Fanning the wrong flames: Pakistan’s youth influencers
https://arab.news/phr7h
“There is no such thing as bad publicity,” is an idea of the past, a misguided notion that all mentions in the media, no matter good or bad, aid a cause in the long-term.
Social media everywhere these days is rife with videos of TikTokers pulling stunts to gain cheap popularity; most noticeably and recently in Pakistan, by setting fire to forests for more likes and followers.
A week ago, Nousheen Syed aka Dolly made quite a furor and hit the headlines for all the wrong reasons after posting a video from her TikTok handle with more than 11 million followers. In the video, she is seen prancing in front of a wildfire ignited by her and her aides in the protected Margalla Hills National park. Clad in a ballgown of silver and white, she can be seen walking to the beats of a popular Coke Studio song, the Punjabi lyrics of which are along the lines of setting fire (metaphorically) to one’s problems and desperations.
In a similar incident, the video of a male TikTok duo from Abbotabad surfaced a few weeks back, where they are seen setting the forest ablaze with a lighter. In both these and many more social media stunts, there is a total disregard for the consequences of actions.
Margalla Hills National Park (MHNP) is rich in biodiversity, especially sino-himalayan fauna, gray goral, barking deer, leopards. MHNP is home to around 600 plant species, 402 bird varieties, 38 mammal and 27 reptile species.
Clad in a ballgown of silver and white, she can be seen walking to the beats of a popular Coke Studio song, the Punjabi lyrics of which are along the lines of setting fire (metaphorically) to one’s problems and desperations.
Dr. Mehreen Mujtaba
Pakistan, despite being a low emitter of GHG gases is one of the most vulnerable countries to the impacts of climate change. To be more precise, we are in the middle of a climate emergency. Frequent heatwaves, water scarcity, floods, droughts, food insecurity, you name it and we are facing them all. For the past few months, mercury levels have been hovering way above normal for this time of year. We are facing blistering heat and extreme water scarcity issues. Couple that with bush fires in the protected national parks which not only require manpower but also massive resources to control, and you see such callous, nonchalant behavior of people committing arson for their cheap publicity stunts, that it makes one wonder about their mental status. Can we label such individuals pyromaniacs? Or is it just a total disregard for the national resources of the country and a complete lack of awareness about the climate related emergency the country is currently facing with new heatwave records due to current climate trends in the years to come.
Witnessing such blatant disregard at a time when we are facing a huge political, economic and climate related crisis is nerve wracking. Forest fires jeopardise the natural eco-system by releasing carbon dioxide and other pollutants in the atmosphere, further exacerbating global warming. The resultant smoke creates public health issues for communities living close to forests and damage the natural fauna and flora. Uncontrolled wildfires cause billions of rupees in economic losses, ecological and property damage.
Arson is a crime of wilfully and maliciously setting fire to or charring property, motor vehicles, or forests. For someone trying to intentionally cause a wildfire in order to create a background effect is irresponsible behavior on the part of the individual which needs to be penalized. Apart from awarding a financial penalty, they should be involved in community service, like planting trees.
Individuals like Dolly, who have a mass following on their social media accounts, can be harbingers of change in Pakistan if they use their social media accounts for the good of the country and try not to set the wrong precedence by posting deliberately destructive content. But for that, these individuals need a crash course on the problems facing our planet in general and our country in particular. There is no Planet B, and if we destroy our land and our resources, our future generations will be handed down an uninhabitable planet.
- Dr. Mehreen Mujtaba is a freelance consultant working in the areas of environment and health.
