Local eco-facts
This river flows from the Himalayas to the Arabian Sea and supplies water to most of Pakistan’s farmland.
The Indus River.
Solar panels turn this into electricity.
Sunlight
Sorting waste into paper, plastic, glass, and metal is the first step in turning it into new products through this process.
Recycling.
These trees line the Indus Delta and the Sindh and Balochistan coast, shielding it from cyclones and storing “blue carbon.”
Mangroves.
Dams like Tarbela and Mangla produce this type of renewable power from flowing water.
Hydropower.
Food scraps and garden waste can be turned into nutrient-rich soil through this natural process.
Composting.
Each winter, Lahore and much of Punjab are covered in this hazardous haze caused by vehicle exhaust, industrial emissions, and crop burning.
SMOG.
Power plants tap this clean energy source, which comes from heat stored beneath Earth’s surface.
Geothermal Energy.
Burying trash in large designated sites is called this, and Karachi’s Jam Chakro is one example.
Landfilling.
Pakistan’s northern mountains hold thousands of these frozen rivers of ice, more than almost any country outside the polar regions, and they are melting faster as temperatures rise.
Glaciers.
Because the sun sets and the wind stalls, grids use these, such as large lithium-ion units, to save renewable power for later.
Battery storage.
This potent greenhouse gas, released as food waste rots in landfills, is roughly 28 times stronger than CO₂ over a century.
Methane.