Today marks 42nd anniversary of Earth Day

KARACHI: Earth Day is now recognised by the UN and observed each year by more than 500 million people in 175 countries, and Pakistan is one of them.

Earth Day, a day intended to draw attention to the fragile nature of our environment and the need to preserve, conserve and protect it.

But Earth Day is more than just a day to spruce up. It’s a day to focus attention on the environmental issues that, if ignored, can pose a serious threat to our way of life and that of future generations. One of the themes of this year’s celebration is, “The Earth won’t — can’t — wait.”

The debate about global warming and climate change continues to be waged by proponents who believe that we, the world’s human population, are contributing to a slow but steady erosion of the earth’s atmosphere, and the opponents who contend that climate change and such arguments supporting that theory are nothing more than scare tactics lacking any scientific proof.

It’s not a matter of who’s right about the issue. It has long been our position that we simply cannot afford to be wrong.

We need to take global warming and climate change seriously because once our environment is lost, it cannot be reclaimed. We need to put a much higher priority on reducing greenhouse gases, and, as a nation, be the leader in the world in fostering a higher awareness of the potential dangers that ignoring it poses.

We, as a nation, need to be aggressive in encouraging greater energy efficiencies and improving existing technology that will allow us, and others, to move away from an over-reliance on fossil fuels. We will never fully divorce ourselves from fossil fuels, but we can significantly reduce our reliance upon them.

It is to our benefit to do so both environmentally and economically. Better energy efficiency is a financial benefit to consumers. Developing green energy enterprises and new technology will create new jobs for the future.