I first heard the name Wangchuck in the famous Indian movie 3 Idiots. Aamir Khan played the character of Wangchuck in the movie. I did not know that Wangchuck is a real character. I was introduced to him last week in Islamabad during the South Asia Climate Symposium organised by Dawn Media Group. This symposium provided a great opportunity for climate experts from Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and other countries to find solutions to the climate crisis.

Sonam Wangchuck from Ladakh is an engineer and a climate activist who went on a 16-day hunger strike last year to save the ecology of his hometown. He was invited to the symposium due to his inventions to protect the climate. His inventions also impressed Aamir Khan. One of his inventions is an artificial spring in the shape of an ice stupa that stores downstream water to be used in spring when farmers need water. I never thought that I would see Wangchuck in Islamabad.

I actually went to this climate symposium to meet two old friends. My friends Nirupama Subramanian from India and Mahfuz Anam from Bangladesh are journalists with keen interest in climate issues. Nirupama spent many years in Islamabad as a correspondent of The Hindu newspaper. She made a lot of friends here. Now she works in Chennai. Her own city is facing threats due to climate change. Some World Bank experts were telling us during the symposium that rising sea levels are becoming a threat for the existence of Karachi, Badin, Tattha, Mumbai, Chennai, Kochin, Kolkata, Chattogram, and the whole of Maldives. Some experts discussed the issue of smog, and some were worried about the melting of glaciers due to increasing temperatures. I was happy to see my old friends at this event, but we were also worried about the warnings by many international climate experts.

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During one session of this symposium, Sonam Wangchuck was sitting on stage with Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif's coordinator on climate change, Romina Khurshid Alam. He praised Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiatives on climate change. I was listening to his speech while sitting in the audience. Nirupama whispered in my ear that he is Wangchuck from Ladakh. I immediately asked if he was the Wangchuck from 3 Idiots. Nirupama smiled and said yes. Then she told me about his hunger strike. Wangchuck always challenged government policies in India, but he was defending the PM in Pakistan. The life line of Pakistan, the Indus River, originates from his native land, and he was suggesting a joint strategy to address the problem of global warming. He highlighted the idea of creating artificial glaciers. He said, "That is what we do in Ladakh."

There was a session in this symposium about the role of media and climate change. Zafar Abbas, the editor of Dawn newspaper, moderated the session. Mahfuz Anam, Nirupama Subramanian, another Indian journalist Soumashree Sarkar, and Nepali journalist Kanak Mani Dixit agreed that the media must give priority to environmental issues and come up with some bold climate journalism to save South Asia. I noticed that despite tensions between the governments of India and Pakistan, and Bangladesh and India, some "idiot" journalists from these three countries were ready to work together to save the climate of their region. Nirupama had been issued a visa for Pakistan just one day before the conference. She flew from Chennai to Delhi and collected her passport. A very wise Pakistani visa officer did not allow her to cross the Pakistan-India border by foot. She flew to Dubai and took a flight to Pakistan. Only an idiot like her can take this pain for the sake of climate.

I remember that a few years ago, when Mahfuz was facing more than 80 sedition and defamation cases filed on the orders of Sheikh Hasina, I condemned her government. After a few days, I received her message through a diplomat: Mahfuz Anam is an idiot and I should not interfere in the internal matters of Bangladesh just to save an idiot. I responded: "Tell Hasina that I am also an idiot like Mahfuz Anam and he is more important for me than a civilian dictator." I was happy to see my idiot friend in Islamabad again after many years. During his visit, at a dinner hosted by Jazz, he took interest in the conversation of young Pakistani journalists Absa Komal, Shehbaz Rana, and Nadir Gurmani. He looked happy to know that, like him, these young idiots are not ready to surrender their freedom to any power.

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South Asian nations need a collective plan to tackle climate change

Some World Bank and UNICEF officials told me that PM Shehbaz Sharif gave his word to come to the inauguration of this symposium, but when he learnt that Chief Minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Ali Amin Gandapur was also invited, he refused to come. Gandapur belongs to the party led by Imran Khan. Planning Minister Ahsan Iqbal represented the PM at the symposium. It is unfortunate that climate change needs a consensus in South Asia but Indian and Pakistani governments are not ready to sit together. Then again, Pakistani politicians are also not ready to sit with each other.

Valerie Hickey, World Bank's global director for climate change, stunned the audience by revealing that the world needs $1 billion per day to combat the threat of drought, but we don't have enough money. Pakistan needs at least $40 billion annually until 2050 to save Karachi, Badin and Thatta from rising sea waters. Can a Pakistani government afford internal and external fights in this situation? It seems that only idiots understand the gravity of the situation. We need cooperation but our rulers are more interested in confrontation. It's a good thing that idiots from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan have started a dialogue. We need idiots like Wangchuck and Mahfuz Anam who can force the rulers to give more attention to save air and water, not their chairs.

Hamid Mir is a journalist at Pakistani news channel Geo News. His X handle is @HamidMirPAK.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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