re:PEACE
Climate Change & Floods in Pakistan
Climate does not discriminate between the poor and the rich, the global north or the south. The time to act is now!"
Maham S Gillani, 2022
The rains began in June and soon after a third of Pakistan was submerged in water. Entire villages and cities transformed into desperate islandssurroundedbyputrid,greenwater
In the words of Muhammad Shahbaz Sharif, the Prime Minister of Pakistan, “For 40 days and 40 nights a biblical flood poured down on us, smashing centuries of weather records, challenging everything we knew about the disaster,andhowtomanageit.”
Relentless monsoon rains in the country have killed more than a thousand people, including 400 children, and directly affected 33 million people It has swept away houses, roads, bridges, and livestock. According to initial estimates, a million homes were destroyed and another million damaged, more than 13,000 km of roads were wrecked, more than 370 bridges washed away, and over a million cattle killed In addition, some 83 million acres of crops have been destroyed, meaning a significant portion of the country's agricultural workforcehaslosttheirlivelihoods.
Womenandchildrenafterlosingshelterinthe catastrophic floods are now living in makeshift tents. UNICEF reports that over 3 million children are in dire need of humanitarian assistance and are vulnerable to malnutrition, waterborne diseases, and drowning Cases of skin diseases, respiratory infections, and diarrhea have already begun surfacing The precarious humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate as huge swathes of land remain underwater.
Today Pakistan is suffering from the repercussions of climate change, tomorrow it could be Germany, France, Australia, or Canada.
Indeed, in the recent past, Pakistan has been hit by aseriesofextremeweathereventssuchasmelting glaciers, burning forests, and scorching heatwaves over 51°C Scientists have attributed these drastic weather events, including recent flooding, to climate change. Pakistan is among the ten most climate vulnerable countries in the world, yet it emits just 04% of the carbon emissions that heat the planet The rich polluting nations owe it to Pakistan for facing the wrath of nature and unfairly bearing the brunt of climate change impacting millionsofitspeoplewithnofaultoftheirown Pakistan should not be left alone to deal with the consequences of climate carnage in this difficult hour. After the ongoing rescue and relief efforts in the flood affected areas, the next challenge would be rehabilitation and reconstruction The government has meager economic resources and limitedexpertise forclimate friendly reconstruction. In this regard, the international community must step in to provide all forms of assistance to the people of Pakistan who are suffering from global inactionandclimateinjustice.
It is the most vulnerable people laborers, farmers, and shepherds marred by poverty and neglect that have been hit the hardest by the cataclysmic floods. The areas of Pakistan that have suffered the greatestlossesarealsosomeofitspoorest, for instance, Rural Sindh which has a low literacyrate,restrictedaccesstohealthcare, and hardly any modern infrastructure. The floods have compounded poverty and reversed what little progress had taken placeinsuchareas
Why must the poor nations always suffer at the behest of the rich? In the 19th century, they were robbed of their resources, their culture, and even their identity by their colonizers After the turn of the 20th century, the great powers joined in the Cold War, largely turning these poor countries into chessboards of political strife, waging wars in their territories and killing millions of people And now in the 21st century, over a hundred years of progress and prosperity in the western civilized world are turning parts of these countries into smoking cauldrons The only thing that has remained constant for these nations over the centuries is: suffering
The capitalist greed for wealth in the form of industrialization, continuous encroachment on natural areas, and blatant disregard for wildlife have come at the expense of nature. Human activity has affected the only planet
we call home, Earth Top polluters of the world Japan, Canada, the US, and much of western Europe account for 50% of greenhouse gases warming the planet over the last 170 years. Ironically, only 12% of the global population resides in these rich countries that are overwhelmingly responsibleforclimatecarnage.
On the flip side, the countries most vulnerable to climate change, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Chad, Haiti, Kenya, Niger, and Pakistan, are also among the poorest in the world.
Floods, hurricanes, heatwaves, and wildfires would engulf all parts of the world if the international community fails to heed the threats posed by climate change.Martin Sackey
Saikiran Kesari (Cover)
Assad Tanoli (page1)
Wolfgang Hasselmann (page
Umar Farooq (page
Assad Tanoli (page
(retrieved from Unsplash free bank)
Shahid Gillani
Akeem
Garduño
M.L.