Stopping degradation: President, PM call for saving earth

Urge people to join hands in overcoming ecological challenges.

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has stressed the need for joining hands in meeting the challenges arising out of the asymmetrical climatic variations and to arrest the steep environmental degradation.

In his message on the occasion of World Earth Day that falls on April 22, the President said that observing this day every year is a reminder of our responsibility to undertake concerted efforts to preserve the face of the earth from further degradation caused by the ruthless manipulation of the ecosystem and assaults on the balancing forces of nature.

“Mother Earth, indeed, has paid a very high price in our relentless pursuit of greater prosperity and socio-economic development. Indeed we have taken far more from this earth than we have returned to it,” the president said.

He added that climatic change and global warning was causing recurring droughts, massive food shortages, potential starvation, floods and other natural calamities.

He said the theme of the Day for this year, “The Face of Climate Change,” highlights the adverse impacts of climate change focusing attention on the need to preserve ecological balance.

Khoso’s message

Prime Minister Justice (Retd) Mir Hazar Khan Khoso also urged the countrymen to pay due attention in overcoming the climatic and ecological challenges faced by the Mother Earth and make concerted efforts for its preservation.

The prime minister, in his separate message, said that it was their sacred duty to work together in overcoming the challenges posed by the unbalanced climatic discrepancies and seizing the sharp ecological dilapidation.

“World Earth Day reminds us of our responsibility to take necessary steps for the preservation of its pristine nature and to fight against elements working towards degradation of its ecosystem,” the PM said.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 22^nd, 2013.