Like previous years, this
year too, we are celebrating World Environment Day, on 5th June. The
theme chosen by United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) is “Raise Your
Voice, Not the sea level” with a focus on the dangers small islands are facing
due to climatic changes occurring in our environment. As a part of the
celebration of the World Environment Day, many programmes have been lined up
across the globe, both at local level as well as by different states and countries.
Barbados, the Caribbean island more famous for its fast bowlers, has been
chosen as the host country for this year’s celebration.
Let’s pause a little,
and go back to events exactly a year ago. Like this year, we had celebrated
last year also. What was the theme for last year’s World Environment Day? Which
country was the host country? Many of us, including you and me do not remember
that. Do we? We must have celebrated it, like every year, on 5th
June 2013 and 6th June onwards we got busy in our own lives. Knowing
last year’s theme or host country’s name doesn’t matter. What matters is
whether the aim of celebrating the world environment day has been achieved or
not.
The point here is that,
we do not, and should not; need a special day to care for the environment
around us. Celebration of World Environment Day is a platform for creating
awareness among the community and younger generations. It is the responsibility
of every individual to spread the word on environment protection among the less
aware section of the community. Another point, which is especially important
for us Indians, is that we do not have a sense of ownership for things that do
not belong to us. As we do not care for everything that the government (or for
that matter our corporation) provides us free of charge, we also do not care
for the environment and think that it’s somebody else responsibility. We need
to change the mentality and show others that a small effort from each
individual shall make a huge impact on the environment. Here are few things
that we can do at individual levels.
Ø Inculcate
environment friendly habits in your family and educate the family members,
especially children, on their benefits.
Ø Plant
and care for trees, as many as you can.
Ø Do
not waste water, electricity etc. Even if it doesn’t cost us a rupee, somewhere
a fuel is burnt to make it available to us.
Ø Make
optimum us of sunlight and wind, two energy source abundant in Paradip, where
ever you can. For example to dry clothes instead of using the drier.
Ø Spread
awareness among villagers on environment friendly use of resources.
Like above, there are a
number of other environment friendly habits that we can imbibe in our daily
lives. Our minuscule efforts may not have a visible and imminent impact, but
together all our small actions will definitely have a larger positive effect on
the environment our future generations will inherit from us. We owe it to them.
Instead of being a silent observer of the climate change lets be a crusader
against environment pollution. Let’s care for our mother earth as we care for
our families. Let’s make every day a celebration of world environment day.
After all, as mentioned in Mahaponishada, all the world is a single family:
“वसुधैव कुटुम्बकम्”
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I had written this on the request of a friend, who was looking for articles to fill in the in house magazine to be published on the occasion of World Environment Day 2014.
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