In touch with nature

World Environment Day falling on June 5 has been marked globally under UN auspices since 1974. This year it was particularly relevant, coming as it did days after President Trump announced the US would withdraw from the 2015 Paris Agreement, which lays out responsibilities for nations on greenhouse gas emissions and attempts to govern other factors which affect climate change or cause environmental damage. For Pakistan, the Paris Agreement has special significance. While the country, according to experts, produces among the lowest toxic gas emissions from industry in the world, it is severely affected by climate change as a consequence of emissions produced by other nations. Pakistan needs to do all it can to seek a strengthening not only of the Paris Agreement but regional accords which protect the environment and topography of any nation. On Environment Day this year, the prime minister made all the right suggestions in his short statement, saying that Pakistan had put in place laws on industrial emissions and was working to control environmental damage. However, this is essentially a symbolic gesture. Despite the prime minister’s words, we know from evidence that laws on industrial waste including effluents from factories are very poorly implemented. Air quality in all our major cities has declined far below WHO safety limits as a consequence of the number of noxious particles held in the air which contribute to respiratory diseases and originate from vehicular emissions as well as factory furnaces.

Certainly, if we look closely, the impact of environmental damage and climate change is visible everywhere. Experts believe the high summer temperatures and less severe winters experienced in some parts of the country are a result of climate change, triggered by global warming. We need to create more awareness about the terrible risks involved in mowing down trees within urban centres or making other similar decisions to accommodate infrastructure projects or other works. We know that people everywhere in the country are suffering directly as a result of environmental degradation. The destruction of mangrove forests in coastal areas affects entire ecosystems and the livelihood of fisherfolk, as does the rampant pollution of lakes and the ocean. People have less and less access to potable drinking water because we have poisoned our once rich resources. Our air too is no longer safe to breathe, and farmers suffer many consequences as a result of unexpected weather conditions which damage standing crops. We need then to do more than merely mark a single day on the calendar. The environment we live in is critical to all of us. We need to work far harder to salvage it.