KARACHI: Highlighting how the mountain communities in northern Pakistan are being seriously affected by environmental crises, speakers at an event held on Saturday underscored the need for integrating awareness about changing weather patterns into educational framework and making mental health part of disaster response.

The programme held in connection with World Environment Day was hosted by Aga Khan University (AKU) at Habitt City.

It started off with the screening of a documentary — The Sky is Far, The Earth is Tough — that explores how natural disasters and climate change are affecting the physical health and mental well-being of mountain communities in northern areas.

Part of the Voices from the Roof of the World (VRW) documentary series, the film is directed by Haya Fatima Iqbal.

Experts call for making mental health part of calamity response

The film offered an unvarnished look at the resilience and vulnerabilities of these northern communities and brought together filmmakers, climate advocates, students and change makers from different spaces to address the urgent environmental crises facing vulnerable populations.

Discussions with experts and filmmakers following the screening, highlighted how the mountain regions had been warming at significantly higher rates than the global average, accelerating glacial melt, triggering catastrophic flash floods, and causing unpredictable landslides.

These changes had not only disrupted essential infrastructure but had also induced prolonged displacement and economic instability, creating an ongoing humanitarian and mental health crisis among indigenous communities who have contributed the least to global emissions.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Rozina Karmaliani, Associate Director, South and Central Asia, AKU’s Brain and Mind Institute, said: “The climate crisis in our northern regions is no longer a distant threat; it is an active humanitarian challenge that demands immediate attention. We must integrate mental health into climate disaster response.”

“Through Voices from the Roof of the World, our goal is to bring the raw, lived realities of these mountain communities to the forefront of dialogue. Visual storytelling helps understand the true human cost and the immense resilience of those living on the frontlines of environmental collapse,” she said.

“Integrating climate change awareness into our educational framework is vital if we want to build lasting community resilience,” said Dr Fozia Parveen, Assistant Professor at AKU’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences. The loss of ancestral lands and the constant threat of natural disasters inflict a deep, often unrecorded trauma on these populations, said Haya Fatima Iqbal, Academy and two-time Emmy winner.

She added: “Environmental advocacy must evolve beyond regional statistics to address the profound human cost and the psychological scars left in the wake of environmental collapse.”

Tariq Essa, sustainability and climate change specialist, talked about the role businesses and individuals can play to reduce the carbon footprint.

Published in Dawn, June 7th, 2026