Editorial

The shocking and sudden death toll due to the heatwave in Karachi should be enough cause to remind us that climate change has come knocking at our doors with full might.

In view of the deaths of more than 1,200 people, environmental experts warn this may just be followed by more such incidents. India gives us an example of how this can be tackled to a considerable extent. Soon after the heatwave in May in India that killed over 2,500 people in Ahmedabad, the Indian policy makers devised a plan so that the effects of extreme climate changes can be mitigated.

Changing climate patterns have also become a great challenge for the agriculture sector of Pakistan. Small farmers are the worst hit as their capacity to cope with the situation and adapt to new technologies is limited. In the absence of an early flood warning system, the losses multiply. That calls for a new pattern of sowing and reaping of crops. All this requires Pakistan to have agricultural research institutes.

But heatwaves and floods are just a manifestation of the wrongs we are doing to our mother earth. In Pakistan too, development projects hardly take into account an environmental impact assessment, if one has been undertaken in the first place.

And we are not alone in committing this crime at the cost of the humanity. The fast changing climate patterns around the world simply mean that the world is failing in cutting down carbon emissions, thus, flash floods, erratic rainfall, wildfires, glacial lake outbursts, etc. In addition to the extraction of fossil fuels for industrial purposes, massive use of fertilisers and pesticides, deforestation, and extensive use of groundwater goes largely unchecked in the face of flimsy efforts at the global level to save the earth.

While waiting for the world to realise the need to fight climate change, Pakistan must wake up to the shocking reality and take practical and effective steps to lessen its harmful effects. And by Pakistan, we mean each one of its citizens. All of us need to turn into environmentalists in our own small worlds, in plantation of trees, switching off extra lights , in a sane use of air conditioning and motor vehicles, in saving each and every drop of water. Let’s start counting the bounties of nature and caring for them.