MEDIA

Economics Department News in the Media

Compromising utility over beauty

"Such species are threatening not only the local flora but also local fauna because, according to estimates, IAS are responsible for almost 40 per cent of all animal extinction since the 17th century. Some non-native species do promote diversity by providing habitat to the native plants, but firstly the cataloguing and the information about the individual impact of non-native species is missing in the Biodiversity Action Plan, and secondly the ones lining the metro cities of Pakistan are mostly nothing but eye candies. As if ruthlessly deforesting and damaging the lungs of metro cities in the name of infrastructure development aren't enough of a crime that this spread of ornamental shrubbery is substituted for the recklessly uprooted native trees. Amid the global climate change, heavily deforested Lahore is gasping for fresh air, and such activities resulting from lack of awareness and the fact that we are too hung up on aesthetics aren't helping."

This Op-ed has been written by Atif Ilyas, MPhil in Development student at GIDS, Lahore School of Economics.