ISLAMABAD: Minister for Information and Broadcasting Chaudhry Fawad Hussain Saturday said that Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government will bring an environmental revolution through forestation restoration and large-scale tree plantation in the country.
In his World Environment Day, message he said, for the first time in Pakistan, tree plantation and environmental friendly policies were being promoted at government level.
The minister said, every human being on the earth should play their role for improvement of environment. He said that it was need of hour that the international community should jointly play its role in the protection of the environment.
Fawad said that rising global temperatures, deforestation, melting glaciers are growing threat to world. Imran Khan is the only Prime Minister with environment friendly vision who is running a global movement. He said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was sensitizing young generation and the world regarding importance of improving the environment. “PM Imran Khan’s efforts to improve environment and plant trees have been acknowledged globally,” the minister said.
He said that for the first time in Pakistan, policy of tree planting and eco-friendliness is being promoted with dedication and diligence. If the efforts of the government continued with the same commitment, significant results will be seen in the environmental sector in Pakistan. Fawad said that the honor of hosting World Environment Day this year is indeed a global recognition of Pakistan’s eco-friendly initiatives. International organizations have appreciated Pakistan’s commitment to the environment, the minister said.
He said, “Nature has blessed us with all kinds of ecosystems, sea, coast, agricultural land, deserts, rivers and three top mountain ranges Hindu Kush, Himalayas and Karakoram”.
He said, that the word “Billion Tree” has become the identity of Pakistan and other countries are following the project.
Vice-Chancellor of the Islamia University of Bahawalpur Engr Prof Dr Athar Mahboob has said that the earth was our home and our responsibility to pass it on safely to future generations.
The Vice-Chancellor expressed these views in a message on the occasion of World Environment Day. He said that every year, the United Nations celebrates World Environment Day and raised awareness for the protection of the environment so that steps could be taken to survive the natural environment.
This year, Pakistan has been honored to host World Environment Day and the Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan was leading and guiding global environmental activities today. This achievement was the result of the Government of Pakistan’s efforts to protect the environment, the Billion Tree Tsunami and the Clean and Green Pakistan’s Campaign.
A tree-planting campaign was organized by the Environmental Protection Society at Abbasia Campus. Dr Mohammad Abdullah, Advisor of the Society, distributed saplings among the students. The participants said that food and fruits produced in the natural environment were better than genetically engineered commodities. Tree felling, loss of energy and natural resources and water.
Improper use was a major cause of natural disasters. All members of society should take steps to breed and protect animals, birds, plants and trees in the national interest. Due to global warming, the rate of rainfall in Pakistan was decreasing significantly. Vehicle, factory fumes, and deforestation were increasing greenhouse gas emissions, resulting in Pakistan’s biological balance changes, including the agricultural system.
The Parks and Horticulture Authority (PHA) distributed free saplings, plants in various parks and public spots of provincial capital to mark World Environment Day.
PHA Director General Jawad Ahmed Qureshi along with other officials planted saplings at Liberty Roundabout and distributed free saplings among children, pedestrians, and others on the carts specially designed by the department. He said that department’s special carts were distributing free sapling among citizens at Liberty, Grater Iqbal Park and other places.
The DG urged the citizens to take part actively in the current PHA plantation drive and plant at-least two plants in their places. He said that survival of human’s life depends on protection of environment, adding that maximum tree plantation were needed to tackle the ongoing environment conditions. The PHA successfully completed 51 Miyawaki Urban Forests projects in various parts of Lahore already. After the successful completion of urban forests, the PHA started working on identifying more such spots, where urban forests could be established, he said and added that around 25 to 30 urban forest would be planted in the city.
He mentioned that cleaning process of green belts, trees and plants was being carried out on daily basis under the clean & green campaign and green waste generated from cleaning of parks and green belts would be used as a fertilizer for growing plants. Planting trees to offset carbon emissions, using clean energy for heating and accumulating “carbon credits” on cell phones.
