[Opinion] Reflecting on the World Environment Day

Darvesh Karim

We are blessed with some of the nature’s gifts on which our life is dependent. These include air, water and land, among others,and are obligatory for our life and are serving the human beings to improve the quality of life. The collection of these natural resources is called the Environment.

Environment is the keyword in the modern world. It includes various issues like pollution, deforestation, extinction of rare species, depletion of ozone layer and destruction of natural habitat. Human beings are a part of nature so the changes in the natural environment have direct effect on their lives and society at large.

In the age of globalization media have caught buzzword, the environment, to be the most immediate concern of humanity across the globe. Various non-governmental organizations are active to disseminate information and awareness among the masses regarding the preservation of their own environment. Such agencies like the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) and International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) have undertaken a lot of projects to save our environment from further degradation. The Human beings of this modern era have faced multiple problems like pollution, deforestation, extinction of species and drought. These problems are directly caused by the disturbance of natural environment with the advancement of technology. The abuses of this technology has caused serious problems to the whole Earth like emission of poisonous gases, thinning of ozone layer, destruction of marine life and most of all the arm-race and nuclear explosions. When this nuclear energy is used for political purposes with evil desires like to launch missile to detonate atomic device and to prepare a nuclear bomb then the survival of the human beings in future cannot be guaranteed. As a result of the misuse of this technology and scientific inventions the environment has been the most affected area because the air is the common heritage of all the humanity. It can’t be confined to a particular state, region or continent and the radiation of the nuclear explosions in one country can affect the whole world. The disadvantaged groups of this atomic age are the citizens of the backward societies who are left with no care to protect themselves from the misdeeds of the developed world.

I believe that the problem of the environmental degradation can’t be understood in isolation from economic and political problems. It demands huge cost to protect our environment from the bad effects of the nuclearisation of the developed world. We are politically dependent on the major powers of the world and we can’t compel them to abstain from their destructive activities. The only thing we can do is to raise awareness among our people regarding the significance of a clean environment. I appreciate the efforts of all NGOs specifically KADO to undertake the challenging task to separate awareness of the ecology among the people of Hunza and elsewhere in the Gilgit-Baltistan. It is also pleasing that these organizations give our Earth its due right to survive.

The contributor works at PDCN – Gilgit. He can be contacted at darvesh.karim@gmail.com