We live on earth, the only planet known to carry life. We breathe its air, drink from its waters, live off its produce, build on its soil, dig up its treasures and exploit it to our advantage. Yet, we need a day each year to remind us of its importance to us and its needs.

And on that one day out of 356, April 22, we sing the Earth’s praise, lament

about its sufferings, pledge to care for it and then get back to living just as carelessly and selfishly as we have always been.

When people stop noticing and caring about things, special days are set aside in the year — for instance Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Women’s Day, Labour Day, etc. — to raise awareness of issues and problems related to each theme, and motivate people to become proactive about these relationships and issues.

of issues and problems related to each theme, and motivate people to become proactive about these relationships and issues.

But isn’t it a sad state of things that we are commemorating such important aspects of our lives on a single day of the year when we should remember them each and every day? Isn’t it a pity that Earth is the only place we know, our home, and we still have to be reminded of our duties to it?

Our planet is home to more than six billion human beings and countless animals and plants. All its bounties and resources are shared and used by every living creature, but it is abuse by humans that has led to environmental problems and climate change that is affecting all forms of life on it. Not many people realise, and very few accept, is that when we do anything that harms any part of our planet, we are harming ourselves.

When we use up and waste its resources, we are using up and stealing the resources of our future generations. When we pollute its air, water and land, we are polluting things that we depend on for living and thus polluting our own bodies. When we cut the trees to build our cities, we are taking away the oxygen we breathe, the homes from many animals and killing many plants. When we pollute our rivers and seas with waste, we are depriving ourselves of clean water and killing the marine life in them. These are just a few ways in which we are harming our mother planet along with ourselves.

Many of the changes that are happening in our environment are too obvious to remain unnoticed by everyone. The hot summers that we are experiencing each year, the devastating storms and hurricanes that lead to so much destruction and both heavy rainfall or none at all when there should be some rain at least, are things that people everywhere in the world are experiencing now. As for deforestation, shrinking glaciers, ice sheets at the poles and decline in the number of many animals, these are things that scientists are carefully monitoring and informing us about.

The delicate environmental systems on earth, that are all interconnected, has been disturbed by human activity — the water cycle, climate cycle, food cycles, ocean currents, animal migrations, carbon/oxygen exchange and so on. Cutting down of forests to make way for cities and agriculture, is destroying animal and plant habitats, leading to animal extinction and migration. It also leads to top soil erosion and slows the exchange of carbon dioxide into oxygen, causing temperatures to rise.

Certainly the temperature of Earth has changed immensely over the millenniums and time has been witness to the extinction of many species. But while most of what happened over the past millions of years has been due to the working of Nature and natural forces, the changes that have been observed in the last century are our own doing, and at a much faster rate than anything scientists have assumed about the past ages.

If we want to cope effectively with the changes in the environment, each of us needs to take the ownership of our planet, become its guardian angels, not only to protect the earth, but to also protect ourselves. We need to turn to ‘green living’. Green living is basically “a lifestyle that tries in as many ways as it can to bring into balance the conservation and preservation of Earth’s natural resources, habitats and biodiversity with human culture and communities.”

By turning ‘green’, we take up practices that have little or no negative impact on our environment, both now and in the future. This is done basically by working with nature, not against it, reducing consumption and waste, reusing and recycling things, replanting, using environment-friendly things and disposing wastes of all kinds properly so as not to pollute the environment.

I am sure all of you know what is good for the environment and can become excellent green angels. And I am also sure that you are doing many things in your own way to be responsible citizens of this world.

There is much more that we can all do, and each simple step — like turning off the lights and fan when step out of a room — will go a long way in preserving the precious resources of our beautiful planet and keeping it a healthy place for the future generations to enjoy. You can easily learn what these environment-friendly ways are, and also teach others. Today’s youth is the leader of tomorrow, so take the command in your hands today and lead a greener life. Happy Earth Day!

What is Earth Day?

Each year, on April 22, people around the world celebrate Earth Day to show support for preserving the earth’s resources, protecting the environment and raise awareness of the ways to do so.

Earth Day took place for the first time in 1970, following a UNESCO conference in San Francisco in 1969, where peace activist John McConnell had proposed a day to be set aside to honour the Earth and the environment. The conference was taking place soon after a devastating oil spill on the coast of Santa Barbara, California, the US. April 22 was also his birthday

John McConnell believed that “humans had an obligation to protect the earth and share its resources with future generations.”

Now, across the world, people mark Earth Day by raising awareness of ways to protect the environment, and also starting campaigns and taking actions towards ‘green living’ by planting more trees, recycling and reusing things, cleaning up campaigns, using renewable energy such as solar or wind energy to generate electricity, etc.

Earth Day 2017’s campaign is “Environmental and climate literacy.” And, according to the Earth Day Organisation’s official page, “Environmental and climate literacy is the engine not only for creating green voters and advancing environmental and climate laws and policies but also for accelerating green technologies and jobs.”

Published in Dawn, Young World April 22nd, 2017