World Earth Day Today: Invest in our Planet for Green Future

Dr Shirish Khedgikar

United nations General Assembly established April 22 as 'International Mother Earth Day', in 2009. Activities conducted on this day, all over the world create awareness about the responsibilities of the human beings for rebuilding the troubled relationship with nature.

The planet Earth and it's ecosystem are our home and its essential to promote harmony with nature and the Earth. The Earth Day 2022 theme 'Invest in our planet' features 5 primary programmess, for which government, citizens, corporates and industries are to be activated.

The great global cleanup:

The campaign is for removing billions of pieces of trash from neighbourhoods, beaches, rivers, lakes, parks and streets. Waste material, especially plastic, is harmful for wildlife and human beings.

Sustainable fashion

Fashion industry is responsible for over 8% of total greenhouse gas emissions. Every year, 40 million tons of textiles is incinerated or goes in landfills. Clothing industry is stripping the earth of its limited resources and also creating tremendous amounts of waste. Sustainable fashion refers to ecologically and socially responsible clothing supply chain. Sustainable practices in sourcing, production, distribution and marketing in textile industry are necessary to save the earth.

Climate and environmental literacy:

Every leaner in every school in the world needs climate and environmental education with a strong civic engagement component. UN expects ground efforts by educators to develop their students into informed and engaged environmental stewards.

Canopy Project:

Tree plantation to reforest the areas where environmental degradation and climate change is observed is one of the primary programmes declared by the UN. in the last 20 years, the world's forests have lost about 20% of their coverage. All over the world, around 18 million acres forest is lost every year. reforestation stabilizes the land from erosion, improves soil health and recharges groundwater. Tree plantation is the cheapest way to take CO2 out of the atmosphere.

Food and environment:

Regenerative agriculture builds soil health, crop resilience and nutrient density. It increases biodiversity and water holding capacity of soil. moving to regenerative agriculture is the need of the hour to prevent greenhouse gas emissions from farming.

In 1978, Margaret mead, American cultural anthropologist, described the earth Day as the first holy day which transcends all national borders, yet preserves geographical integrity, spans mountains and oceans and time belts and yet brings people all over the world for preservation of the harmony in nature. Such preservation is essential for protection of our health, our families and our livelihoods. We all must act boldly, innovate broadly and implement equitably. Because, a green future is a prosperous future.

(Writer is Trustee, Swami Ramanand Teerth Marathwada Research Institute, Aurangabad)