Communication
We have not inherited this Earth; we have just borrowed it from our children. Respected faculty and dear friends – It pains my heart to see the abuse we are inflicting on Mother Earth. Earth like an Angel Mother bears silently all the brutality that we inflict on her. Be it reckless mining, careless littering, or any other unnecessary practice that is absolutely careless and thoughtless, which is inflicted on Mother Earth has never been retaliated. She is like that Angel Mother who continues to love her children unconditionally, despite whatever is done by them. The human greed has no end. We have witnessed a gold rush. We have seen underground nuclear explosions. We have drilled deep holes into her bowels in search of a few pounds of minerals. We have not cared how it could pain her. Most of us cringe when doctors pierce a fine needle and draw a drop of blood from us. But look at Mother Earth – she never retaliates. She continues to love us and find means to renew herself so that she can continue to shower us with her love of grains, fruits, water, and vegetables. Alas, what do we do? We continue to pollute wherever possible. We dig and dig recklessly and carelessly.
We have no shame in shaving off those millions of years old rocks that are so beautiful on the face of the Earth because we need granite for our kitchen table-tops and for our floors. We continue to pollute the very air that we breathe to the extent that it’s almost not breathable. We invade her waters with wastes from our factories making it absolutely unpotable. What does she do? How does she respond? Not a single word, not a single negative emotion, but silence, no retaliation whatsoever. She continues to give us fresh food from her very own life-blood wherever she can. She does not hold us responsible for the abject destruction and harm that we humans are inflicting on her. The pollution load continues to wreck and havoc on her. We forget that this is the only home that we have in the entire universe, and we do not seem to be caring much about that. What can we leave for our children?
Soil, when human waste, kitchen refuse, office, industry and farm waste, not disposed correctly litters the soil. We do not care to fill a landfill site properly with our refuse. If a scientific method is not followed to do this, obviously we inflict diseases like cholera, gastric infections, and allergies on ourselves. Pathological and infectious wastes from our hospitals are rarely and consistently disposed properly. Industrial wastes are rarely treated to remove the harmful effects, before allowing them to flow into our water bodies, which gradually seeps into land, and finally makes it unfit for us. Emissions from our factories and vehicles further add to the woes that we are facing.
The great smog in 1952 in London killed 4, 000 people. Probably, this was the first trigger for human beings to respond to the pollution that we were inflicting on Earth. The amount of plastic that we use on Earth, which we consistently increase by the day, makes it more and more toxic for our living. Every plastic bit that has been every produced still exists on earth, and it will continue to do so for thousands of years. The plastic only breaks into only smaller pieces, which attract toxic chemicals and the same when ingested into a food cycle anywhere can cause immense harm to all stakeholders of Earth.
The small bits of plastic finally end-up in waterways, and the currents carry them into gyres – the convergence zones located in the middle of the oceans. The largest of gyres is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, which is right in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and pretty unsettling. These plastics not being destroyed, consequently destroys our environment as well as our health. Plastic that can last for thousands of years should never be used for something that lasts few seconds, minutes, hours, days, or even months.
Pollution by plastic is not because of improper disposal, it is rather because of irresponsible design, unfortunate and unsustainable disposal habits. Producers of plastic barely take responsibility for its proper disposal, and we have created a beautiful health storm. The biodegradable plastic is rarely a plastic that is biodegradable. They may not be the next best step or an alternate to conventional plastic.
Why can’t we reuse and recycle plastic bags, cups, and bottles? Why can’t we even use alternate material like glass, metal, or paper? Manufacturers of plastic are irresponsible once their products leave their factories. There is no system of recovery and recycle. We keep producing more and more plastic, and the same is broken into tiny pieces, which keeps getting into our food cycle one way or the other. Plastic bags are the primary component of urban litter, and urban litter is the biggest component of marine pollution. We may not be aware that we are already paying billions of dollars for the cleanup of plastic. Plastic has become an epidemic.
Climate changes are occurring abruptly. El Nino effect is creating havoc on our weather system everywhere in this world. We have begun to run. We are running scared. We are running fast. But, where can we run to? Is there a place to hide? We have abused every gift that Mother Earth gave us. She can no longer bear this abuse. She is beginning to fall apart. She is sick.
Remember, we are not the sole proprietors of this God’s great fit. From the mono-cellular amoeba, worms, fungus, bacteria, snakes, reptiles, animals, and birds are also the co-owners of Mother Earth. We all have to live together, and we have nowhere else to go.
Can we, today, stand up and say we will no longer abuse? We will help protect Mother Earth and save her so that she continues to take care of our children and their children. Can we take a stance to be more earth-friendly, and take all measures by doing everything that we can to enable Mother Earth’s well-being?
Let us rise above geographic boundaries, cultures, religions, regions, ideologies, and create that necessary care for Mother Earth to rejuvenate herself, and be there as our only home in this wide and vast universe forever and ever and ever.
