Nurturing Earth
“You cannot get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”
—
Jane Goodall
This quote by Jane Goodall had a profound effect on me as we all celebrate the 50
th year of Earth Day, in what is probably the largest worldwide digital event today.
The environmental benefits of the lockdown in terms of reduced air pollution and cleaner waters have already been documented. A reduction of 90 per cent in traffic volume has led to a 10-decibel reduction in noise level, which is highly significant — roughly a perceived halving in subjective loudness.
Pictures of cleaner seas, cities, birds and monkeys swimming in pools are doing the rounds. Most of us can actually hear and see birds outside our windows…
But is this all just temporary?
Have we already forgotten the melting at the poles, the bush fires, the droughts, the floods that we’ve experienced over the past one year. Can this forced self-isolation teach us to use our resources more wisely?
It has been wisely said before that we have not inherited this world from our fathers but have borrowed it from our children…
It’s high time we step up, conserve, upcycle, recycle, use resources wisely so that we leave this world better than what we found it!
Lockdown Conservation
#conserve electricity: unplug your devices when you don’t use them, switch off power when you leave a room, reduce use of aircons
#conserve water: don’t keep the faucet running, use minimal mode in the shower, wash vessels in minimal soap and water
#reduce waste: use composting techniques for wet waste, reduce dry waste as much as possible
#avoid plastic in all forms – period.
#try gardening: does not matter if you have just a window or balcony or you are lucky enough to have a garden…start your own green kitchen with just sprouts and then once you have access to soil and plants – you can cultivate your own garden.
It’s the small things that make a difference and its consistency which will help us win this war.
Just like Nature never hurries and achieves her goals atom by atom, we in our small ways just need to have patience and perseverance towards our end goal of leaving a better planet for the generations to come.
It is imperative that we realise that we don’t own the world. It is not we who have woven the web of life. We are but one thread in this web and whatever we do to this web – we do to ourselves.