March 07, 2016
President Pakistan Businessmen and Intellectuals Forum (PBIF), President AKIA, First Vice Chairman of the Businessmen Panel of FPCCI and former provincial minister Mian Zahid Hussain on Monday said that climate change is bigger threat than terrorism but there is little realisation about it.
Global warming is to inflict more harm than any other problem but it is not a priority for the government while masses continue to struggle to remain afloat, he said.
Mian Zahid Hussain said that floods inflicting losses of trillions of rupees and leaving many homeless and jobless, melting glaciers, reducing water table, ill-timed rains and drought in Thar and Balochistan is linked to climate change which has taken toll on masses, farming community and the economy.
He said that Karachi, the economic hub of Pakistan, is being hardest hit by climate change. This city hosts one million arrivals per annum, it holds 42 percent share in GDP and contributes almost 65 percent in taxes which must be saved through a proper strategy.
Mian Zahid said that severe heatwave that killed 1200 people in Karachi was result of climate change and now city is facing threat from the intruding sea which can hit around 3.5 to 4 crore people in Karachi and other places.
He said that mangrove forests, the first line of defence against soil erosion and tsunami have been reduced from four hundred thousand hectares to seventy thousand hectares.
He said that the Karachi will be part of the Arabian Sea within few decades if urgent steps were not taken as the allocation of less than Rs 6 crore for climate change is a joke.
There is no evacuation plan for people of Karachi in case of any emergency which is amazing, he said.
