Fantastic Four is a retro-futurist movie depicting heroes saving the planet while having powers to control water, air, and earth. These elements control humans and their sustenance. The world in general and Pakistan in particular have reached their fantastic four moment. The Anthropocene gap is widening like tectonic fissures, not visible but palpable. Pakistan’s climate story begins with a myth that, with less than one per cent contribution, it is facing the main climatic retributions on Dostoevsky’s scale. This is complacency at play; no one here is climate conscious, and both CO2 and methane emissions are some of the highest areas of application and environmental infliction points. With REDD (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) in limbo, reducing four per cent of total green cover will further drive those numbers down the line. Uncontrolled timber theft and logging were again manifested when, two days ago, all the devastated areas of KP, Swat, Kashmir, and GB were littered with logs of cryogenic wood. The timber mafia is honing their canines. The global climate is the result of oscillations in the Pacific Ocean and the Atlantic Ocean. The jet streams and monsoon are just the climatic corollary to the music being churned out by the oceanic machines, the cling of little boy (El Niño) and the clang of little girl (La Niña). The complete pattern of the weather system is changing globally due to disturbances in ocean circulations like AMOC, unusual movements in all 15 tectonic plates, changes in Earth’s gravity, and variations in the moon’s gravitational pull. For every cool breeze we enjoy or the rain in which we drench, the little boy and little girl are indirectly involved. Slowing circulation in the Atlantic Ocean and cloud bursts in Buner or Swat are linked. Welcome to the real global village. Whatever is happening in Lahore is affecting Kathmandu and Bhutan. The crime theory of climate innocent or climate culprit is gone with the wind (because you can’t punish the developed culprits, and you also can’t save the underdeveloped innocents, Orwellian times, little Joe). The world’s biggest emitter of CO2 is out of the Paris Agreement, and just yesterday, over 100 countries could not agree on a plastic ban treaty, which is actually more dangerous than nuclear proliferation.
Climate is not an administrative or bureaucratic problem per se; it is a human and Anthropocene paradox, which can only be solved by passion, panchayat, and people’s approach.
In the coming weeks, months, and years, Pakistan is facing the threat of droughts, floods, flash floods, cyclones, urban heat island effects, wet bulb events, landslides, and earthquakes due to geomorphological changes owing to climate. Isn’t it a war situation? If yes, then only the whole nation can fight this war. The climate war in Pakistan is the gradient and gravity war. The gradient, in a sense, is that due to uncontrolled timber cutting on mountains, the mountain slopes are becoming unstable. As for gravity, in all urban areas, engineers, town planners, and developers have never considered the angle of gravity and urban slope for natural drainage in mind; it has always been a catch for a few more plots at the vale. Thus, the country’s gradient failure. The rain, drenching, and cloud-bursting exacerbate these phenomena. This is what happened in 2022 and even now. The question arises here: can colonial-modelled bureaucracy fight this climate war? Revenue representatives with administrative powers are already in every village. Fighting wars is a different science. Like the army, one must be a step ahead of the enemy, not two steps behind. Bureaucracy must be redesigned along the lines of modern, well-disciplined technocracy right at the level of tehsil and above. India has almost surpassed its environmental vows by introducing, or rather reviving, the panchayat system. The aesthetic of the village, the water problem, crime, development, and municipal responsibilities are functional through the panchayat with a liaison directly to the DC Sahib. Again, NDMA is also behind the curve, just forecasting events with general contours of happenings; it may happen, it may not. Once, orographic rain was a boon for the mountains, which has now become a bane.
These are extraordinary times, requiring extraordinary measures. While having all the necessary climate architecture (the ministry, the act, and policy) in the country, three things must be done immediately: first, establishing a national climate authority based on scientific scaffolds; second, a national adaptation plan (a sine qua non) with maps, zoning, vulnerabilities, and measures; and thirdly, a hyperspectral and weather satellite force under NDMA. Presently, for tracing clouds and their types, data is sought from GEOS in the USA, Himawari in Japan, and NOAA satellites. Having our own satellite with light sensors (to judge the type of clouds), infrared sensors (to measure the temperature of building clouds), and microwave sensors (to gauge the precipitation of clouds) will be the field artillery of this war. Weather stations with ground radars are not sufficient to trace the changing patterns of monsoon, the western disturbance, and the surge over the Atlantic or Pacific. Pakistan’s climate story is a scientific dilemma, to be tackled with pure science, human empathy and the resolve of a soldier. Three qualities will come in handy: courage, good humour and kindliness. A few books can be foundational in these extraordinary times for policymakers to fight the coming climate war: Move by Parag Khanna, Good Ancestor by Roman Krznaric, Humankind by Rutger Bregman and Ecological Intelligence by Daniel Goleman. Climate is not an administrative or bureaucratic problem per se; it is a human and Anthropocene paradox, which can only be solved by passion, panchayat, and people’s approach.