These environmentally friendly endeavors were promoted at an event for the 2021 World Environment Day held in China’s plateau province of Qinghai on Saturday. As this year’s host province for the national World Environment Day event, all carbon emissions generated from public activities at the event in Qinghai are expected to be offset through tree planting, said Zhang Min, director of the emission control division of the provincial department of ecology and environment.
The event is estimated to have discharged emissions totaling about 65.16 tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. Nearly 10,000 seedlings suited to the plateau region, such as spruce and Chinese pine, were planted on Saturday, which is expected to offset all the carbon emissions generated by the event over the next six years, Zhang said. According to data from Qinghai Electric Power Company of the State Grid, by the end of May, electric boilers with a total capacity of 380,000 kilowatts had been installed to provide public heating in the Sanjiangyuan area,.
Home to the headwaters of the Yangtze River, China’s longest; the Yellow River, the second-longest in the country; and the Lancang River (known as the Mekong River after it flows out of China). electric boilers can provide heating for 130,000 people in 16 counties in the Sanjiangyuan area, replacing the burning of coal and cutting carbon dioxide emissions by 310,000 tonnes annually in the hinterland of the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau.
National University of Medical Sciences (NUMS), has taken initiative to become “Zero Waste Campus,” by adopting Five R strategy referring to “Reduce, Re-use, Recycle, Rot and Raising Awareness” and has pledged not to use anything, contributing to environment degradation. It coincides with the World Environment Day being observed across the world Today. Many leading universities in the US, UK and Australia have already become Zero Waste Campuses.
Of the “Five R” Pakistan has already become a member of 3R ( Reduce, Re-use and Re-cycle) Community in 2009 when the Regional 3R Forum in Asia, was established at Japan’s proposal as a platform for broad cooperation on promotion of the 3R – in Asia. But “we have to go a long way as a society to adopt practices to stop being contributors to environment degradation both at institutional and individual level,” said Prof. Azam Chaudhary, Dean of Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities here on Saturday.
“Vice Chancellor of NUMS Lt Gen Syed Muhammad Imran Majeed,HI (M) Retd in his remarks said “climate change is a big challenge which needs an unwavering commitment at the global, national, institutional and individual level. Cognizant of its social responsibility, the university has pledged to go zero waste. Simple practical measures and changes in individual and institutional practices can result in long term impact.”
Climate change has emerged as one of the biggest existential threat the world today and Pakistan has been ranked seventh among the countries most vulnerable to it. One of the major contributors to this was the pollution caused by generation of huge amounts of waste which ended up in open dumps especially in countries like Pakistan.
NUMS has also planned a webinar on June 9, to create awareness and environment experts were invited to share their views and experiences in this regard. Educational institutes in this manner could influence behavioral change among societies through mobilization of students and communities.
Azam Chaudhary said the institutions, families and individuals could contribute to a green environment by pledging not to use single-use items, like ballpoints or plastic bags.
Only 15 percent of tons of waste created across the globe was recycled while the rest ended up either in sea or dumping sites leading to depletion of our resources.
Marking “insufficient steps” for waste disposal, a Turkish expert said that people should give up “non-cyclical and unsustainable consumption habits”.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency on the occasion of the World Environment Day, observed annually on June 5 to encourage global awareness and action for the protection of the environment, Sedat Gundogdu, an expert on plastic waste, talked about waste-related threats to environment as well as waste management in Turkey’s Adana case.
Warning against the big threat waste poses to people as well as the environment, he said that an ecological crisis that occurs at one area is not limited to that place and affects different geographies.
“Incineration of waste produces various toxic gases such as persistent organic pollutants or heavy metals. We know that all of these are not confined to the burned areas, but are included in the food chain or reach out more distant areas via atmospheric events such as wind,” he said.
Gundogdu, who is also a lecturer at Cukurova University in Adana, southern Turkey, exemplified that dioxins which emerged from plastics burned in Europe and Asia in the past were found even in the blood of penguins in the pole.
Newspakistan.tv | YouTube Channel
