I have a guilty admission to make. I don’t get environment. I do get it broadly but I have stayed aloof from the larger debate because I kind of feel helpless in the face of what’s happening to the planet. There is this sense that the powerful and mighty have shaped the world in a manner that inevitably hurts the very environment that sustains it; and we ordinary mortals can’t do much about it.

But the way it has hurt my first love, Lahore, has left me feeling choked in more ways than one. I feel guiltier still for having ignored the issue till it hit me so blatantly.

Perhaps, we can do something.

I couldn’t believe when I said to friends, more than once, in recent weeks, that this city has become unliveable. I may have been referring both to the smog and the endless traffic jams on The Mall where a couple of protesting groups have sat for weeks now with apparently no one to hear them out.

I couldn’t believe because I used the word ‘unliveable’ for the only place I’ve wanted to live in. There must’ve been something crucial happening for me to have uttered it. One night, I stepped out on my street for my usual after-dinner stroll, and felt I could not breathe. Yes, I should have worn the mask (I still had to decide between N95 and N99 and what was available at the pharmacies) but my eyes hurt too. The air that I have preferred over anywhere else had become toxic.

I can feel it indoors too. I am surrounded by people who are ordering or have already placed a new gadget called “air purifier” in their rooms. The smart businesses are making a lot of money selling these imported gadgets run on electric power. But once the heaters are turned on, I am told, they might need something called “humidifiers” in their rooms. Imagine a room with a heater, air purifier, and humidifier, all consuming power source of some kind. Imagine the number of people who can afford all these gadgets. And then imagine the environment.

Clumsy, isn’t it? Unfair, too. Grossly unfair.

I once saw a meme on social media about a lot of cars and other vehicles stuck in a bad traffic jam. It said something like: “You are not stuck in a traffic jam; you are the one who’s causing it.” It was short, effective I thought, and makes me ashamed every time I step out in a car which is every day. I feel caught in a vicious cycle where I can’t now walk on the roads, or walk or cycle to my workplace if I want to, because I know the air is bad.

And yet I see so many people doing just that. A majority of people around me, who can’t afford simple masks, let alone the ones with fancy names, walk or cycle or bike with great risks to their health.

And it’s not just Lahore. It’s most parts of Punjab, and given the population density, about one fifth of the country’s population! All affected by this menace, now spread over months.

The saddest thing is that no one seems bothered about an issue that has huge policy implications.

At a time when school administrations are repeatedly forced to shut down schools, a few students have filed a petition in the Lahore High Court against the hazardous smog across Punjab that has rendered the air unfit to breathe. It was actively covered by the media but I have yet to see a proper response by the Punjab government.

Some steps taken in the last two years, like forcing the brick kilns to close their operations for a certain period and informed of the decision well in advance, were discontinued this year. Newspaper reports suggest that blaming the one-day Diwali or Indian farmers burning crops may not help address the issue on our side. Clearly, something else will.

I have noticed that on the days the schools are closed the roads are less polluted, and the air relatively cleaner. So, curtailing the vehicular traffic might help. How will that happen? I don’t know. The moneyed classes may need to forgo their privilege because in the larger scheme of things, their air purifiers pollute the air for the rest. And our cars too. Perhaps we need to do something collectively as citizens because time is running out.

As for me, I now clearly get environment. I do it for a selfish reason — I want this city to stay liveable, for me and all of us.