Countries around the world celebrated environmental day a few days ago. This year's environmental conference was hosted by Pakistan and various global leaders from around the world participated and spoke at the event.

The world appreciated Pakistan's efforts to fight the non-traditional threats by conserving the natural environment. The government's billion tree tsunami project got special appreciation. But we should ask ourselves, is that enough? Is this billion tree project is enough to reverse the effects of climate change?

In the countries like Pakistan which rank among the countries most likely to get impacted by climate change, we must do more than just planting trees. The most basic thing we can do is creating awareness among the communities about the severity of the issue and the future scenarios. This can be done both through formal and informal education.

In formal, education, these issues must be included in the syllabus so that the kids can understand the issues in the early stages of their life and play their part as a responsible citizen to find and practice the solutions. On the other hand, we can use different social media platforms and websites to create awareness among our youth. Celebrities, politicians, sportsmen, etc., can play a major role in spreading this knowledge and influence people especially the young generation.

Our activities are not only destroying the environment on land but we cause damage to our atmosphere and the ocean ecosystem. Their preservation is crucial for the existence of human life on the earth.

Ecosystem Restoration

As the theme of Environmental Day 2021 was 'ecosystem restoration', but walking the walk is different and probably difficult than talking the talk. So, it takes a lot of time, money, skill and effort to restore the ecosystem and many societies and countries will fail in doing so. 

The part of our environment on which we (humans) live, work, get our food from and build our homes is the land. Despite such benefits that we get from it, yet still we do not care about its conservation, instead, we plunder it for its resources without even thinking of our future generations.

Due to solid the waste we create every day, the earth is polluted more than ever before which created a threat to not only human life but to other species living in the land as well. This affects the food chains which ultimately lead to the extinction of different species.

What should be done?

In the 21st century, environmental security is as important as human security or the security of the state because we are directly dependent on our environment, so, the more we destroy our environment the fewer chances of our survival on earth. It is very important for us to understand the importance of our natural environment and take measures to ensure its protection.

We could solve the issues through public-private partnership projects where private entities cooperate with the governments to create a sustainable environment.

Civil Society could play a vital role because of its wider reach and ability to create awareness among the masses regarding the issue. We can encourage and educate the people to develop an ecofriendly lifestyle.

We could unite and put pressure on the governments and multinational national corporations that destroy our environment for their own economic gains. Projects like the billion tree tsunami in Pakistan are commendable but we also need to emphasise saving the existing forests from being cut down.