KARACHI:
Climate disasters around the world have been increasing at an alarming rate over the past few years. This year alone, the floods in Karachi left the ill-equipped city submerged in water while heat waves in the last few years have also taken the lives of many. Wildfires in Australia at the start of 2020 led to the loss of a number of native animal species and have also become frequent in the California region of the US. While nations across the globe battle the onset of climate change, Pakistan should also be playing its part in saving the global ecosystem.
It does not come as a surprise that Pakistan has been enlisted as the fifth most climate vulnerable country in the world. Even so, climate policies are the last thing on our political agenda. David Attenborough, the well-renowned British natural Historian recently requested for an immediate call for action in his documentary “A Life on Our Planet”. He suggested various ways through which we can reverse the damage caused by humankind onto our environment which include a shift to renewable resources, a control on the global population and a focus on bringing back biodiversity. While a country like ours does not top the list of the biggest greenhouse gas emitters, it is going to be one of the worst impacted as a result of climate change.
Climate experts should come together to discuss the role our country can play to impede the slow death of our planet. This may not have been a priority for our leaders in the past, but this year has shown us that nature waits for no one, not even the most powerful and rich.
Published in The Express Tribune, October 26th, 2020.
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