Daily Times

Our environment is our life. But, unfortunately, our environment is dying and that too, fast. As per the UN Environment Programme, climate change is one of the most pervasive and threatening issues of our time.

According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which includes more than 1,300 scientists from the US and other countries, temperatures are forecasted to rise 2.5 to 10 degrees Fahrenheit over the next century.

Citizens of the world, or even just in Pakistan alone, might look at these figures and think: what is 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit increase over a century?

But the reality is that we’re already experiencing the effects of climate change. From the worsening bushfires in Australia to the most powerful cyclonic storm, for 2019, to date, being recorded in the Arabian Sea, the impact of climate change is evident. We don’t need to wait 100 years to see them, we’re already seeing them occurring across the world.

Activists have been campaigning for years about the need for urgent action and slowly, slowly governments, organizations, companies, and individuals have been seen implementing positive activities. However, while scientists, researchers, and citizens are working every day to come up with new solutions to combat climate change, companies too need to step up their efforts.

Citizens of the world, or even just in Pakistan alone, might look at these figures and think: what is 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit increase over a century?

While some companies are slowly starting to take action after being called out by their consumers for not being more proactive in saving the environment for future generations, others are incorporating such efforts as a part of their ongoing CSR initiatives. This month alone we have seen one local company take a number of initiatives to help battle climate change.

Shan Foods has partnered with an e-commerce platform to help start making our city of lights green again. One aspect of the campaign involves selling their products as green deals on the platform with a call to consumers to purchase the product and sponsor a tree. The other part of the campaign which was inaugurated in a local school in Korangi will encompass planting eleven thousand trees in ten educational institutions across the city.

Due to the exorbitant increase in prices and the lack of water in Karachi, the days of seeing homeowners build houses with spacious lawns and tall trees are long gone. Because of these shifts and accelerated urbanization, we are seeing the responsibility of protecting our environment falling more and more on companies and individuals.

Another topic that is heavily under debate in the fight to protect our environment, revolves around reducing harmful carbon emissions. Just last month we saw Lahore’s air quality index hit alarming levels with smog levels reaching the highest they have been in two years. Karachi also periodically suffers from high levels of air pollution.

Being exposed to severe levels of air pollution in the long term has been known to be linked to higher rates of cancer, heart disease, stroke and respiratory diseases such as, asthma. In the short term, sneezing, coughing, eye irritation, headaches and dizziness are known to be the most common side effects of being exposed to air pollution.

So, what causes air pollution? Some of the common sources of air pollutionare: diesel emissions, crop burning, coal combustion (brick kilns and coal power), vehicles and industrial emissions.As per recent estimates by the government, the increasing levels of air pollution in our country are not only a health hazard for the people but they are also impacting the country’s GDP.

The two biggest factors, apart from the increase of vehicles on the roads, which have been pinpointed repeatedly for these hazardous levels, are fumes emitting from brick kilns and crop burning. While these may be correct in their own right, this does not mean that other industries are not contributing to pollution levels.

Taking into account the serious impacts air pollution, also known as a ‘silent killer,’ are having on the lives of the people, a private company has recently shifted its Lahore plant to a cleaner fuel. Shan Foods, in partnership with a government owned gas supply company, has successfully switched its plant from High Speed Diesel (HSD) to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) allowing the company to reduce its CO2 emissions from 2,640 to 1,665 grams per liter of LPG. The company’s move to a cleaner fuel shows their continued commitment to a Green Environment.

Globally, Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) is considered to be cleaner than any other fossil fuel, energy efficient, safe to use and preferred by most.

It is heartening to see governments, companies and citizens banding together to help protect our planet. However, everyone needs to realize that just because others are planning initiatives that do not mean that we can sit back and relax. The only way we will truly be able to counter and try and win this fight is by each of us playing our role, however small, to bring a change in the way we live.

The writer is a correspondent of Daily Times and tweets at @maferozi.