- Over-consumption by developed countries
The remarks of the Chief Justice of Pakistan, Mr Justice Nasir Mehmood Khosa, about climate change are not so important because of their content, as because they reflect an understanding that the problem is immediate and pressing. Mr Justice Khosa remarked, while hearing a petition for admission, that people were dying in France because of climate change. This reflects how the problem is not solvable by a single nation, and that its effects are not restricted to any single country. However, it has been caused by developed countries’ over-consumption, and their excessive production of greenhouse gases; so that less developed countries are being made to pay the price of the more developed ones’ consumption. How the learned Chief Justice expects to pass orders which will affect that over-consumption, will presumably be revealed at future hearings of the case.
Pakistan is one of the countries which seems likely to face the most problems from climate change. Naturally, it is facing an increasing number of extreme weather events. The Senate Standing Committee on Climate Change was thus told that the monsoon this year would see greater flooding this year than average in Punjab and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. However, drought-like conditions are expected to prevail in Sindh and Balochistan; which are likely to lead to a poor crop. Poor crops are expected to lead to mass starvation, with the loss to farmers a separate source of damage.
Though Pakistan alone cannot prevent the harmful effects of climate change, this does not give it an excuse to prepare for harmful effects with which it is familiar, like the floods, which have been predicted, thus removing the usual official excuse for its lapses. It will be the irrigation departments of two provinces that will be at the forefront of this episode in the story of Man’s constant fight with nature. There are preparations made every year for floods; this year there must be no negligence, no stone must be left unturned in the necessary preparations for them.
