April 22 is celebrated as Earth day. This is an international event celebrated all across the globe to pledge support for environmental protection. More than 1 billion people in 192 countries participate in the Earth Day activities each year, making it the largest civic observance in the world. This all started in 1970 when 20 million took to the streets to protest against climate degradation. This day has played a significant part in reducing the harmful effects we humans are causing to our home planet. The Paris agreement which brought 200 countries together to support efforts to reduce global greenhouse emissions was signed on Earth day 2016. According to earthday.org, this day aims to build the world’s largest environmental movement to drive change for people as well as the planet.
On its 51st celebration, we are acknowledging it with a suitable theme of “Restore The Earth”. This year it is focused on natural processes, emerging green technologies, and innovative thinking that can restore the world’s ecosystems. It is clearly high time we took action and started to put things back as they were or it will be too late to change the effects of climate change. It is up to each one of us and big corporations to Restore Our Earth not just because we care about the natural world, but because we live on it. We all need a healthy Earth to support our jobs, livelihoods, health & survival. A healthy planet is not an option but it is a necessity.
It's a very simple and obvious fact that we only have this one lonely planet we call our home. There is no spare planet in our solar system that is suitable for human life and still, we keep on using its resources as we have a spare planet somewhere. To continue living as we are used to we really need to think about various sustainable ways to operate. If we do not take action now the conditions will only get worse. Sustainable substitutes need to be developed for each and every element which are causing significant damage to our environment. Consider India we still rely heavily on coal-powered plants to generate electricity but it can be substituted by solar power plants and India’s geographical position is set to fully utilize its solar potential. But still, our governments are relying on nonrenewable energy source, and not sufficient funding is provided for the development of the renewable energy sector.
So take this day as an opportunity to start conversations about these changes with our family, friends, office colleagues, and our politicians. It can lead to small changes in our surroundings. Which in turn helps to achieve big changes down the road.
