Pakistan seems to be spiralling into climate chaos — and the recent developments only reinforce the urgency. A raging forest fire in Abbottabad, another devastating blaze in the Margalla Hills, and now, temperatures touching a staggering 49°C in Sindh. These are not isolated incidents. They are part of an unsettling pattern that is no longer an anomaly but an escalating crisis knocking at our doors with increasing frequency.

We are, by every available metric, one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change despite contributing little to global emissions. This cruel irony, however, does not absolve us of responsibility. If anything, it heightens the moral and political imperative for all stakeholders — government bodies, private institutions, and civil society — to move beyond conferences and token awareness drives. Strategic, coordinated, and sustained action must now become the standard, not the exception.

These extreme temperatures and ecological disasters are not just about discomfort or inconvenience. They chip away at our food security, damage already fragile health systems, and accelerate the breakdown of ecosystems we depend on for basic survival. Urban centres will choke. Rural livelihoods will wither. And the gap between climate impact and response capacity will continue to widen.

We hope this serves as a wake-up call for those still treating climate resilience as an optional agenda item. There is no such luxury anymore. National development can no longer be divorced from climate preparedness. Whether through investment in early warning systems, reforestation, water management, or enforcing building codes — we need comprehensive planning, and we need it now. Anything less, and we’re simply waiting to be boiled alive in our own negligence.