From the petrifying earthquake of 2005 with a death toll close to 75,000 to the flash floods of 2010 displacing more than 20 million and localized flooding in subsequent years, the last decade for Pakistan is livid in the hue of destruction and agony.
Not only that, the entire South Asian region has been feeling the chill from the vulnerable climatic changes acting as a barricade to the significant strides made for poverty alleviation and economic progress.
Amid casualties hinging around a mammoth 60,000 and economic loss close to 50 billion dollars, the past two decades have been dubbed plainly caustic by the World Bank for South Asia in terms of natural hazards, affecting over 750 million people.
And now the latest word of WB regarding global warming has sent alarm sirens across the world and especially region which still has to combat poverty prevailing in half a billion population and undernourishment in at least another quarter.
The situation is definitely not under the thumb for South Asia amongst other vulnerable regions as the study has indicated an increase in the intensity of floods, draughts, and yields as the world moves hastily towards the deadly four degree Celsius.
Where adverse climatic changes have high correlation with increased and intense inundation in Pakistan and Bangladesh, agrarian economies which include Pakistan, might see a complete alteration to the yields that chiefly depend on the regional monsoon.
Such moderations will not occur in a vacuity. They are likely to be accompanied by population and economic growth. A cocktail of the same will be the total weight on the globe which has greater tendency to impact the ecosystem, human security, economic structure and trade systems.
Given the unknown about the nature and intensity of the impact of higher temperatures and the rising risks of crossing the social system thresholds, the situation is not out of the woods; adaptation is close to impossible. Public policies should call for an integrated approach where policy makers will have to go loco over cooperation on an international level to avoid the four degree scenario. Or else halcyon days are soon over!