ECTalks

The entire country is under the threat of an attack by desert locust but around 37% area of Pakistan is more vulnerable to the attack. This includes 60% area of Balochistan, 25% area of Sindh and 15% area of Punjab.

“If the desert locust is not contained, Punjab and Sindh may become summer breeding zone of the pest,” said a report submitted to the Supreme Court by Punjab government through Additional Advocate General Chaudhry Faisal Hussain.

"There is an immediate need for deployment of maximum resources in summer breeding area. Punjab has 15 percent area falling mainly in Cholistan but now vulnerability has extended to the central and North Punjab due to climate change and massive egg-laying. "

“Effective control operations are essential for ensuring food security in the country and in mitigating the negative economic impact [of pest plague],” the army chief said during a visit to the National Locust Control Center (NLCC) in Rawalpindi

The government has already declared a national emergency in this regard as hopper bands of the Schistocerca gregaria – commonly known as the desert locust – have already devoured large quantities of crops in over 60 districts of all the provinces.

Buzdar ordered the authorities concerned to take every possible step to counter locusts that are wreaking havoc all over the province. “Saving crops from locusts is the top priority of the government as it threatens food security of the country,” he said.

LOCUSTS V/S GRASSHOPPERS

Locusts and grasshoppers are the same in appearance, but locusts can exist in two different behavioral states (solitary {done or existing alone.} and gregarious{(of a person) fond of company; sociable.}), whereas most grasshoppers do not. When the population density is low, locusts behave as individuals, much like grasshoppers. However, when locust population density is high, individuals undergo physiological and behavioral changes, known as phase polyphenism ( Locusts are grasshoppers that can form dense migrating swarms through a phenomenon known as locust phase polyphenism) , and they form gregariously behaving bands of nymphs or swarms of adults.

In addition to changes in behavior, phase change may be accompanied by changes in body shape and color, and in fertility, physiology and survival. These changes are so dramatic in some species that the swarming and non-swarming forms were once considered to be different species.  The scale of population increase and migrations also distinguish those species known as locusts from grasshoppers.

The distinction between locusts and grasshoppers is often not clear-cut, as the extent to which different species exhibit gregarious phase characters is graded. The migratory locust has all of the features associated with phase change - differences in body shape and color, fertility and gregarious behavior in both the nymph and adult life stages, forming dense bands and swarms. The Australian plague locust also forms dense nymph bands and adult swarms, but does not exhibit changes in body color. Spur-throated locust (The spur-throated locust is a native Australian locust species in the family Acrididae and a significant agricultural pest) nymphs do not form bands and the adults do not lay eggs gregariously, but they do form dense swarms.

Some species that are called grasshoppers, such as Austroicetes cruciata, Oedaleus australis and Peakesia spp. can form loose swarms at high densities, but do not generally migrate long distances as locusts do.

The document plans for a massive expansion in offshore wind

Greenpeace has joined a growing list of organisations demanding that the UK government puts protecting the environment at the heart of any post-Covid-19 economic stimulus package.

“The phenomena of the physical world collectively, including plants, animals, the landscape, and other features and products of the earth, as opposed to humans or human creations”.

IMPORTANCE OF NATURE IN OUR LIVES

• Fresh water: There is no physical substance humans require more than freshwater: without water we can only survive a few hellish days. While pollution and overuse has threatened many of the world’s drinking water sources, nature has an old-fashioned solution, at least, to pollution. Healthy freshwater ecosystems—watersheds, wetlands, and forests—naturally clean pollution and toxins from water. Soils, microorganisms, and plant roots all play a role in filtering and recycling out pollutants with a price far cheaper than building a water filtration plant. According to research, the more bio-diverse the ecosystem, the faster and more efficiently water is purified.
• Pollination: Imagine trying to pollinate every apple blossom in an orchard: this is what nature does for us. Insects, birds, and even some mammals, pollinate the world’s plants, including much of human agriculture. Around 80% of the world’s plants require a different species to act as pollinator. In agriculture, pollinators are required for everything from tomatoes to cocoa, and almonds to buckwheat, among hundreds of other crops. Globally, agricultural pollination has been estimated to be worth around $216 billion a year. However large such monetary estimates don’t include pollination for crops consumed by livestock, bio-fuels, ornamental flowers, or the massive importance of wild plant pollination.

