A few days ago one night I came out of the room, looked at the sky, the moon was shining brighter than ever in the clear clear sky, the moon was so clear that even the old mother could be seen spinning in it, even though I was 25 million. Miles (40 million kilometers) away and in a city that was bathed in light by itself. I could see rocks and big pits.
The stars around the moon were also very bright. I had seen the moon and the stars shining so brightly in my childhood when I was lying on a bed in the yard of the village house, looking at the sky. The white sheet of my bed also shone brightly in the moonlight. Then when the city came, like the moon and the stars went out. After spending 31 years in Lahore and settling in a relatively clean city like Islamabad, I felt as if the moon was happy with my decision, at least with its clear, bright face.
However, even after coming here, my busy life never allowed me to look at Sarathana and the moon. Going to the office in the morning, coming home in the evening and then leaving the room less often. When the whole world was locked down as a result of the corona virus, after a long time, I got a chance to see the bright moon and stars. They looked at me happily. Then he reminded me of a poem by Allama Iqbal:
Beauty for its exposure to indifference
If you become dearer to cities, then cities are better
I was very ashamed to hear this poem. Cities are not really good, especially those cities that put a veil on their careless beauty, countries that put a blanket of smoke between humans, the moon and the stars are not good either.
The land we were given a chance to live on, yes! On just one occasion, 160,000 people have died from the Tadam Tahrir Corona virus on this earth, of which 47% were over 75 years of age, 24.6% were between 65 and 74 years of age, and 23.1% were between 45 and 64 years of age. Was in the middle of the year. The death rate was 61.8% for men and 38.2% for women. Many of them were suffering from lung diseases. Air pollution must have been the most important factor in making these people sick.
Every year, 1.76 million people die of lung cancer in the world. This number is more than the number of deaths due to any cancer. In other words, lung cancer is the most deadly cancer. 334 million people in the world suffer from asthma every year, 15% of them are children, and this rate is increasing. Some 4 million people die from certain respiratory diseases and pneumonia. Every minute, two children under the age of five die of pneumonia. Children under the age of 2 account for 80% of all deaths from pneumonia. 99% of deaths occur in middle-income or lower-income societies. Most deaths in very young children and the elderly are due to pneumonia. Since 1964, 2.5 million people have died from the disease due to secondhand smoke.
Every year, 4.2 million people fall ill and die outside their homes due to air pollution. And 91% of the world’s population breathes in unhealthy environments. Africa and the Middle East are the most prominent. For example, Angola, Bahamas, Cambodia, Congo, Egypt, Ghana, Latvia, Nigeria and Syria. No more lectures on how we should live after these statistics. Yes! There are lessons to be learned from this deadly health crisis (corona virus).
According to the information so far, this earth is the only world where life is possible. There is no other world where human beings can migrate. We can stay on this land whether we like to live here or not. We have to live on this earth whether we enjoy life in a healthy environment or die in an unhealthy environment.
The whole world is inadvertently going through a different experience at the moment. The Corona virus epidemic has wiped out all industrial activities, now there are no more planes flying in the skies, there are very few cars, and as a result the smoke coming out of them. That’s too low. Urban air pollution has also dropped significantly. It was air pollution that multiplied the number of respiratory diseases in the world, which is why millions of people are now suffering severely. The corona virus is more prevalent in people who already have respiratory illnesses.
However, now the atmosphere has become much clearer and clearer due to the corona virus, this has happened decades later. An estimated 4,000 children under the age of five and 73,000 elderly people over the age of 70 have lost their lives in China over the past two months due to declining air pollution. This is at a time when the world’s carbon dioxide emissions have fallen. In January-February 2020, China’s industrial output fell 13.5 percent year-on-year. This has been the lowest output in 30 years since January 1990. However, as soon as the epidemic is over, economies will be rebuilt, and industrial activities will begin several times faster to offset the losses. Will be done. In such a situation, how to deal with the new situation, how to maintain the current fairly clean environment, it will be a big challenge. For this, we should think now and take action accordingly. What a wonderful way to screw people over
Be less polluted.
What steps can be taken to maintain a clean environment?
It is to be noted that the most important factors polluting the environment include dust storms, forest fires, rapidly growing urban population, especially in the cities of Southeast Asian countries, where the population is growing rapidly. The remains are burned openly. Similarly, desertification of fertile land, sandstorms in the Middle East and western China also increase air pollution.
Eliminating or reducing some of the causes of air pollution is in the hands of human beings, and there is an urgent need to address them and intensify efforts to prevent them. So far, some successful steps have been taken to keep the environment clean. One of their major achievements is the creation of infrastructure to control environmental pollution in the world. Now in the context of the corona virus, people may realize how important it is to keep the environment clean, alas! Even so, owning one is still beyond the reach of the average person. How many people around the world die from airborne diseases?
In 2019, China reduced its air pollution by 9%, with air pollution increasing by 12% in 2018. Last year, Beijing dropped out of the list of the world’s 200 most polluted cities. According to a report, 98% of Chinese cities do not follow the guidelines of the World Health Organization and 53% of Chinese cities do not live up to China’s own goals. However, the above figures show that China is playing its part in efforts to clean up the environment, although some Western powers continue to criticize China in this regard.
Currently, the cities of India and Pakistan are among the most polluted cities in the world. Out of the 30 most polluted cities, 21 are in India and five are in Pakistan, including Gujranwala and Peshawar. Pollution in India’s cities has decreased, but not because of government measures on the environment, but because of the economic slowdown. For the first time in history, Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, and Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, are listed before the Chinese capital, Beijing, on the list of the world’s most polluted cities. It should be noted that the first ten most polluted countries in the world are Bangladesh, Pakistan, Mongolia, Afghanistan, India, Indonesia, Bahrain, Nepal, Uzbekistan and Iraq respectively.
The question is, after knowing and seeing all the deadly effects of air pollution, can we sit still? Especially when Pakistan is in the worst situation after Bangladesh in terms of air pollution. The situation is very dangerous in Pakistan considering the sources of pollution.
Pakistan has the largest urban population in South Asia, growing. It is estimated that more than half of Pakistanis will be in cities in the next five years. It is unfortunate that due to the expanding urban population and other sources of pollution, 98% of the Pakistani population is currently living in an unhealthy environment contrary to the standard of the World Health Organization. What is even more unfortunate is this. That our policy makers do not care about the effects of bad environment on the health of Pakistanis. There is a race to pollute the environment in the country. Now that the Corona virus has caused the worst problems, we need to seriously plan to cure 6.9 million Pakistanis from lung-related diseases and take steps to ensure that more Pakistanis do not fall victim to these diseases.
Remember that environmental protection is such an important issue that it must be included in the field of national security. The defense of national resources is as important as the borders of the country. What will we defend if the national resources do not remain !!