Before it is too late!

It was rare but alarming that only days before the October earthquake, most parts of the northern areas of Pakistan received heavy early snowfall and remained cut off from the country, forcing an emergency evacuation of thousands of people trapped there. Even Naran was buried under four feet of snow which was the earliest snowfall in the area since 40 years. This is not the first unusual weather event this year as in July a heavy downpour created flash floods and glacial lake bursts in Chitral valley, leaving a trail of destruction across the district. Unusual weather patterns of this sort are becoming more and more frequent, and almost always hit the mountainous areas the hardest. These unusual events are entirely different from what Pakistan had been enjoying like abundant water flows in rivers system and expansion of agriculture due to groundwater reservoirs in addition to sufficient hydel power generation to meet domestic energy needs. Now we are hearing increasing number of warnings that Pakistan is on the front lines of climate change, and it sits in the shadow of the most seismically active fault lines in the world. The climate change clock is ticking too fast and the time to act is here and now. Rising temperatures are also causing health problems among the populations along the Indus delta where many of the locals are in the process of abandoning the agriculture profession. Pakistans scientists say that in order for the new policy to be effective a number of steps need to be urgently taken to mitigate the impacts of climate change. These include developing high temperature-tolerant crop strains, comprehensive flood warning systems and more reservoirs on the upper Indus. It is high time to heed the warnings being sounded repeatedly around the world that natures mood is changing, and the dangers facing Pakistan are enormous. Perhaps it is time to approach these challenges with a spirit. Our leadership as well as opinion makers of every stripe need to wake up to the full spectrum of challenges that climate change presents in shape of rising temperature, glaciers melting, flooding, droughts, water shortage, heat waves and disruption of cropping cycles. Nothing short of a serious national effort is urgently required today to take stock of the emerging spectrum of challenges and come up with the measures and resources required to face them. Time is short. The freak occurrences of today will grow to unmanageable proportions in near future. We must kick start our efforts immediately to prepare for a turbulent tomorrow before it is too late.