World environment day is celebrated every year on 5th of June and aims at raising awareness in celebrating environmental action. Last year’s campaign was to celebrate with the theme ” Beat the plastic pollution”. This highlighted the need to take concrete action to achieve transformative change. Did we? Why haven’t the ban on single use plastic worked over the years? Why have repeated attempts to ban single use plastic failed? Our planet is drowning in seas and mountains of plastic. The planet is at an unusual moment, and nature is sending us a very clear message. We must urgently move from damaging our planet to taking care of it, because there are billions of planets, but there is only one earth to inhabit. Despite the fact that biodiversity is the key sustain life on our planet, we humans continue to mistreat it. We live in the midst of three planetary crisis. Climate change, biodiversity loss, and pollution and waste. That’s why we need to put our effort into defending it. As individuals, we can shift our behaviour to avoid single use plastic as much as possible. It’s important as a consumer, to be conscious and aware of the choices we make. We have reached a stage, where we have to compulsorily avoid plastic. However, avoiding plastic doesn’t mean throwing away all the plastic jars and containers that one has. One can also find ways to reuse it. The most unfortunate part of the process is that microplastics find their way to the food we eat, the water we drink and even the air we breathe. The world is being inundated by plastic products and their disastrous consequences are for all to see across the globe. All over the world, ecosystems are threatened. From forests and dry lands to farmlands and lakes, natural species on which humanity’s existence depends are reaching a tipping point. That is why world environmental day 2024 focuses on land restoration, halting desertification and building drought resilience under the slogan “Our land our future, we are Generation Restoration”. Lush green paddy field’s which provided food for the people, are rapidly disappearing and being replaced by unabated concrete constructions. In just over a decade, we have lost an alarming huge hectares of paddy fields to conversion. The conversion of paddy land into bustling colonies with towering structures has not only raised concerns but, also has cast a shadow on the region’s agricultural future. Will the slogan of this year work leave a question mark. It’s high time we raised our voices on the implementing solutions to ending plastic pollution and illegal land conversions. For the sake of planet’s health, for the sake of our health, for the sake of our prosperity, we must end plastic pollution and illegal timber felling and land conversions. The felling of green trees should be banned in the farmlands too unless there are exceptional reasons and the ban should be strictly enforced. This measure is important to limit the effects of climate change and global warming on lives and livelihoods. We cannot turn back time, but we can grow forests, revive water sources and bring back soils. We are the generation that can make peace with land.
Kodandera Mamatha Subbaiah
