The Last Resort

(By Abdullah Javed) _Fight or Flight, ” whenever human brain senses some danger or risk, Sympathetic Nervous System trigers an acute stress response which prepares us either to fight or flee.

     What if our earth was just one giant body, how it would have responded to climate change then, and what would be our fight or flight response, it is imperative to cite a famous archeologist in an attempt to quench these queries.
An eminent Harvard Archeologist Dr Jason Ur while talking to NASA told:
“When we excavate the remains of past civilization, we very rarely find any evidence that they as a whole society made any attempt to change in the face of a changing climate or a warming atmosphere…. I view this inflexibility as real reason for their collapse”
So, after considering the factual testimony of an eminent archeologist, we would have to rule out the option of “flee” from our choice. The only option at our disposal is to fight, because escaping would just end in our hunt like a pigeon.
So, currently our last resort to counter and mitigate climate change is basically a two pronged approach:
Firstly, adaptation, this is more of a self defence, but currently it is a more plausible option for underdeveloped countries like Pakistan. To comprehend the intricacies associated with the concept of adaptation, let’s consider an illustration; a person living in an igloo in artic region migrates to the soaring desert of middle east. Inorder to survive, this person has to trasform everything: from the food he consumes to the dresses he wears. In years to come we would have to adapt to a greater degree.
The goals we have to ascertain through this channel are not only to adapt to such changes which might avert the negative effects of climate change like high sea level, flooding or drought etc, but we also have to attempt to reap more advantages out of the possible oppurtunities presented by climate change like longer growing seasons.
The process of adaptation commenced long ago. According to the conclusion of the 2014 report on “Climate change Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability” by the UN intergovernmental Panel on the climate change highlighted the adaptative measures Undertaken by the various states. Its more recent session was conducted in 2022 and research found that the major adaptative measure undertaken by the Asian states were expounded to be dealing with water stress and growing seeds which would be more heat resistant.
A prominent research published by the IMF suggests publich adaptation will cost around 0.25 percent of global GDP per year in coming years, and when it comes to any particular country the annual needs to adapt will exceed 1 percent of GDP in low income and developing countries after a decade.
These simple numbers might not be much shocking, but if we take into account a fact that if a country like Pakistan which spends 1.77 percent of GDP on education is asked to spend more than 1 percent of its GDP on adapting to climate change then primarliy it would be beyond the affordability of Pakistan. The international aid and corporates who are primarily responsible for this catastrophe should be held liable by international community so that undeveloped economies could be assisted in this fight against climate change.
Our second response mitigation is more of an aggresive fight response. Countries have to opt mitigating measures not only to alleviate the level of Green House Gases emissions, but also to get the degree of such emissions compatible with the objectives of United Nations Framework On Climate Change (UNFCCC) and Paris agreement.
This process of mitigation, primarliy, involves reducing the flow of heat trapping green house gases into the atmosphere either by reducing the sources of these gases or by enhancing the “sinks” that can gather and store these gases like forests or oceans. Billion tree project by Pakistan, adoption of renewable energy source like solar, wind and helping cities develop more sustainable transport such as Bus Rapid Transit, electric vehicles all come under the ambit of mitigation.
Now, before delving into the discussion which option is better to opt; we need to divulge and guage the gravity of damage which has already been caused by the climate change.
This is the second time in the history of our planet that the concentration of Carbondioxide has increased more than 400 parts per million, previously the earth observed such huge carbondioxide level only in Pliocene era which existed nearly 3 million years ago. This percentage has hiked more than 47 percent since the beginning of the industrial revolution.
This simple calculation of numbers is practically way more haunting than it sounds. From hurricane in Florida to the heatwaves in England, and sudden and abrupt changes of temperature in Pakistan were worst of all. Some of these changes which have occured by the climate change are irreversible in our environment, the heat trapping Green House Gases have already caused shrinking of glaciers and ice sheets.
Mitigation actions, though, sound much simple but are very difficult to be implemented. It is very tough to convince economic powers to put liability on their companies for burning fossil fuels or add liability for degrading the environment. No country would like to shrink its Gross Domestic Production just for saving the environment. The concept of Corporate Social Responsibility started taking its space in the practical world lomg ago, but still to the date very few countries have painted it with the mandatory colors. Corporate Social Responsibility could not only dampen the percentage of emission of GHG, but could provide the underdeveloped countries with finances to sponsor the process of adaptation for their general public, but that’s still a dream.
Now coming to the query which of the mode is the best for us right now; both modes are equally important but their importance vary with the need of hour. For now, though, the countries at a snail pace are attempting to opt for mitigation, but it will take decades to counter the effects and would, further, require much more years to reverse the impact of climate change. So, as per the need of hour, for now adaptation is a better option for the world till the time mitigation would fully be charged and play an effective role.
When it comes to Pakistan, our homeland, faced a sharp decline in productivity of crops and high temperature in the months of May and June, which were followed by the huge floods which covered one-third area of our country, nearly culminated the productivity of agriculture land, claimed thousands of lives and costed us billions of dollars.
The last viable resort for Pakistan is to strengthen its self defence means enhance the applicability of adaptation approach. From Balochistan to Gilgit Baltistan our consumption pattern and the items we consume have to change. It’s the dire need for Pakistan to establish small dams, dams might not be a plausible option to stop flooding but Pakistan is a country where drought and water stress are more chronic and grimmer issues than flooding. By constructing dams, we can conserve water which will not only assist us to deal with the issue of water stress, but would further help us to dilate the pressure caused by drought. This is The Last Resort at our disposal to save our agarian economy and protect our motherland, just the only resort!