If you took part in the climate march last year and concerned about the environment, you might be interested in watching Out of the smog: Pakistan’s plea, a documentary on the country’s climate change crisis by Naveen Rizvi and her team.
If you took part in the climate march last year and concerned about the environment, you might be interested in watching Out of the smog: Pakistan’s plea, a documentary on the country’s climate change crisis by Naveen Rizvi and her team.
When the 27-year-old first heard about the smog in Lahore, Naveen immediately thought of China’s smog or the great smog of London in 1952, she didn’t realize that Pakistan had once again made it to the list of the world’s most polluted cities.
“The more I read, the more I realized how much information you needed to know to make sense of the problem—ambient Air, AQI, WHO, JAICA, etc. I wasn’t sure where to begin. After doing some research, I saw a gap in the internet about Pakistan’s Climate Change problem,” she wrote on her website.
Her research eventually led her to lawyers Sara Hayat and Rafay Alam.
“I have gotten hope after witnessing the climate march in Pakistan led by the Climate Action Now and after hearing Rafay Alam, Sarah Hayat and Abid Omer,” she told SAMAA Digital. “There is lots and lots of potential and hope to fix this growing problem which is a public health emergency.”
Talking about smog, Naveen explained that it was a mixture of smoke and fog and “where Lahore is situated or in general where Punjab is situated there is a series of the weather phenomenon known as temperature inversion which means all the pollution that is emitted from factories, brick hills or because of burning”.
She added that the main problem was “our cars and the dirty fuel that we burn that is emitted from our cars and all that pollution gets trapped”.
Last year, Naveen said that the smog in Lahore was so bad that schools had to be shut down as kids could not go study. They were stuck at home. “It didn’t matter how wealthy you are or if you live in a home which is really well protected, you are breathing this very dirty air,” she said. “Pakistan is very vulnerable to climate change and smog is a growing problem that has to be dealt with. Air pollution is deadly and as a nation, we need to change our lifestyles.”