PESHAWAR: Panellists at a monthly study circle urged stakeholders to take proactive measures to reduce the impact of climate change on environment.

They also expressed concerns over the worsening air quality of the provincial capital. They said that lack of political will of successive governments to stem out the root cause of environmental pollution and several other hurdles to plan proactive measures towards a clean and green environment were main factors of pollution.

Peshawar Circles, a private organisation, in collaboration with Peshawar Clean Air Alliance (PAA) and Enlighten Lab arranged its 37th study circle in the main hall of directorate of archives and library. The organisation also celebrated its third anniversary of arranging reading sessions every month to foster critical thinking among youth towards building a society with vision and broad worldview.

Young university graduates, rights activists and bibliophiles turned up at the event. The panellists brought under debate the award winning book titled ‘Losing Earth: A Recent History’ by Nathaniel Rich.

Prof Habib Jan, deputy director of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), chaired the event. He expressed pleasure over the efforts of young graduates regarding open discussion on books on national and global issues with underlying theme to raise awareness among youth at large.

Participants of monthly session discuss award winning book

Shedding light on the book under debate, he pointed out that the said book covering a decade-long account from 1979 to 1989, in fact a work of history, was outlining the broad understanding of climate hazard, its causes, remedial steps and future plans to address the issue.

“Strategies and concrete steps should be devised to make clean and green Peshawar a reality,” he said. He added that the author focused on political and social barriers while strength of the book lied in its comprehensive historical perspective, engaging narrative making complex issues accessible to diverse audiences around the globe.

He said that the book would prove a crash course for common readers and especially those interested in environmental issues.

Earlier, Mohammad Karim Khan, chief organiser, presented a chapter wise summary of the book. He said that being a must read book, it would serve to reflect on past failures and devise pragmatic plans to avoid further devastating impact of climate change. It was followed by questions and answers session.

Hamza Khan, Amna Khan, Haseeb Sajjad and Fareshta Maqbool also shared their insights on the climate change issue.

Published in Dawn, January 16th, 2024