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| India-Pakistan | |
| India-Pakistan Glacier Battleground Could Lead to Environmental Catastrophe | |
| 2008-09-25 | |
| It could. Or maybe not. The quarter-century struggle between India and Pakistan for control over the Siachen Glacier along their disputed border in Kashmir is setting up a environmental catastrophe that will devastate the region's water supply, according to environmental scientists. By stationing toxin-leaking military equipment and between 6,000 and 25,000 combined troops atop the glacier, and by landing flights daily on the world's highest helipad, India and Pakistan have made the Siachen the world's dirtiest glacier and one of the world's fastest-receding glaciers -- it currently loses roughly 100 meters (328 feet) per year. That dirties the water tank for some of Asia's largest rivers, which together provide drinking water for half of humanity. I ain't a mathematician, and don't even play one on TV, but that seems a little high for one glacier. "If Siachen and other glaciers Oh - now it's expanded to "other glaciers" - kinda like the gerbil wormening thing.... are not preserved, the impacts on human health, water resources and food production will be colossal," said Abid Suleri, director of the Sustainable Development Policy Institute, a think tank in Pakistan. "Think tank" "Pakistan" - DoesnotcomputeDoesnotcomputeDoesnot compute Crop yields could be reduced by up to 20 percent in East and Southeast Asia and by up to 30 percent in South and Central Asia by 2050, he added. It's always could. And it's always 2050. Did the global catastrophe prognosticators get a half-price special on that year?
And no other country in the region gets their water from the said glacier specialist Khalid Rashid, who taught math and physics at Islamabad's Quaid-i-Azam University. "Math & physics" "Islamabad" - DoesnotcomputeDoesnotcomputeDoesnot compute (Are they trying to make my head explode? "The whole area is being polluted with toxic waste, and it will pollute your children and your grandchildren. If we do not want to leave behind the harmful effects of human activity, we must withdraw troops now." By "we" he means INDIA, of course. Tell ya' what - y'all go first and show India how it's done, m'kay? | |
| Posted by:Barbara Skolaut |
| #4 The solution to pollution is dilution. Sorta works for the Ganges, don't know about the Indus. Lifeline of Pakistan, ya say? Wellll, that puts things in a whole new light. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2008-09-25 22:25 |
| #3 according to environmental scientists Ha? |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2008-09-25 19:14 |
| #2 All of a sudden a paki is concerned about his family. yet they will shoot their own son and cut their daughters throat at the word of dishonor |
| Posted by: sinse 2008-09-25 14:00 |
| #1 Environmentalists must go to that glacier and protest - to save the world. Now! And don't come back until the job is done. |
| Posted by: Richard of Oregon 2008-09-25 13:06 |