“Every part of this earth is sacred to my people. Every shining pine needle, every sandy shore, every mist in the dark woods, every hearing, and every humming insect is holy in my memory…..”
Thus the Red Indian leader Seattle cherished the land. This manifests how early people respected their root of origin, nature. They valued the earth and as a result, they were protected by the environment. They saved it for us. That’s why we enjoy it.
Simply, the environment is the surroundings around us. Every living and non-living being belongs to it. As well as nature is the most precious gift given to mankind. It is the primary producer of all food chains. Being the most talented artist Mother Nature provides many needs for her inmates as our mother feeds us. Even we humans depend on her. All the essential needs: foods, clothes, habitats, etc., are provided by the environment directly or indirectly. Every single breath of us is a form of nature.
As a mark of gratitude, what do we do now? We warm our home, our earth. We destroy our lungs, our forests. By considering money and wealth as the large guarantee of our life we destroy and pollute those valuable resources. Now people have forgotten their origin. They are corrupted with economical purposes. In this speedy materialistic era, we hastily dominate nature and its creatures without any sense. Now our earth is ceasing to exist.
We warm our home, our living planet with the poisonous gases from our industries. We pollute water bodies without thinking that humans cannot live without water even for a day. We kill turtles, make the surroundings unpleasant by burning and disposing of polythene and plastics. Is that the worth of development and the most gratified technologies?
Water pollution, land pollution, air pollution, sound pollution are happening in front of our eyes, but did you think about it behind the scenes? Many natural creatures are threatened to extinct. The best example is the painful challenges of Arctic and Antarctic creatures. Due to the release of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, global warming increases. Then the ice melts and polar region creatures like penguins, polar bears like rare animals gradually lost their habitats.
Especially nature is very mysterious. How is really wonderful the green vegetation? It captivates our hearts and plunders our eyes. Sometimes the environment plays the role of a great doctor as its beauty cures our mental and spiritual stress. Even with no physical needs, the earth gives the mental needs for us. But people are blind to see all these services. They only enjoy the rights but no effort to fulfill their duties and responsibilities.
Now our home’s forest covers only 4 billion hectares. We lost an area as twice as the land area of the United States in the year 2021 due to our own faults. It means that our lungs are destroying, our breathe is vanishing. The only planet which has the live quality is our earth. But why do people ruin it?
The earth is fighting to survive. His life is hanging on by a thread. He gives the punishments for our rudeness. The punishments are natural disasters. Droughts, floods, landslides, lightning, etc. are some of them. We know how people facing to that disasters with tears bursting their eyes, and hunger piercing their bellies, even the pain of losing loved ones. It teaches us that Mother Nature also feels the same thing beyond those enormous sky-touching buildings which are appearing by turning the green vegetation into the fireworks explode in the sky. It is very sarcastic that being the most superior creatures, we are failed to dominate those spontaneous behaviors. The humor is rising to the peak level when our imagination is flying over the current situation; the global pandemic, viral disease Corona. Even we bear the crown of the top-level domain and think that we are undefeatable organisms, tiny microscopic fragments like organisms take our lives under our very nose of us. We are still standing with bare hands without anything to do. Then where is our most precious technology we sacrificed everything for this time of need?
But the irony is people cannot realize that being a part of nature they have to go through the line of extinction because nature is the one who gave life to us. Yes! It’s true that man already found the life can be originated on Mars. But is it an option for the whole destruction? Then you will have to find another planet when you ruined the whole mars as the previous home. Instead of researching another planet to ruin, we must protect the one we already have.
I know that the case of polar bears and penguins who have to face the negative aspects of our activities don’t make any concern for you, but at least think about what will happen to your child if you destroy the whole habitat, how will they breathe if you breathe the life of your own home? So, this is the time to stand. Unless you and I take a stand our earth will die. Then there will be no place to call home.
Now the world is in our hands. Every person has a duty and a responsibility to protect this precious gift while enjoying them. So we must invest in the simple life we already have. Then we can save this planet for the next generation. So this is the time to aware the whole world about this matter. We can plant trees and increase the forest cover, properly dispose of garbage and prevent the emission of greenhouse gases. Even we can practice the reduce reuse and recycling for non-degradable things like polythene and plastics. Let’s convert our technology to earn a bright future with sustainability. Let’s use solar energy, wind power, hydropower like freely given resources over the destruction of non-renewable energy sources. Then we can earn the peace of our home again. Our planet is our home forever. Let’s pay our homage to it.
My voice within these few words may be tiny, but I hope this will melt our people and make a change. I plead with you to protect our home, our planet, earth. Please leave only your footprints when you bid farewell to earth.
By A.H.Sahanma Methyanie, Matara, Sri Lanka
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