Daily Times

Sometimes a portrait can have a really deep and lasting effect on people, and the intensity of the message can be really daunting. The image (above) is screaming about the atrocities that we, humans, have inflicted upon Mother Nature. The first time I saw this image, I was goose bumped. The reason was not the fact that we are murdering the nature, but the realisation that the hand is not of nature but ours; we are forcing our country, Pakistan, into the same fate as reflected by the portrait.

If we do a survey and ask people the question, “What is the biggest, current threat to Pakistan?” Without any doubt the most notable responses will be, “India, sectarianism, Western powers interests and conspiracies, terrorism, lack of education and again India.” These are quite valid responses and these termites are eating the foundations of our country. But there is a much bigger problem: climate change.

I doubt that people here barely know what climate change is and those who have an idea about it they act as if it doesn’t exist and has no effect on our lives. This is most unfortunate for us as a nation. I can discuss about what it is or what are the solutions to this menace, but the real issue here is the mindset of our people. How many of us have heard this “it is not our problem, it is our future generations’ problem to deal with”. Most of us will either encounter or even find ourselves presenting this argument. This ignorance is the biggest threat to Pakistan. This shows that we do not have the slightest idea about the severity of this. Let me raise the stakes. Scientific models have shown that by 2060, world will face such fresh water shortage that more than half of the population will be a facing a real life threatening situation. Other models predict the same future. That is 45 years from now and those ‘future generations’ will be us!

Moreover, the developing countries will be on the front lines. To get the feeling of it in Pakistan, look at the biggest city and the economical hub of Pakistan: Karachi. More than half of its population is deprived of fresh water supply and just an ordinary heatstroke killed a thousand people. In Punjab, the Indus is shrinking and Ravi is no more than a drain for sewage of Lahore. Without the Indus system, the whole of Punjab and Sindh would be a barren land. The rain and weather patterns are changing, the glaciers of Pakistan are melting and the deserts are expanding. This is great news for an agro-based economy. The country is pivoted around green plants where plants are suffocating!

This is happening all over the globe but Pakistanis are oblivious to this fact and in Pakistan there is no implementation of an environmental-friendly drive. We must change it! We must radically change our life styles and go green before the changes become irreversible. We must understand that we are blindfolded by the glimmer of advancement and that we don’t have the license to destroy nature, endangering millions of life forms. Even our religion Islam does not allow this. The mere gist of where we are rowing ourselves is enough as it automatically forces a person to think and do something. All that is needed is awareness and this is what I have tried to convey through this article.

In the hustle and bustle of advancement and progress and in our selfishness, we have forgotten that nature is the self-sustaining mechanism and we humans are not. Nature is gathering all its forces to strike hard on humanity – Pakistan is no exception. Nature will replenish itself but we as humans, as a nation, will never be able to recover. I know that this article is full of negativity but the truth is always bitter and we must face it. We must go green before our country, we suffocate!

For my mother who says that I am a freak, saving water!