Headline Aug 11, 2015/ ''' [PAKISTAN AND LAOS] IN GLOBAL WARMING '''

''' [PAKISTAN AND LAOS] 

IN GLOBAL WARMING '''

WITH RESPECTFUL DEDICATION to Prime Minister Mian Mohammed Nawaz Sharif, Pakistan. and all the Leaders of the free world.

PAKISTAN AND TRAGIC LOOSES go hand in hand. And Who's to blame?

The recent global warming heat wave lashed Sindh province and parts of southern Punjab. Thousands of people died in days, reportedly all from heatstrokes.

Instead of working together to help the affected, the provincial and federal government declared war on each other, ignoring the plight of the down trodden in favour of point scoring off their bodies.

And then, intense floods have taken over, ravaging everything in its path, and rendering hundreds and thousands of people homeless, and broken, and causing in its wake catastrophic economic losses and sufferings.

Every year, the same misery repeats itself. Pakistan has to  ''dam up'', reconstruct the embankments, manage the hill torrents,  or the flash floods will wipe the slate clean.

Pakistan must stop and rework its priorities. Nature never spares, and the global warming is likely to get worse. A projected 3 degree rise in temperatures for the next year is alarming.   

Boun Bang Fai, or rocket festivals are a spectacular sight in Laos. The rockets   -PVC tubes packed with charcoal, bat excrement, sulfur and sometimes more than 250 pounds of gunpowder-

Are meant to provoke the irascible sky god Phaya Thaen into stirring up storms and nudge him to honoring a rain-sending pact he made with Toad King, an incarnation of Buddha.

Rocket festivals are a reminder that that the fragile relationship between agriculture and climate in Laos is imperiled. From the riverine paddies to the limestone karsi, Laos subsistence farmers   -about 80% of the rural population  -depend on getting the right amount of rain at right time.

But in recent years, changes in global climate  have resulted in long-dry seasons, and then short, intense rain seasons that drown cropland.

Flooding destroys around  60,000  hectares of the rice in Laos annually, and that number is expected to rise. 

Rigorous International Water Management Institute analyses of Mekong basin rainfall from 1953 to 2004 showed a trend of longer dry seasons, and wet seasons with shorter but more intense bouts of rainfall.

Extreme weather in Laos isn't just destructive, it's deadly.In 2011, the Southeast Asian floods destroyed over  140,000  homes in Laos, leaving nearly 430,000 homeless, and killed at least 30 according to the U.N..

In 2013, floods killed 20 people. Phogern's growing population and the creep of Vientiane suburbs has scaled down the rocket festival. ''Before, there were few houses and no roads. It was all rice field." Khanjana says.

For Laotians like Khanjana and his brother Klengkay, a lecturer at National University of Laos, development has delivered opportunities unknown to their former parents. 

Economic growth helped reduce poverty rates from  46% in 1992 to around 23% in 2013, according to the World Bank.

But many in the village still depend upon Phaya Thaen's response to the rockets. Flooding and drought, which it at different times and intensities across the country's hilly topography, can be devastating to subsistence farmers, the majority of whom own less than two hectares of land.

''We cannot get much yield from the rice if the rain pattern is not normal.'' Kiengkay says.

Michael Trockenbrodt, who runs workshops about the value of biodiversity in some of Laos's most remote areas, says farmers are left to debate why their crops are failing:

''Some people say bad spirits. Some people say straight away, deforestation -that we don't have forest anymore,'' he says.

Both Pakistan and Laos have to stop and plan against Global Warming, or they will face up to an uncertain future.

With respectful dedication to all the Students, Professors and Teachers of Agriculture and Agri-world. See Ya all On !WOW!  -the World Students Society Computers-Internet-Wireless:

''' Saving Life '''

Good Night and God bless

SAM Daily Times - the Voice of the Voiceless