We all adore scenic beauty in all its glory and more often than not post pictures of some Pakistani hill station that are captioned: “This isn’t Switzerland, it’s Pakistan” The reason such posts appear on our newsfeeds is that we do not really expect Pakistan to be lush green. And for once, we are more morally culpable for this than the bureaucracy is. We fail to understand that the same trees that soothe our eyes were also once planted by someone. History has shown that until a struggle is sustained and continued by its successors, it disappears in the sands of times. This struggle for tree plantation, however, is special because ignoring it will not only make the efforts of our predecessors futile but will effectively threaten our survival.
Apart from just an aesthetic function, trees also actively purify the air that we manage to profusely pollute. According to the US Forest Service 2011, in larger cities like Kansas City, trees remove about 26000 tonnes of pollution per year. That is more than the weight of 40,000 people combined! The existence of humankind was attributed to the optimal levels of oxygen sustained by plants around 700 million years ago. Come to think about it, the existence of humankind even today is held in the balance by the air purifying trees that surround us. We often take for granted the fact that each breath we take is a testimony to the imperativeness of plants. How can we be so selfish to even forget about ourselves?
So it is time that we own up to our responsibilities and take the struggle in our own hands. It is time that we come out of our homes and decide to plant as much trees as possible. It is indeed time that we give to our future generations what our previous ones gave us.
Join the Lahore Conservation Society this summer, to plant trees in different areas of Lahore and to protect our lives and the lives of those whom we care. It isn’t as difficult as you think. It’ll take lesser time than you spend at schools, jobs or markets every day and honestly not nearly as much effort.Sign Up and help save the city you love. Darakht Lagao, Lahore Bachao:
Sign Up and help save the city you love. Darakht Lagao, Lahore Bachao: Click here!
