Scientists discovered a long time ago that our Earth is covered by the ozone layer that protects it from the radiation of the sun. Diseases like skin cancer and natural blindness were the big issues in the last century after the industrial revolution. At present, the population of the Earth is about 7.7 billion, which is predicted to rise up to 8.5 billion by 2023.

We can see the example of the population growth by considering that Pakistan at present is 230 million, which is predicted to rise up to 400 million by 2050. This raises some questions: Has our Earth the potential to feed this large population? Can we afford to have a population of 400 million in Pakistan, which will need doubling the recourses in the coming 30 years? Can we produce enough food? Can we build enough schools or hospitals? Do we have the ability to make our soil fertile? We have no plans to develop new cities, and as a result of that all, the burden is falling on old cities which are expanding out of limits and throwing the municipal life almost out of control.

In the 20th century, a larger industrialisation started globally and we started to burn coal and consumed natural resources violently. We cut trees and made entire forests disappear which resulted in the higher global temperature, and the immediate effect was the change of climate and the rise of sea levels and the melting of snow at the south and north poles. The rise in sea levels is even going to make some islands disappear in future.

The recent pandemic related problems have globally changed the workings and activities of humans, giving an opportunity to the ozone layer, which had been badly affected, to self-repair itself. This means that nature is fighting for itself. For example, the ice at the poles, which was melting rapidly, has suddenly stopped. We have been destroying our natural resources and making the earth increasingly inhospitable. As industries and the pollution caused by them has ceased worldwide, nature is using this time to recover. Scientists from all over the world have done their best to find a planet where we may move to if our earth faces any dramatic changes, but unfortunately, we still do not have the ability to move to another planet. This is a clear lesson that the only place where life can survive is our Earth.

The defence budgets worldwide are in trillions of dollars but little is spent for the protection of humanity. A country like America is spending 717 billion dollars a year for its defence, trailed China which spending 177 billion dollars. India is spending almost 61 billion dollars, Germany 53 billion dollars, and Saudi Arabia 51 billion dollars. In contrast, the total budget of the World Health Organisation is merely 4 billion dollars.

Nature has many ways to balance the system. In the past for thousands of years, Earth has seen the ice age and the warm ages and heavy rains across the world. This is the time when we should sit down and think of our world as a global village. Any viral disease can affect the entire Earth starting from one part of the planet and completing its circle as witnessed in the case of COVID-19 that spread from Wuhan, China to the rest of the world. The viruses naturally have the ability to be more lethal. It was a mistake on the part of the many advanced countries of the world that they did not adopt proper measures and neglected the warning from China.

This is not the first time that a pandemic has rocked the world. We should understand that planet Earth is our only home for the foreseeable future. Therefore, we must invest all our energies and resources for the preservation of our ecosystems, so that our future generations can survive and flourish instead of dealing with one disaster after the other.

We have to make sure and we must focus on what are the precautionary measures to deal with these kinds of diseases in future. We should generate more funds to help scientists prepare to face this kind of situation in future so that we may protect people more effectively. As IMF is playing its part to deal with poverty, we should make the World Health Organization more effective, and if an epidemic breaks out anywhere in the world, we should jump to solve the issue.

The countries that did not show patience at that time, such as Japan, Italy, America, Canada, England and France, are now suffering from the worst situation ever.

We need to learn a lesson and keep our Earth safe for our coming generations.