PESHAWAR: Participants of a seminar here stressed the need for taking practical steps to protect environment and avoid climate change disasters.

The seminar titled “Haryali: Verdant Hope in a Warming World” was organised by Peshawar chapter of Pakistan Academy of Letter. Poets, writers and experts on climate change attended the seminar.

Dr Khalid Khan, the keynote speaker and expert on climate change, outlined salient features of climate change and a way forward to counter the challenges being faced people across the globe. Literati and scholars should come forward to raise awareness on the global issue through their works, he added.

Speakers said that world faced an existential crisis. They said global average temperatures had already risen by 1.2°C since pre-industrial times, with 2024 marking the first year when World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) confirmed global temperature crossing 1.55°C above the 1850-1900 baseline.

They said that those figures carried a sobering truth that extreme weather was no longer a distant threat but a stark reality. They said that unprecedented floods and record-breaking heat waves in the recent past proved it. Pakistan found itself on the frontline of that unfolding climate drama, they added.

Prof Gulzar Jalal, regional director of PAL, reiterated the commitment to championing cultural responses to global challenges “This is the essence of our belief. Climate science gives us data, but literature gives us the language to feel. Where charts and figures may overwhelm or alienate, metaphors and verses can reach into the heart. If Haryali is the poetic embodiment of life and hope, then turning that symbol into a rallying cry for climate resilience is both natural and necessary,” he added.

The participants of the seminar envisioned ‘Haryali clubs’ in schools, where children could plant trees and learn to tell stories of the greenery around them.

“In a world where despair often overshadows action, Haryali reminds us that hope is not naive. It is verdant, stubborn and alive. If we nurture it, Pakistan can stand not only as a victim of climate change but also as a pioneer of how culture and science can merge to forge resilience,” they said.

Published in Dawn, September 29th, 2025