Not too young to go green

My name is Lina. I am 10 years old and CEO of my company Green’s Better.

In the past couple of years, I’ve noticed a lot of changes in Pakistan. Extreme weather conditions, heatwaves in Karachi, less rainfall, drying up dams, air pollution, people getting sick more often etc.

So instead of observing it all silently, I decided to take action and the idea of Green’s Better was materialized.

Since I wanted to involve children in my mission so we targeted schools initially. We developed an app for schools which connects teachers, parents and students. Teachers can use the app, post pictures of students planting trees and reward them with green points. The purpose of green points is to encourage children to plant trees, love nature and take care of the environment. I believe it’s very important to teach children at a young age because they are leaders of tomorrow.

Our company’s aim is to encourage children in school and people in general to reduce waste. Paper waste, plastic waste, water waste and food waste. We teach children in school about the harmful effects of plastic waste that eventually goes to the ocean destroying marine life. We tell them about the trees that have been cut down to make paper. We teach them ways they can reduce water waste and reuse it etc.

At the moment my plan is to plant 10,000 trees in Karachi university and get more and more people involved in it. Also, I plan to run Karachi's Lyari neighbourhood completely green. This project is called Lyari Chown Mein. We plan to plant a tree on every rooftop and creeping vines along the walls of each house. This will attract lots of bees and butterflies there as they are rarely spotted here anymore. For this again I want as many people to be involved and help me in this mission.

If we don’t act now then we are the first ones to be affected by climate change. We are already facing water scarcity problems. Many forests have been wiped out just to make buildings and houses when we should be planting more and more. The plastic bags that we use end up making landfills in every area of Karachi, resulting in the blockage of sewage lines and thus spreading diseases. We need to be serious. I want everyone to understand that a lot of time has already been wasted in complaining and not taking any action. Act now and become a Green Warrior like my sister, because Green is definitely Better.