Eco-tech breakthrough

Perhaps one of the things that have been most overlooked when it comes to climate change is air space. While most scientists and researchers focus on land and water, constantly being polluted with non-biodegradable waste, Pakistan’s technological marvel inventor Dr Sarah Qureshi turned to the sky by inventing the world’s first eco-friendly aircraft engine said to be unveiled later in the year. This will not only shed light on the negative impacts that commercial air carriers have on the earth’s stratosphere, which Qureshi has been working on since 2018, but also label Pakistan as a serious contributor to and an international stakeholder in the fight against climate change. While many researchers are slowing catching on to the negative effects of the contrail phenomenon — where white smoke released by the aircraft affects the climate by acting as a barrier that traps heat radiating from earth and hence increasing the temperature — it seems that Pakistan is among the few who have already acknowledged it.

Even though not much can be said about the specificities of the eco-friendly engine until it is fully launched, the news itself is music to our ears. The project is in its nascent stage and should be pitched to the government, the air force and the civil aviation so that they collaborate together to project this programme internationally. With the world slowly moving towards eco-friendly alternatives, this will give an opportunity for Pakistan to show its positive side and bring in the necessary monetary benefit the country is desperate for. Such individual initiatives and tech breakthroughs are rare, not only in Pakistan but all over the world. The concerned departments need not downplay this and instead provide the necessary support. In the modern world, it is important to enhance tech industries, something that Pakistan lacks. Perhaps this initiative could pave the way for much development in the future. 

Published in The Express Tribune, March 1^st, 2020.

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