Aftermath of global warming
By Hasnain Ali Mir
The world is facing drastic climate issues due to global warming. Glaciers are melting rapidly, forests are decreasing and the atmosphere is heating up. The Homo sapiens have taken this planet earth for granted, and we are abusing this planet to fulfill our necessities by forgetting that other organisms also have partake in this planet. We are posing threats to not only ourselves but also other organisms, and yet we claim that human being is the best of the creation of God. If sapiens are better than other organisms then we have to prove ourselves as best of all not by words but by actions.
Recent floods in Gilgit-Baltistan are caused by global warming, which have left many people shelter-less and thousands of people without food. 63 people lost their lives in this catastrophe. There were no medicines in hospitals for the treatment of patients and the plight of the flood victims accentuated the ailing situation of hospitals. The region was locked in its hilly terrain. While natives of Gilgit-Baltistan were facing all these hardships, there was a total black out in our national media; when it comes to the resources of this region our media claims that this region is eternal part of Pakistan, which shows the hypocritical nature of our national media. During that time of need the students of Gilgit-Baltistan studying in different universities of country launched a fund raising campaign to help people who were stranded in Islamabad and Rawalpindi. NGOs and community serving organizations working in different regions of G.B helped people who were stranded in nearby valleys. Government of Pakistan cleared the road after 15 days and they never ventured to help victims of flood. In all these days, officials of local government were busy in national tours. Government was failed to cope with the problems of local people and they were left alone in this hard time.
In my opinion Government should look for alternate routes for connectivity of this region with other parts of country to avoid such problems in future. Pakistan government can open other international routes; Skardu-Kargil route should be open for trade this route would also give a tremendous fillip to adventure tourism, another door can also be open for central Asian countries through Iskoman area of Punial it would be a milestone for the development of this region which will be benefiting for people, to improve life standards of remote areas of Punial and Skardu. Government should increase its capabilities for storage of wheat and petroleum products to provide relief to people during shortage. Government should introduce alternate fuel sources like natural gas which can be imported from neighboring Central Asian countries this step would lead to prevent deforestation, as forests are significant defense against floods and they also prevent soil erosion. Besides all the efforts by government, people of G.B should keep an eye on the issue of global warming because they are the one who were mostly effected by recent havoc caused by flood. People should help governing bodies in maintaining the natural landscape because landscape is tourist attraction of this region.
The contributor is a student at the GC University, Lahore.
