WORLD
THE WORLD IS MELTING BUT ATLEAST THE PACKAGING IS BIODEGRADABLE
Youth Perspective on Environment Hypocrisy and Performed Solutions
We were born into a burning building. That’s what it feels like-being part of a generation that inherited a planet already coughing on its own smoke. While we were learning the alphabet, the ozone was thinning. While we were memorising maps in school, actual islands were vanishing from real ones. And yet somehow, we’re handed a mop and told to clean it all up. With what,hashtags and recycled guilt?
This isn’t melodrama. It’s just mathematics. Temperatures rise. Water drops. Air thickens. Forests shrink. Waste multiplies. And every graph has one thing in common: the curve climbs like it’s late for something. So while generations before us brag about their golden years, we’re just trying to make sure ours don’t turn black and grey,ash coloured, like the inheritance we never asked for.
Pollution is not a chapter in our books. It’s what we breathe. You don’t need to visit a factory to inhale chemicals. Just walk on a main road. The dust alone is enough to leave your lungs feeling like they just smoked a tired cigarette. And water? Half the rivers look like they’ve given up trying to be water anymore,they’re more like soup made from plastic, chemicals, sewage, and the remnants of industrial apologies. The soil too;it doesn’t grow, it groans. With every packet buried, every pesticide poured, it’s like stabbing the same earth that once fed us without asking anything in return.
What’s worse than the crisis itself is the way it’s hidden in plain sight. Plastic bottles are now “recyclable,” so they feel less evil. Air conditioners come with “eco mode,” as if that justifies running them all day. Fast fashion brands launch “conscious collections” while churning out millions of polyester shirts a week. It’s all a performance. Greenwashing is the new costume-and unfortunately, the world applauds it.
But not everyone claps. The youth—the so-called “digital generation”isn’t as fooled as the glossy ads assume. We’ve seen the documentaries. We’ve read between the headlines. We’ve watched satellite images of forests disappearing like files being deleted in real time. And we’re angry. Not the tantrum-throwing kind, but the fuel-burning, protest-making, start-up-creating kind of angry. The kind of rage that turns into action.
Because we don’t just recycle. We rethink. We question why organic food costs more than junk that comes in four layers of plastic. We ask why public transport is underfunded while highways keep multiplying like rabbits. We ask why climate change is treated like an opinion in debates instead of the scientific emergency it is. And when we don’t get answers, we create them. Apps to reduce waste. Campaigns to plant trees. Pages that expose polluters. Brands that sell climate-conscious clothing that’s actually, well, conscious.
This generation’s solutions are not made in big labs alone they’re crafted in dorm rooms, basements, classrooms, and even Instagram DMs. A student in Mumbai builds a portable air purifier from e-waste. A teen in Manipur converts fish waste into bio-plastic. A school club in Kerala turns canteen leftovers into compost and makes the school self-sustainable. These aren’t exceptions. They’re symptoms of a generation that knows it has no other choice.
But let’s be real. It’s exhausting. The pressure to “fix” what we didn’t break is enough to create a new kind of pollution-climate anxiety. The feeling that no matter how many metal straws we buy or how many marches we join, it’s still not enough. Because the system is broken. It’s like trying to patch a sinking ship with duct tape. Until policies change, until corporations are held accountable, until sustainability stops being a trend and starts being a rule,our efforts feel like whispers in a storm.
That’s where politics comes in. Environmentalism is not just about planting trees. It’s about voting. It’s about understanding that governance is not some adult-only club,it affects every single breath we take. From the garbage on the streets to the smog in our skies, it all links back to policy. So no, we won’t “leave it to the experts.” Because the experts had decades. And now, the planet’s lungs are collapsing.
What the world needs is not just more awareness. It needs reprogramming. A complete shift in the way we define success. Right now, success is tall buildings, fast cars, cheap products. But what if success was measured in clean rivers? In zero-waste cities? In air that doesn’t need a quality index? The youth already thinks this way. We just need the systems to catch up.
And while we’re at it,can we please stop romanticising struggle? People shouldn’t have to collect rainwater because there’s no clean supply. Children shouldn’t study under trees because floods destroyed their classrooms. These are not “inspiring stories”they are warnings. If the future looks like this, then what exactly are we developing towards?
The truth is harsh: the Earth will survive. But humans might not. So it’s not “saving the planet” anymore. The planet will go on, with or without us. The real question is-can we save ourselves?
So no, this is not just about climate change. It’s about culture change. Mental shift. Economic reform. Emotional rewiring. Everything. And we’re ready. We’re loud. We’re tired of being polite. And we’re not just raising our voices,we’re raising alternatives.
The soil remembers every footprint. The water keeps every secret. The air holds every breath. And the youth? We’re not just witnesses to the damage-we’re the first responders. We’ve inherited the smoke. But we are not made of ash.
We’re made of spark.
By: Sakshi Bhura
Write and Win: Participate in Creative writing Contest & International Essay Contest and win fabulous prizes.
About the Author
