In the last couple of years, Pakistan has gone through some of the record breaking heatwaves in the country that have taken thousands of lives. One of the main reasons cited behind the changing weather and heat is the lack of trees in the country. Today Pakistan stands at number 6 among the countries to be most affected by climate change.
Therefore in order to tackle the problem of deforestation and climate change in the country the newly elected government of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf has launched the Ten Billion Tree Tsunami campaign on Sunday.
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The campaign was announced by the Prime Minister Imran Khan on Twitter, where he called out:
“Today we launch our tree plantation drive #Plant4Pakistan across the entire country. I want everyone to join this #GreenPakistan drive so we can counter the twin threats of climate change and pollution confronting our future generations.”
More than 200 points have been established for the project across 18 major cities in Pakistan where they will be distributing plant saplings to the volunteers. The overall objective of the campaign is to plant over 10 billion trees in the country over the next five years.
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The project was initially initiated in 2014 by the now Prime Minister and cost about $169 million.
Furthermore, Pakistan has already hit the its billion tree mark according to the World Economic Forumback in August 2017 as the hills of the country’s northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are alive with newly planted saplings. Thanks to the Billion Tree Tsunami campaign.
Overall, the initiative has received a positive response from all over the world and the efforts of Prime Minister Imran Khan have been lauded everywhere for his quick action on climate change.