• Seed dispersal: Much like pollination, many of the world’s plants require other species to move their seeds from the parent plant to new sprouting ground. Seeds are dispersed by an incredibly wide-variety of players: birds, bats, rodents, megafauna like elephants and tapir, and even, researchers have recently discovered, fish. Seed dispersal is especially important for tropical forests where a majority of plants depend on animals to move.
• Pest control: A recent study found that bats save US agriculture billions of dollars a year simply by doing what they do naturally: eating insects, many of which are potentially harmful to US crops. Almost all agricultural pests have natural enemies, along with bats, these include birds, spiders, parasitic wasps and flies, fungi, and viral diseases. The loss, or even decline, of such pest-eating predators can have massive impacts on agriculture and ecosystems.
• Soil health: The ground under our feet matters more than we often admit. Healthy fertile soil provides optimal homes for plants, while participating in a number of natural cycles: from recycling nutrients to purifying water. Although soil is renewable, it is also sensitive to overuse and degradation often due to industrial agriculture, pollution, and fertilizers. Natural vegetation and quality soil also mitigates excessive erosion, which can have dramatic impacts from loss of agricultural land to coastlines simply disappearing into the sea.
• Medicine: Nature is our greatest medicine cabinet: to date it has provided humankind with a multitude of life-saving medicines from quinine to aspirin, and from morphine to numerous cancer and HIV-fighting drugs. There is no question that additionally important medications—perhaps even miracle cures—lie untapped in the world’s ecosystems. In fact, researchers estimate that less than 1% of the world’s known species have been fully examined for their medicinal value. However the ecosystems that have yielded some of the world’s most important and promising drugs—such as rain forests, peat swamps, and coral reefs—are also among the most endangered. Preserving ecosystems and species today may benefit, or even save, millions of lives tomorrow. 

• Fisheries: Humankind has turned to the rivers and seas for food for at least 40,000 years but probably even longer. Today, amid concern of a global fishery collapse, more than a billion people depend on fish as their primary source of protein, many of them among the global poor. Fisheries also provide livelihoods, both directly and indirectly, for around half a billion. Coral reefs, mangroves, and sea grass ecosystems provide nurseries for the world’s fisheries, while the open ocean is used for migrating routes and hunting. Even with the direct importance of the world’s fisheries for food, stewardship has been lacking, allowing many populations to drop precipitously and still permitting ecologically destructive fishing. While the world’s fisheries are primarily threatened by over fishing, including bycatch, marine pollution is also a major problem.
• Biodiversity and wildlife abundance: The argument to save the world’s wildlife has often come from an aesthetic point of view. Many conservationists have fought to save species simply because they like a particular species. This is often why more popularly known animals—tigers, elephants, rhinos—receive far more attention than less popular (although just as endangered) wildlife—for example, the red belly egg frog, the smokey bat, or the bastard quiver tree. But beyond making the world a less lonely, less boring, and less beautiful place—admirable reasons in themselves—many of the services provided by biodiversity are similar to those provided by all of nature. Biodiversity produces food, fibers, wood products; it cleans water, controls agricultural pests, pollinates and dispersers the world plants; and provides recreation, such as bird watching, gardening, diving, and ecotourism.
• Climate regulation: The natural world helps regulate the Earth’s climate. Ecosystems such as rain forests, peat lands, and mangroves store significant amounts of carbon, while the ocean captures massive amounts of carbon through phytoplankton. While regulating greenhouse gases are imperative in the age of climate change, new research is showing that the world’s ecosystems may also play a role in weather. A recent study found that the Amazon rain forest acted as its own ‘bioreactor’, producing clouds and precipitation through the abundance of plant materials in the forest.
• Economy: In the common tension viewed between the economy and the environment—e.g. do we clear-cut a forest or conserve it?—one fact is often neglected: the environment underpins the entire global economy. Without fertile soils, clean drinking water, healthy forests, and a stable climate, the world’s economy would face disaster. By imperiling our environment, we imperil the economy. According to research published in Science, the global worth of total ecosystem services could run between $40-60 trillion a year.

• Health: Recent research has found what nature-lovers have long expected: spending time in a green space, such as a park, provides benefits for one’s mental and physical health. Exercising in a park, instead of inside a gym, has shown to provide mental health benefits as a greater sense of well-being. Walking for 20 minutes in a green space has been proven to help children with ADHD improve their concentration, even working as well, or better, than medication. People who live in more natural settings have better overall health, even when research has taken into account economic differences.
• Art: Imagine poetry without flowers, painting without landscapes, or film without scenery. Imagine if Shakespeare had no rose to compare Juliet to, or if William Blake had no Tyger to set alight. Imagine if Van Gogh lacked crows to paint or Durer a rhinoceros to cut. What would the Jungle Book be without Baloo or the Wind in the Willows without Mr. Badger? Imagine My Antonia without the red grass of the American prairie or Wuthering Heights without the bleak moors. How would The Lord of the Rings film series appear without the stunning mountain ranges of New Zealand, or Lawrence of Arabia without the desert of North Africa? There is no question that the natural world has provided global arts with some of its greatest subjects. What we lose in nature, we also lose in art.
• Spiritual: While some of what nature provides us is measurable, most of what nature gives us is simply beyond measure. Economic measurements are useful; but as with most of what happens in the world, economics is simply incapable of capturing true worth. Science is also a useful measurement regarding the importance of nature, but once again cannot measure what nature means—practically and aesthetically—to each individual.

WHY IT’S IMPORTANT to VALUE NATURE?

Because nature is free, we often take it for granted and over exploit it. We clear forests, over fish oceans, pollute rivers and build over wetlands without taking account of the impact this will have. By not taking into account the benefits we get from nature, we create huge social and economic costs for ourselves.

NATURE V/S ENVIRONMENT