THE unthinkable has happened, and we are past the tipping point. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere have reached levels high enough to ensure climate disruption for decades, perhaps centuries. That is among several disturbing conclusions in a major report by the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change which was released last week.

Based on more than 14,000 scientific studies, this is the most comprehensive report on the subject to date. There is no escaping the sordid reality of how we have come to this pass. The very first line of the report summary reads: “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.”

With the world having failed to collectively act upon the warnings issued time and again, an apocalyptic scenario is at hand. According to the report, even the most drastic cuts in greenhouse emissions are unlikely to prevent a rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial level temperatures. Weather extremes hitherto considered rare or unprecedented are happening more frequently. Asphalt-melting heatwaves that happened once every 50 years are now taking place once a decade. Several countries at present are suffering the effects of precisely such extreme weather: hundreds of wildfires are blazing ferociously in several parts of the world. There was catastrophic flooding in Germany and Belgium last month. Hundreds of lives have been lost thus far and colossal economic losses sustained.

Read: Hell on Earth

According to the report, “Mountain and polar glaciers are committed to continue melting for decades or centuries”, threatening water scarcity and depletion of groundwater sources. Meanwhile, sea levels are also projected to keep rising for centuries, which spells doom for coastal communities.

Sea intrusion has already laid waste to millions of acres of arable land in Pakistan; unpredictable weather events here have become increasingly common; our per capita water availability is now barely above the scarcity threshold of 1,000 cubic metres.

To its credit, climate change has always been one of the PTI’s government’s key objectives, and massive tree plantation drives are among its signature projects. Inadequate forest cover — Pakistan has one of the world’s highest deforestation rates — exacerbates the effects of climate change, opening the gates to flash floods and soil erosion which lowers crop yields and disrupts food supply patterns.

Trees act as lungs for the earth, helping to cool down the atmosphere. Recently in Lahore, Prime Minister Imran Khan inaugurated the world’s largest Miyawaki urban forest; another 53 Miyawaki forests are already being developed in the city. The premier has pledged that 60pc of Pakistan’s energy will be clean by 2030, and the government has granted massive tax exemptions for the local manufacture of four-wheel electric vehicles.

We must also join hands on a regional level to fight back against an existential crisis that respects no borders, even if all we can do now is delay the inevitable.

Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2021