Danger ahead

Life on the earth is possible because of a balanced ecosystem. This means that the human race needs plants and trees to survive. Pakistanis bring every major socio-economic or political issue in the limelight, but they haven’t yet raised their voice against the damage we are doing to our environment. We must realise that the first thing to do is to look after the conservation of natural environment. The damage done to the environment because of the combustion of greenhouse gases is irreversible. But we are not paying attention to the threats of climate change. Western countries have more vehicles than Pakistan, but they have figured out a way to at least slow down the greenhouse effect by balancing the pollutant gases with plentiful tree plantation.

On the contrary, we are so busy developing the infrastructure of our cities without even making arrangements for tree plantation to balance, if not reduce, pollution. The world is talking about ‘global warming’, and the phenomenon is as real as it can be. Renowned Astrophysicist Dr Neil deGrasse Tyson also warned the people when he said that if the earth ever suffers ‘a runaway greenhouse effect’, its atmosphere would trap excessive amount of solar energy. “This would be bad”, he said. We have read a lot about the extinction of dinosaurs. No one could stop the damage back then. What is our plan?

Asher Ashkar Gohar

Peshawar

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The Ministry of Climate Change has passed the Pakistan Climate Change Bill, 2017 to mitigate environmental threats and prevent future disasters. Although bills and resolutions hold their own importance, it is the time ‘to act’. The country has environmental laws, but their implementation is a big issue. The Khyber-Pakhthunkhwa government has set the best example of determination for whole Pakistan by launching the ‘Green Khyber-Pakhthukhwa’ campaign with the aim to plant eight million trees across the province. This is appreciable initiative of Green KP in which the local community is taking part strongly for reforestation in reward of job opportunities. To mitigate the threats of climate change, forests are an important part of the global carbon cycle because trees and plants absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. By removing this greenhouse gas from the air, forests function as terrestrial carbon sinks, meaning they store large amounts of carbon.

Pakistan is likely to produce four times more greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and would need $40 billion to mitigate the effects. The country is facing many adverse climate change impacts in the form of floods, melting of glaciers, droughts, heat waves, sea intrusion and most recently smog. High carbon emission intensity power sources are being used by the government, such as conventional fossil fuels like oil, coal and natural gas, for setting up power houses. There is a pressing need to replace the high carbon emission intensity power sources with low-carbon power sources like solar and wind power. The clean, sustainable and environment-friendly energy should be the first priority. The main purpose of the Pakistan Climate Change Bill is to allow the country to access global climate finance more energetically. Before getting global climate finance, the government must focus to set their policies, priorities and targets in a crystal clear way.

Engr Mansoor Ahmed

Faisalabad