An integrated and seamless approach is the need of the hour to deal with critical issues pertaining to water scarcity and water conservation in the province. Joining hands at various levels is crucial as isolation is no longer an option to achieve sustainable development goals, especially regarding water conservation and environmental protection.    These views were expressed by the Balochistan …

PEMA GYAMTSHO Mountains are a barometer of the planet’s health – changes in these lofty parts of the world dictate how rivers flow and crops grow and livelihoods endure elsewhere. And yet, global recognition of these vital regions has been rather underwhelming, in contrast, to say the Amazon or the polar regions. International Mountain Day (IMD), celebrated on this very day …

    M Ajmal K Masood   While travelling to the north, most of the youth make their travelling statuses as ‘mountains are calling’. This phrase is not merely a social media buzzword but resonates the social, cultural and spiritual relations between the people and the mountains. In the primitive age, human being living in mountainous regions such as High …

Scorching heat will envelop 185m people in Pakistan; human cost of the climate crisis will hit harder and sooner than previously believed, research reveals The human cost of the climate crisis will hit harder, wider and sooner than previously believed, according to a study that shows a billion people will either be displaced or forced to endure insufferable heat for every additional 1C rise in the …

News Desk Earth Day was first organized in 1970 to remember and appreciate the environment, and our responsibilities and roles within it. On April 22, 2020, we observe the 50th Earth Day, and though many improvements have been made, environmental challenges remain. In the past five decades, the population of the Earth has more than doubled—more than 75 per cent …

Hotels, motels, and guest houses turned into incubation centres; markets, shops, parks, wedding halls shut; religious congregations, public gatherings, rallies as well as entry of tourists to GB banned for 21 days; exams, sports activities cancelled.   by Inayat Abdali   Gilgit: As the number of coronavirus continues to rise, civic, social and economic life comes to grinding halt in …

  More than 1,000 remain there as thousands more are released into impoverished Balochistan, reports The Guardian newspaper    It was the smell that was the worst. In this dusty camp on Pakistan’s border with Iran, which at one stage held more than 6,000 people, the stench of sweat, rubbish and human excrement hung in the air. There was no …

The peace deal was signed after 18 months of talks in Doha Sorin Furcoi Al Jazeera] Peace deal signed in Qatari capital, Doha, will pave the way for the complete withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan within 14 months   Doha, Qatar: The US and the Taliban have signed a landmark peace agreement after nearly 20 years of war that could …

File photo of the confluence of Khurdopin and Yokshin Glacier and blockade of Verjherav glacio-fluvial stream. Credit: MIMCP HAH Report Assessing and monitoring hazards as well as surveying the damage and collecting data during emergencies in hard-to-reach mountain areas poses many difficulties. At higher altitudes, satellite data does not come in high enough resolution to create accurate hazard maps, and …

  Simone Moro and his partner Tamara Lunger call off a plan to scale Gasherbrum I and II after injuries   High Asia Herald Special Two renowned Italian climbers have called off their expedition to the hugely difficult to traverse Gasherbrum I and II in the Karakoram mountain ranges in Gilgit-Baltistan, after a near-fatal fall into a crevasse, according to …

Death toll surges to 110 in recent devastating snow and weather-related incidents

Over 76 confirmed dead and 94 injured in AJK’s, 31 in Balochistan and 2 in GB   News Desk The death toll from snow-related incidents in Pakistan-administered Jammu and Kashmir has risen to 76, bringing the total number of casualties from weather-related incidents across the country to over 100. According to Neelum Valley Deputy Commissioner Raja Shahid Mehmood, the deaths …

  Carly Roth   The 2015 Paris agreement on climate change set the goal of keeping global, average temperature rise “well below” 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-Industrial Age levels, and hopefully below 1.5 degrees Celsius. This month, new research published by scientists from the University of Hamburg predicts how these temperature changes will affect water availability in Pakistan. They …

The tragedy behind the lake is bigger than the landslide that created it   Haneya Zuberi Franz Kafka wrote in The Metamorphosis, “But what if all the tranquility, all the comfort, all the contentment were now to come to a horrifying end?” I kept thinking about what Kafka said while I was in Hunza last month. The picturesque, cascading glaciers …

Youth leaders at UN Climate Change Summit demand bold action UNITED NATIONS: Teenage climate change activist Greta Thunberg on Monday opened the United Nations Climate Action Summit with an angry condemnation of world leaders for failing to take strong measures to combat climate change. “How dare you,” she said. Days after millions of young people took to the streets worldwide …