THE DYING PLANET
By: Abdul Rehman Malik
Tags: Climate Change, Pollution, Save The Planet, Pakistan, Smog

Do you feel that the summer season is getting longer every year, low rainfall and if you live in Lahore, how it’s possible that you don’t experience the difficult breathing due to smog. The long term climate risk index ranked Pakistan at 8th position among the ten countries who are more vulnerable towards climate change, although Pakistan only contributes less than 1% in total global greenhouse gas emission. The melting of Himalaya glaciers not only increase the frequency and intensity of floods but also have deleterious effects on water levels, the low water levels will have direct impact on agriculture industry in Pakistan. Somehow or other climate change also leads to social instability and disturbed migration patterns. All these changes are directly or indirectly linked with deforestation and unfortunately we are ranked at the top in cutting the lungs of the nature, currently only 2.5% of Pakistan is covered with forests while at the time of independence this figure crosses the 30%. A big hand of applause for the government for initiating the campaign ‘Plant for Pakistan’, but what about timber Mafia and their political connections.

The other main reason of climate change is geopolitics. The stubble burning at the other side of border made the air severely polluted in Lahore as told by the Pakistan’s Minister of State for Climate Change, Zartaj Gul Wazir in one of her tweet. Coal is the single biggest contributor to global climate change. The greenhouse gases released from coal plants will put us on track for a five degree Celsius rise in global temperatures, a fate likened to planetary collapse. And two our neighbour countries are ranked at topped in coal consumption. The 65% of total energy consumption in China is through coal and it’s the world biggest coal producer while India is world’s fifth biggest coal producer with 8.5% of coal consumption.

The PM Imran Khan also warned the world about catastrophic consequences of climate change in 74th UN general assembly session, he said ‘’there will be climate refugees in future, The major hurdle to tackle global warming is that many countries do not take it as big challenge as it is and I fear that if the temperature kept rising then millions and millions of people would suffer due to the shortage of freshwater.” To cope up with the situation the government has already banned the use of polythene bags in capital city, still this is just a drop.

But the question arises what we can do as we don’t own the plastic lungs & whenever the ecosystem is vulnerable, we are the victims. We can plant a tree as a part of our birthday celebrations every year or whenever a child is born, by planting a tree in his name basically we are providing the fuel for his breathing. We can use eco-friendly bags instead of polythene bags, this would be a great favour for the fragile earth. We can reduce our water consumption as well specially in domestic use, close the tap when you are brushing your teeth & instead of shower use a bucket of water for bathing. By using public transport the greenhouse gas emission can be reduced markedly.

The climate change is a global problem and to deal with it global collusion is required otherwise the existence of this planet and life on this planet is in imminent danger.