As Lahore suffocates

We need to understand global warming through the immense literature that continues to be published on it

Perhaps if everyone is done with their witticisms and political bickering we can now start to focus on the most important issue at hand. Let’s cut to the chase; there is no denying that the smog situation in Lahore is dire as the Air Quality Index has exceeded 400 — with below 300 being the safety level. And all that the authorities are seen doing is indulging in a useless blame game. While some accuse the Indian crop farmers, others blame the dense traffic caused by the Azadi March. These reasons are side-splitting at best; not because of how ludicrous they are but because no one seems to have any sense of what climate change and global warming actually signify. In short, we are trying to ‘find’ the cause of a problem we don’t understand.

It is pitiful to see that, as local officials act empty-headed, Amnesty International, an external human rights organisation, has issued an “urgent action” warning for the toxic smog that has engulfed Lahore. “Lahore has not had a single day of healthy air this year,” Amnesty said while calling on members from around the world to confront Pakistani authorities for devaluing the crisis. What is all the more alarming is that every single citizen in Lahore is at a serious health risk.

Access to a clean and healthy environment is a basic human right and Lahore is suffocating under the outright ignorance of the leading few. As global warming intensifies it becomes a given that the environmental crisis simultaneously becomes a humanitarian one. Pakistan will be amongst the worst affected by it due to the geographical position close to the equator. Our officials blame individual events, but the problem and evidently its solution is a collective one. We need to understand the problem of global warming through the immense literature that continues to be published on it before acting collectively as a nation towards a solution. This could be our last call from the gods to unite an increasingly polarised world.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 23^rd, 2019.

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