I know that Earth Day passed by a few days, but I had decided to organize all of my ideas and thoughts and take my time before I wrote this article because this year I was not pleased.
While preparing for Earth day content to post on Earthava‘s social media, I had a thought, “What is the point of celebrating earth day while we still have lots of concerns a lot of problems that we need to resolve, and lots of people who deny and even work on increasing the harm caused by different issues, mainly climate change?”
I was frustrated as I was designing the content that mainly represented animated images of people hugging the earth, healthy forests, and cheerful animals, but these images are unrealistically happy, and I wanted to say the truth.
Our Love For Our Planet
It is in a human’s nature to love their homes; it is their safest place. And Earth is our big and only home, we literally have nowhere to go, as they say, “there is no planet B.”
So it is great to express our love to it, not only through words but also through actions. Feeding homeless animals, planting a tree, volunteering, not throwing this away, and donating it instead, recycling this, reusing that, buying from local stores, choosing sustainable options over unsustainable ones. All these acts add up and create a difference no matter how small, but they still might save one life at least.
I know we are not perfect; I am not either, we can’t always do the most right things 24/7, but at least we can try our best.
Forests
While designing the forest image, I added a fire sticker beside it to let people know that yes; the forests are in big danger; they go through fire season every year, and this fire is deadly, it kills animals, people, trees, and other plants too.
It forced people to leave their homes just like we saw in Australia earlier this year, bushfires also emit a huge amount of carbon dioxide into the air, which as a result contributes to the greenhouse gas effect. [1]
From Bushfires to on purpose deforestation which is done obviously by humans for different reasons without measuring out the consequences.
One of the main reasons for deforestation is the extraction of palm oil, it is mainly affecting monkeys and apes through destroying their natural habitat which often causes death to thousands of them. [2]
Last but not least, the issue with Cherry trees as it was observed that they started blossoming in Japan earlier in the season, many experts and scientists have come to the conclusion that this is due to the warming that happened in japan in the last 170 years. This is one of the evidence that we can rely upon when studying the effect of climate change. [3]
Oceans
We have seen a lot on social media, plastics covers beaches and oceans. It is one of the issues that social media is highly focusing on, and I am glad of the hype it is creating, it is a good one, to let everyone know the effect of the water bottles they buy casually every day on their way to work,
Though it seems not enough as billions of tons of plastic are being discharged every year into the oceans, we have to cure the problems from its source; I wish that brands will go back to the good old type of environmentally friendly packaging and produce products that are mainly beneficial for people and not just produce different types that are targeted to only increase their sales.
I wish people are more aware of their shopping habits and not get tricked by brands or people to buy things they don’t need.
Raising sea level is another deadly issue the world is facing. The sea level raised by 20 cm in the 140 years, and it is expected to continue rising if we did nothing to stop it. [4]
Coral reefs bleaching is one of the evidence that proves that the water is getting warmer, because of increased temperature the coral reefs try to adapt to the new conditions by getting rid of one of it is content (algae) and as a result, the white skeleton of the coral exposes. [5]
Arctic and Antarctica
In the second photo, I put two Icebergs with two polar bears, and a thermometer sticker beside it to show the rise of temperature’s effect on the Arctic and Antarctica, resulting in collapsing of the Icebergs, and destroying the nature habitant for many animals mainly polar bears. [6]
The collapsing of icebergs and the melting of glaciers can also contribute to the sea level rise.
Increasing Awareness
Governments and politicians must know that the main three pillars of a sustainable world are human’s welfare, economy, and the environment. One pillar should not be achieved at the expanse of another. So we are not sacrificing the economy here if we make a step towards a sustainable future, in fact, we have been sacrificing our environment for so many years now; It is the time to change.
It is an emergency; It is time for countries to take a step in the right direction, to fight against these threats, and to stop any illegal and unethical acts.
Many countries have put some policies in the last few years to help save the environment, for example, countries like Canada and Morrocco have banned single-use plastics [7], Europe has set goals to achieve 100% of renewable energy by 2050, different agreements like the Paris Climate Agreement to fight climate change and global warming [8], besides non-governmental organizations that are also making tremendous efforts to help tackle all these issues.
I hope they will be enough for us to pull through, for the future to be brighter for us and for the next generations.
In Conclusion
The issues I have listed in this article are only some of many others, as I was thinking and studying them I felt that I was not happy in this earth day, so that was how I reflected on it, not being pessimistic but realistic.
You and I might be safe here and now, but others are not. We must not wait till it happened to us, we must not wait and leave to the next generations in which by that time they will have nothing left.
I wish good people will turn this around once and for all, and transform the planet to a more peaceful and content place, it is not possible to have zero issues, but at least to reduce them and their impact is what all need right now.
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