"There is an increasing temperature trend, and warmer temperatures lead to greater evapotranspiration rates, which can exacerbate these periods of drought," Zierden said.
While Gore’s numerical statement about the drought is correct, David Nolan, chair of the University of Miami’s Department of Atmospheric Sciences, cautioned against pointing to any particular weather event as proof of climate change.
Gore correctly cited the United States Drought Monitor which showed that 71.66 percent of Florida was experiencing a drought for the week ending May 30.
PolitiFact Florida The statement: "70 percent of Florida is in drought today."
The ruling: Gore correctly cited the United States Drought Monitor which showed that 71.66 percent of Florida was experiencing a drought for the week ending May 30.

Carlsberg brews up science-based zero carbon targets.
Carlsberg has unveiled an ambitious new sustainability programme aimed at wiping out the carbon footprint of its breweries by 2030 and putting the company in line with a 1.5C climate scenario.
Launched today, the new plan is described as "a response to increasing consumer demand for sustainable products at a time of global challenges such as climate change, water scarcity and public health issues".
On water, Carlsberg said it had worked with experts from WWF to identify those breweries situated in regions with a high-risk of water scarcity and would co-operate with local partners to improve water management.
The brewer has additionally set out to cut its water usage by 25 per cent by 2022 from a 2015 baseline, rising to a 50 per cent reduction by 2030.
Cees ‘t Hart, Carlsberg Group CEO, said he wanted to set industry standards on sustainability, as climate change and water scarcity challenges require collective action.
"Our clear targets and ambitions reflect the mentality of our founders to always strive for perfection and contribute to society through science."
Further bolstering its climate commitments, Carlsberg also announced plans to establish a community of young scientists led by its existing Carlsberg Research Laboratory to help improve the resilience of crops and "foster further scientific developments within CO2, water and sustainable brewing".
Tom Delay, chief executive of the Carbon Trust, praised the Danish brewer’s new climate ambitions for going "above and beyond" the levels of carbon reduction needed to stay within a 2C scenario.
"Carlsberg has taken a genuine leadership position on some of the most critical environmental issues the world currently faces, by developing an ambitious long-term business strategy that focuses on delivering a sustainable future."

This T-shirt changes colors in response to water pollution.
Brian Fallow: Never mind Trump, NZ climate effort needs work.New Zealand remains committed to the Paris agreement on climate change, Prime Minister Bill English assures us – notwithstanding President Donald Trump’s "disappointing" decision to pull out of it.
Faster-moving sea ice forces polar bears to use more energy.ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Rapid global warming has sped up the movement of sea ice off Alaska’s coasts, and already at-risk polar bears are paying a price, a new U.S. study says.
CNBC’s Joe Kernen: At Worst Climate Change Is ‘A Socialist, Global Wealth Redistribution Scheme’.Mediaite: CNBC’s Joe Kernen got into some Twitter back-and-forths on the subject of climate change this week, even saying at one point that U.K. prime minister’s top aides resign after election fiasco.By JILL LAWLESS LONDON — The two top aides to British Prime Minister Theresa May resigned Saturday, sacrificed in a bid to save their leader from being toppled by a furious Conservative Party Bucking Trump, These Cities, States and Companies Commit to Paris Accord.SOURCE: Bloomberg DESCRIPTION:Originally posted on www.nytimes.com.
Representatives of American cities, states and companies are preparing to submit a plan to the United Nations pledging to meet the

Urban ‘heat islands’ double costs for climate change.
Water Test Kit Test your Water Today!
The analysis of 1,692 cities, published today (Monday 29 May 2017) in the journal Nature Climate Change, shows that the total economic costs of climate change for cities this century could be 2.6 times higher when heat island effects are taken into account than when they are not.
Also according to the report, the authors noted that the study is significant because it highlights the importance of adopting local interventions along worldwide policies to keep global warming effects at bay.
Potential costs include more energy for cooling, increased air and water pollution, and lower worker productivity, the researchers said.
“We show that city-level adaptation strategies to limit local warming have important economic net benefits for nearly all cities around the world”, said Tol.
No surprise there.
Something not noted by the new study, though, is that as temperatures in these cities rise, so too will the rates of many infectious diseases – which will itself lead to greatly increased costs in some regards.
Cost-efficient local policies such as cool pavements – created to reflect more sunlight and absorb less heat – cool and green roofs and expanding vegetation in cities could limit the high economic and health costs of rising urban temperatures and help combat the urban heat island.
By the new study’s estimates, using such an approach to transition around a fifth of a large city’s pavements and roofs to cooler/lighter options could cut a city’s ambient air temperatures by up to 1.4° Fahrenheit (0.8° Celsius).

The global climate 2011-2015: Hottest five-year period on record.
The Global Climate 2011-2015 also examines whether human-induced climate change was directly linked to individual extreme events.
"The effects of climate change have been consistently visible on the global scale since the 1980s: rising global temperature, both over land and in the ocean; sea-level rise; and the widespread melting of ice.
It has increased the risks of extreme events such as heatwaves, drought, record rainfall and damaging floods," said Mr Taalas.
Temperatures for the period were 0.57 °C (1.03 °F) above the average for the standard 1961-1990 reference period.
The year 2015 was also the first year in which global temperatures were more than 1 °C above the pre-industrial era.
Global ocean temperatures were also at unprecedented levels.
Averaged over 2011-2015, the mean Arctic sea-ice extent in September was 4.70 million km2, 28% below the 1981-2010 average.
Climate change and extreme weather Many individual extreme weather and climate events recorded during 2011-2015 were made more likely as a result of human-induced (anthropogenic) climate change.
However, in the case of the extreme rainfall in the United Kingdom in December 2015, it was found that climate change had made such an event about 40% more likely.

Adapting to climate change a major challenge for forests.
In Switzerland, temperatures have already risen by around 1.9°C since the beginning of industrialization.
Even keeping global warming down to the 1.5-2°C target set by the Paris Agreement on climate change will yield a further increase of 1-2°C.
For the Swiss forests, this warming trend will involve vegetation zones shifting 500‑700 metres higher in altitude.
Foresters and forest owners should already tailor the management of their forests to these future conditions.
Safeguarding forest functions against the backdrop of climate change The research results show that while forests can adapt to climate change to a certain extent, they are unlikely to be capable of continuing to perform their functions — so natural-hazard protection, the increasingly vital production of timber as a renewable raw material and energy source or their recreational function — everywhere to the extent we have become used to.
To avert the loss of such functions, the research programme devised various management strategies adapted to changing climatic conditions.
In particular, they result in a greater increase in the diversity of the tree species.
These conditions are changing from site to site and must be viewed in the context of the management of the forest.
In this way, for example, areas in high-resolution site maps can be shown where the climate-sensitive Norway spruce can continue to thrive (box 2).