KARACHI, Jul 10 (APP):Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Dr. Musadik Masood Malik on Friday said that we can protect our health and the well-being of our elders by adopting a simple principle of filtering and purifying smoke emissions from our factories The Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination said this in his media talk at Urban Forest Clifton here on Friday. He said that if …
Simply filtering factory smoke protects our health: Musadik Malik
KARACHI, Jul 10 (APP):Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination, Dr. Musadik Masood Malik on Friday said that we can protect our health and the well-being of our elders by adopting a simple principle of filtering and purifying smoke emissions from our factories
The Federal Minister for Climate Change and Environmental Coordination said this in his media talk at Urban Forest Clifton here on Friday.
He said that if one lives in a place where regional pollution can shorten elders’ lives by two to four years, then he considers this Urban Forest to be a great service, a perpetual charity (Sadaqah-e-Jariyah).
He said that he noticed that the water used here in this Urban forest is actually sewage water, the very water that we do not know what to do with, the water we do not even want to pass by. This same water has been used here.
Speaking about the water used in the Urban Forest, he said, first, it is treated to a certain extent so that it becomes usable, and then through it, the life has been given to forest. All the carbon dioxide and pollution that destroy our lives, what we consider filth, has been utilized to try to generate life. This is the miracle here, and it is truly wonderful, he appreciated.
He said that this carbon, when it rises, it causes temperatures to rise and when temperatures rise; Glaciers melt and when glaciers melt, floods come, devastation occurs. This has happened in our region many times already; just a few years ago, more than a third, perhaps half, of Sindh was submerged, under several feet of water.
He said that the Urban forest firstly, produces oxygen; secondly, it is stopping that very thing which raises temperatures, melts glaciers, and brings destruction.
Dr. Musadik Masood Malik said that beneath the ground, another city is thriving. One city is visible to us, the city of trees and vegetation. But the actual city is underneath our feet, an entire bed of microbes, a whole forest. There is a forest above, and three times that size, there is a forest underground, made of microbes, which takes in carbon daily and stores it daily.
It is a massive battery that saves us from destruction. So, there is a world underground that is protecting us from catastrophe, and above ground, all these lush shrubs and trees that we see, on which birds are perched, are another world that is producing oxygen for us, he said.
He said that six thousand people have been lost to floods, and twenty thousand people have either injured or been disabled in these floods. Forty million people have been displaced, which is more than the population of many large European countries, and this displacement has happened in Pakistan alone.
He said that if a child misses school for even a month for no reason, it feels like very bad. Imagine, 1.8 billion school-days have been lost due to these floods. Because the people whose communities and settlements were destroyed, who were displaced and had to leave, they could not return home for four months. When they did return, their schools had been washed away. It takes an unknown amount of time to rebuild those schools.
He said that this Urban forest is a great endeavor and it represent a miracle and prayed for all those who participated in this work, and also extended gratitude to those who are now running it, whom the government has entrusted to operate it.
He expressed hope that they will run it with the same great heart, the same deep desire, the same passion with which it was built, and with the same sense of purpose and care.
