Climate change is no longer a topic for future debate or far-off speculation; it is happening here and now, with consequences growing more dire each passing year. It refers to long-term shifts in temperature and weather patterns, but what used to unfold over millennia is now occurring in decades. The reason is clear: human activity, especially our reckless burning of fossil fuels, has supercharged the Earth’s atmosphere. Greenhouse gases, chief among them carbon dioxide, trap heat like a thermal blanket around the planet, setting off a chain reaction of rising temperatures, erratic weather, and environmental breakdown.
Industrialisation, fuel-powered transport, and a global addiction to unchecked consumerism have unleashed these emissions at levels nature simply can’t absorb. What makes the situation even more tragic is that we’ve known this for decades. Experts warned us, scientists produced irrefutable data, yet short-term interests and political inertia prevailed. We are now paying the price, with interest.
Global warming is no longer an abstract concern. According to the World Economic Forum, extreme weather ranks as the second most pressing global risk in the short term, and is predicted to become the number one risk within the next decade. The facts are stark and sobering: 2024 was the hottest year in recorded history. July 22, 2024, marked the hottest day ever experienced on Earth. These are not just numbers — they are red flags waving furiously before a largely indifferent global audience.
Pakistan, heartbreakingly, sits at the frontline of this crisis. Though we produce less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions, we are among the top 10 countries most affected by climate change, according to the Climate Risk Index 2022. A 30-year analysis covering 1993-2022 confirmed what Pakistanis already feel in their bones: that climate chaos is becoming the new normal. It comes in waves, searing heat, erratic rains, and biblical floods, leaving in its wake human suffering, economic devastation, and ecological ruin.
In 2022, Pakistan endured what the UN called one of the worst climate disasters of this century. A lethal combination of extreme monsoon rains — 243% above average in August — and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) submerged a third of the country, affecting 33 million people. The floods killed more than 1,700 citizens and caused over $15 billion in damages. These were not isolated events. They followed a brutal heatwave earlier that year, with temperatures soaring to 49.5°C, drying out the soil and making the land more vulnerable to disaster. It was a climate catastrophe scripted in slow motion, and the world barely blinked. Pakistan’s geography doesn’t help. Surrounded by glacier-fed mountain ranges and exposed to the warming Arabian Sea, the country is vulnerable from both ends — from melting ice above and rising water below. We are a living example of what happens when the world ignores science and delays action.
But we cannot and must not resign ourselves to helplessness. Pakistan may be a victim of a crisis it didn’t cause, but it has a moral and practical responsibility to lead the fight for survival. Climate change is no longer a myth. It is a brutal reality, disproportionately impacting the poorest and least prepared. The time for polite conferences and symbolic gestures is over. The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) call for urgent climate action, but ambition means nothing without funding and accountability. Nationally determined contributions (NDCs) must be more than press releases; they must guide serious emissions cuts and help vulnerable countries like Pakistan adapt to an increasingly hostile environment.
To its credit, Pakistan is trying. Projects like the National Adaptation Plan and Recharge Pakistan Project aim to build climate resilience, but our efforts will falter unless the global community steps up. The rich nations, responsible for the lion’s share of emissions, must not just offer sympathy — they must provide finance, technology, and justice.
If the world continues down this path, we will all pay, some with our money, others with their lives. And for countries like Pakistan, it may already be too late to stop the damage. But it is not too late to act.
Muhammad Zahid Rifat
The writer is Lahore-based Freelance Journalist, Columnist and retired Deputy Controller (News), Radio Pakistan, Islamabad and can be reached at [email protected]
