What is climate change?

Human Activity and Climate

Human activity can affect the environment and can change the climate. Climate is the way people live and it is crucial for tourism in a region.

The Greenhouse Effect

The earth receives its life-sustaining heat from the sun. Majority of the heat energy from the sun passes through the earth's atmosphere as ultraviolet, or short-wave radiation. You can grow food and plants in a greenhouse

Global Warming

The rising temperature in the earth is because of the greenhouse effect, global warming is an example of what humans can do to the environment and that it can change due to the amount of natural greenhouse gasses. Greenhouse gasses can be carbon dioxide, methane, chlorofluorocarbons. Burning fossil fuels, deforestation and types of transport can also cause global warming.

Carbon dioxide

Carbon dioxide is the most common greenhouse gas and is the main cause of global warming. Burning fossil fuels and just breathing releases carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. Plants absorb a lot of carbon dioxide but forests are being removed in order to accumulate resources for construction or other means, this is referred to as deforestation, the burning of forests are becoming more frequent.

Methane

Methane is produced when bacteria break down organic matter without oxygen being present. These bacteria are most productive in waste dumps, swamps, animals dung and fields.

Chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs)

CFC gases are in deodorants, refrigerators and in foam used for packaging. CFC is harmful to the ozone layer. The ozone layer is a layer in the earth's stratosphere, which absorbs most of the ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth from the sun.

Nitrous Oxide

Most fertilizers are based on nitrates. With the increased use of fertilizers in farming, there is more nitrous oxide in the atmosphere.

Climate Change

The world gets warmer and this affects the climate and changes it by giving climates heavier rainfall, extreme climates, less predictable climates and desertification.

Rise in sea level

The major cause of global sea levels rising are thermal expansion caused by the warming of the oceans.

Agriculture

The change in climate might help or alternatively destroy farmland. High temperature makes the soil dry. Heavy rainfall is needed for fertilizing but may wash away soil and farmland.

Humans and their involvement

Planners and engineers are looking to the future and are developing strategies to combat global warming, such as the construction of sea defenses, flood dams, levees and irrigation schemes.

Energy Conservation

Energy conservation is becoming a higher priority for governments and to achieve this they must use cleaner fuel, reusing and recycling of products, reafforestation, a reduction in the burning of fossil fuels and an increase in the use of renewable energy such as wind, solar and water power.

Solutions to global warming and climate change

Official Policies

The Framework Convention on Climate change (1992) and the Kyoto Protocol (1997) is the first international community to help with man-made pollution to protect the climate.

Other Solutions

People should try and use less energy and recycle more. This means that we should; try and use renewable energy sources like wind and solar. Recycle our rubbish so that we do not have to remake things. Plant more forests and reduce deforestation and also use alternatives to petrol or diesel cars such as electric cars which do not harm the atmosphere and add the ever so changing climate due to human intervention.

Pakistan and Climate Change

Pakistan is the seventh-most vulnerable country to climate change as claimed by Germanwatch(Greenwatch is an environmental rights advocacy Non-Government Organisation). The unbearable heat everyone has been experiencing is widely discussed throughout the people of Pakistan. We often see the media discuss Pakistan’s vulnerability to the climate crises. Climate change is a major concern, not only for the assured future of this generation but also for the survival of the generations to come. Some of the consequences that we are already experiencing are frequent famine, melting glaciers, drought, floods and heat waves. In relation to Pakistan, there are many aspects of the changing climate and global warming that are affecting this country. Two major areas that are being afflicted are the impact on health and crop production. It is rather abnormal to experience heavy windstorms and rainfall in the months of May and June. This June was recorded as one of the warmest in the past few years in Pakistan. These unexpected rains and then the heat wave have affected crop production. This is known because of the quality of the mangoes harvested this season. It had reportedly rained just when the crops were ready for harvesting. Planting trees and banning plastics won’t lessen our vulnerability to the changing climate, this is not sufficient enough. One of the dire effects of the changing climate is that it inevitably affects the GDP. Poor people in Sindh die not only due to malnutrition, but also because of the unbearable heat. Several have died in the recent heavy rains because appropriate infrastructure is not in place. The smog that hits Lahore each year affects the health of so many.

What actions have been taken so far to counteract the issue?

A billion trees in KP have been planted, and there are more trees being planted under the 10 Billion Tree Tsunami project. The government took the initiative and announced the Plastic Bag Se Azadi (Free from Plastic Bags) campaign. If the laws are enforced, it would be a good start to gaining control over plastic pollution. This will not directly decrease global warming but will positively contribute to sustaining land and marine life. The government’s next initiative should be to ban one-time-use plastics, which include food boxes, disposable cups and straws. That is directly related to global warming as a lot of energy is used in their production. All plastics are bad, but some alternatives are better than the one-time-use (polyethylene terephthalate) plastics which can be replaced with high-density polyethylene. An example is tumblers which are easily available in the market. Styrofoam is yet another cause, and although a bill was formulated by the Punjab Food Authority in 2018 to ban styrofoam as food packaging, it is yet to be approved, and we see its high use in local food markets as well as high-end restaurants.

Section 3: Design and Development of the artefact

3.1 The iterative design process

We designed our McDonald's website to be divided in the center. This allowed us to have two clear sections with separate functions. We also applied a column with buttons, allowing the user a clear view for navigation and access to the website's features.

3.2 Development of the final artefact

Our project includes the necessary database to control and access information. The website's layout is also user-friendly with a good user interface.