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What is Earth Day?
Every year, World Earth Day is observed on April 22 globally. Earth day is the annual event that focuses on environmental issues and urges everyone to take care of mother earth. It also unites us people in the spirit of brotherhood, as we all inherit the same planet and need to work together for nurture and protect it.
This year, Earth day will mark its 51st anniversary. The first time earth day was held was on April 22, 1970. Earth day has since transformed into a day when lot of environmental gathering take place and conferences and rallies are organized to bring focus on the environmental issues and the possible solutions.
Via Internet, it is very easy to catch the word and spread our views on global protection. Especially now that the second wave of Covid-19 is on peak, Internet is being very valuable to spread the word and to achieve the theme/target of World Earth Day.
Also Read: World Nature Conservation Day.
Need & Purpose of Earth Day
The main purpose behind celebrating Earth Day is to continue promoting environmental awareness and remind oneself that we can save the Earth and we will.
Earth is the only planet that we can call our home, protecting it is a necessity, not an option. Every year Earth Day is celebrated worldwide with a special theme which puts focus on the action that needs to be taken for the coming year. A large number of people worldwide, from more than 190 countries take part in observing this day.
Theme: ‘Restore Our Earth’
‘Restore Our Earth’ is the theme of World Earth Day 2021. We need to focus on not just minimizing practices like deforestation, but also maximize on forestation, restoring the balance of ecosystem, using renewable resources and developing the green technologies for use.
Earthday.org starts three days of climate change which is a live event that starts from 20th April. Anyone can join this event via the official site of Earth Day organization. On 20th April, earthday.org gave presentation on ‘We shall breathe’ by 7.00 pm.
On 21st April, they covered the topic ‘Teach for the Planet’. On the 22nd of April, on the exact day of Earth Day, the main theme ‘Restore The Earth’ will be presented by 12.00 pm.
“On behalf of the one billion people who will take part in Earth Day this year, even in the midst of a second year of the pandemic, we demand that the talking stop and that governments and corporations commit to net-zero emissions by 2040 with an interim goal of cutting emissions in half by 2030. Anything less will deprive our children of their right to inherit a habitable planet.”
– Kathleen Rogers
President of EARTHDAY.ORG.
The rampant exploitation of natural resources and the consequences
Earth’s forests are being cut down at a very fast pace. Every year from 2011-2015 about 20 million hectares of forest was cut down. Since 2016, an average of 28 million hectares of forests has been cut down every year. An alarming fact is that 1 BILLION hectares of forest has been cut down in 40 years and half of the world’s rainforest has been destroyed in just one century.
In the year 2019 itself, about 43.1 billion tons of CO2 from human activities were emitted into the atmosphere; this is alarming, to say the least
The rampant deforestation leads to increasing CO2 that further causes green house effect, increase in temperature, melting of glaciers, increase in sea levels, change in climate, and the list goes on. Deforestation needs to be controlled to control the climate changes. Reforestation needs to happen at a much higher pace.
The many ways in which we can ‘Restore our Earth’
This year’s theme ‘Restore Our Earth’ primarily focuses on the below points:
- Plant more trees–Tree plantation is the best way to celebrate the World Earth Day. Trees purify the air by absorbing CO2 and releasing O2. It helps to reduce the global warming that has become a threat for the entire world.
- Adopt vegetarianism – Consuming plant based diets is better for an individual’s health and for planet earth’s health. Producing non-veg items from livestock is responsible environmental pollution so one must not consume that.
- Keep surrounding clean – Keeping the surroundings neat and clean, not littering around, using proper means for recycling waste is vital to preventing soil pollution, water pollution and air pollution.
- Environmental education–Environmental education is mandatory to explore the issues related environment and further solve it. This will enable the younger generations to understand the importance of protecting nature, conserving resources and will enable them to take vital steps for it.
- Studies in impact on insects by climatic changes–With the change in climate, the insects like bees are impacted too. Rapid increasing CO2, green house effect, changes in rainfall pattern, all can badly impact the insects, that form a delicate part of our ecosystem
Let us all join hands this Earth Day and pledge to do our bit
Let’s step ahead with the theme of World Earth Day and put our best efforts going forward. Saving our earth is our responsibility as well as duty. It’s our home.
Let’s step forward to save it and heal it. Love Mother Earth as you love yourself.
Writing Credits – Sukhdeep Kaur
