Thinking green

Pakistan produces only one percent of the world's carbon emissions, but is a major sufferer of the impact created by the far larger volumes of carbon gases released into the environment by other, larger countries around the world. China and the US are both among these countries, as are other industrial powers in the Western world. Prime Minister Imran Khan too has emphasised this point time and again. As the world observes World Environment Day today, we need to take a serious look at climate change, and how it is affecting our country -- with glacial melt on the increase due to the changing climate and a direct impact of the altering weather patterns on crop production and the seasons in which they are produced. All this needs a serious discussion by agriculturalists given that we have suffered damage to many of our crops, because of the new pattern of rains, drought, and other factors, which all have an influence on our lives, and most importantly, our capacity to produce food.

The billion-tree tsunami is an important project -- but at the same time, we must ask why trees in parts of the country are being rapidly cut down for development projects, given that even if new trees are planted, it will take years for them to grow and provide the kind of environmental protection and shade that we need. We must also stop the curious policy seen in many of our larger cities of planting foreign trees. Our own local species offer all that is acquired and since they are accustomed to the local climate would offer the best chances of growing rapidly, reaching full height and offering people the reduction in carbon emissions that we require.

In this sense, Pakistan's focus on climate change is welcome. We can indeed learn a lot from other countries in the region and elsewhere. But an effort has to be made to move in this direction, and to ensure that we take the right steps. Other countries have also been attempting to do so. But Pakistan has particular challenges because of the number of glaciers that lie in the north of the country and the drastic impact climate change has on them. It is necessary to move quickly. It is also necessary to create awareness, and as the prime minister has suggested, to start creating this awareness at the primary school level. Only if we do this will we be able to manage climate change and perhaps escape the terrible impact it has on us, even if the emissions come from other countries rather than from our own territory.