Happy Earth day!
Each year, Earth Day—April 22—marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
This day was created in 1970 in the USA to initiate revolution against destruction of our environment and with an aim to keep our earth more clean and green.
The importance of this day has grown because of environmental concerns and global warming. According to leading climate scientists, 2019 could be the hottest year ever.
This follows a string of reports that global warming because of man-made factors has been accelerating in recent years.
The threatening effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution are already showing up but honestly in biological terms, humans have become parasite and are devouring this earth themselves.
Everyone knows those major factors which are speeding up the global warming. The governments need to think and sit together for focusing on the factors responsible for the environmental crisis and how to reduce them if they can’t be eliminated at all.
The sad part is that we, as individuals put all responsibility on governments and think that all earth related issues are government’s duty. Of course governments should play their part but there are a lot of ways in which we can help our earth to stay green and clean.
- Planting trees at massive level should be done by government but each of us can plant one tree at least and help our earth a lot to beat this pollution and warm temperatures. Someone is sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree long ago. The current rate of deforestation is equal to the loss of 27 soccer fields of trees a minute. We need to give due credit to Imran Khan who initiated 1 billion tree project to enhance the importance of green planet.
- Instead of using plastic shopping bags, we can try to use the paper bag. Plastic bags are easy to carry and use up huge amounts of energy and materials in their production and transport. Many of these bags also became litter, or end up in landfill sites or seashores, where they take centuries to break down. Paper bags on the other hand, are environment friendly. Recently a dead shark has been found with 40 kg of plastic in stomach.
- Let’s try to use less of our cars and use bicycles or walk by foot. It’s obviously not feasible to swap the car for the bicycle completely, but if one lives in a built-up area, it’s often the quickest (and most fun) way to get around. And besides pollution and climate change, it would help us to get rid of obesity too.
- We should think about our carbon footprint that is the total set of greenhouse gas emissions caused by an [individual, event, organisation, product] expressed as carbon di oxide. In an always connected world, it is impossible to live without consuming energy but atleast we can make small changes to reduce carbon footprint- by turning off extra lights and unplugging unnecessary appliances.
- Plastic bottles are the new plastic bags. They are everywhere and rarely recycled. Let’s try to reuse them to the maximum.
- Don’t buy more than you need. When it comes to lawn chemicals, pesticides, paints and other hazardous materials, buy a smaller package so you won’t have leftovers to dispose of.
- Give it away, don’t throw it away. Many charitable organizations accept donations of wearable clothing and gently used household items.
- Recycling a single bottle creates 20% less air pollution than creating a new one. Same is the case with newspaper. A single newspaper can be recycled five times.
Remember, when you say: ‘Can I really make a difference?’ You make 1 of 7.6 billion people of the world and small acts when multiplied by millions of people can transform the world. There is no planet B.
Let’s make everyday the earth day.
