By 2050, the world’s population will reach nine billion while the production capacity will be at 60 percent. That is why it is crucial to take timely steps to mitigate climate change. We desperately need to restore the forest lands of our past as well as convert the barren lands to a large extent of fertile lands.
We stand at the very pivotal era of this century, where humanity is facing an imminent stark choice, World has been going through the destruction of climate change and Pakistan is among the top 10 countries to be most affected by global warming. Later is the most imminent threat to our upcoming generation. We either choose to achieve rapid and large-scale reductions of emissions to keep the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5C— or we accept that humanity faces a bleak future on this planet.
Several common reasons are noticeable like deforestation, rising maximum and minimum temperature, drought, pest outbreak- reduced agriculture yields, misuse of agrochemicals, uncertain precipitation, melting of glaciers, flooding, and soil erosion results in raising temperature day by day. Summer season has become longer and winter is shorter. It reduced the crop growing seasons- forced maturity and reduced yield. This trend can be observed in our major crops including wheat, peas, maize, potato, and others.
These views were expressed by the former chairman of the Department of Botany University of Karachi Professor Dr Zafar Iqbal while addressing a one-day seminar on plant and environmental seminar organized by the KU Botany Department at Arts Auditorium on Wednesday.
“We must act against this threat by striking down the major effusion of harmful toxic gases onto our mainland ecosystem and also to face this challenge. We need to ensure food security through increased productivity and gross income per capita in our farming societies and communities.”
Meanwhile, Chairman, Department of Forestry and Range Management, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Dr Muhammad Farrakh Nawaz shared that the concept of urban forests and the introduction of residential balcony micro-gardens are immediate solutions to address the challenge being faced due to climate change.
“Unfortunately, with the increase in industrialization, we are deteriorating the environment. We are cutting plants at a crazy high pace. It’s a need of an hour to take practical steps to save plants and the environment. I hope that policymakers will also take academia and naturalists on board while making environmental policies.”
He observed that reviving the past forest could help our ecosystem to heighten the emission of carbon up to 30 percent by the year 2030. Dr Nawaz mentioned that replanting the native plant species also helps to strike down the global emission of carbon gas.
Another speaker, the Chief Scientific Officer, National Institute of Oceanography, Dr Hina Saeed Baig, emphasized the drastic steps of reforestation and swift carbon reduction at the community and society level.
She informed the audience that Pakistan is among the top 10 countries which have been severely affected by global warming and termed that it poses the greatest threat to our future generations.
Dr Hina Saeed lauded Pakistan’s achievements in restoring 50,000 miles of oceanic land into the country’s sea territory.
Earlier, the Chairman Department of Botany Professor Dr Shahnaz Dawar said that the world has been facing the great challenge of climate change for the last few decades which is bringing about changes in our ecosystem.
She advised that tree plantation is very essential in this regard and added that we also need to increase forests so that we can overcome the dangers of global warming and work on barren lands to make them cultivable.
She shared that the seminar aims to raise awareness among students and the general public about ecosystem conservation and environmental protection.
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