ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Climate Change Secretary Syed Abu Ahmad Akif on Thursday urged students to create awareness among masses about environmental issues, wastage of water and discouraging to use plastic bags.
Addressing participants of the Environmental Education Programme being held in collaboration with educational institutions at Lok Virsa, he said that use of non-degradable plastic bags was posting great threats to environment. “It is responsibility of each and every citizen including children to create awareness among masses about the hazards of using non-degradable plastic bags and wastage of water,” he said.
Eight schools from the twin cities had participated in events arranged under the Environmental Education Programme. The school children presented poems and tableaus to highlight the environmental issues. He asked the children to force their parents for taking cloth bags before leaving for markets for shopping.
The secretary said that continuing global trajectory of carbon emissions were major cause of global warming, which has made the climate erratic and unreliable in terms of predictability and the worst cause of devastating impacts. However, climate experts and scientists have agreed that forests hold key to tackle the extreme weather impacts and events in shape of destructive floods, heat waves, shifting rainfall patterns, droughts, which have shown constant rise in frequency and intensity.
He recalled that since the industrial revolution began around 1750, human activities have contributed substantially to climate change by adding carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases including methane and monoxide to the atmosphere. These greenhouse gas emissions have increased the greenhouse effect and caused Earth’s surface temperature to rise.
Akif said that the primary human activity affecting the amount and rate of climate change is greenhouse gas emissions from the burning of fossil fuels. Programme organiser Kashif Haider Qutub said the Ministry of Climate Change has been working with the Pakistan Institute for Environment-Development Action Research (PIEDAR) for developing manuals and other communication materials to infuse environmental concepts and practices in primary and secondary school syllabus and disciplines.
