Recently, it was declared that New Delhi, capital of India has reached an all time high in air pollution and Diwali hasn’t even come yet. This highlights the ever worsening situation of pollution, not just in our country but the world too. The time of blaming governments for not taking the initiative to ‘fix up’ the environment has gone and it falls on us, the citizens of this planet to take the matter into our own hands and start out on this difficult journey to a cleaner and better environment.
As I am writing this article, it is amidst innumerable noises of bursting firecrackers and I’m having a hard time concentrating. I request, all of my readers to not burst firecrackers this year to celebrate Diwali and encourage your friends and family to do the same. You may give the justification of, “Oh, but it’s just one day where’s the harm in that?” I must stop you there and clarify that it isn’t just one day, it is a week before Diwali and a week after Diwali, a fortnight that is. Take a moment and imagine the amount of firecrackers being burst around the country at this time and the amount of pollution that is spreading, it is mind boggling.
The Environment gifts us many things, unfortunately it cannot replenish these gifts as quickly as we consume them.
World Wildlife Federation (W.W.F.) declared that 2/3rds of the wildlife will be gone by the year 2020. The unique characteristic about our world is the biodiversity that exists, or soon, existed. This is not a casual thing, this is very serious, people have to know the depth and seriousness of this particular situation.
It is Now or Never. The time is now, to take action and preserve mother Earth whom we call home and it can be done with small steps taken on a personal level. You may say that what difference does my small step make. My answer to that is,’every drop makes an ocean.’ If small steps are taken by even half of the population then it would be a huge step towards bringing stability to our ecosystem. If that’s not enough, think about your children and their children. Do you want to leave a world left for the worse? or a better world than before? Your answer is definitely the latter and if that doesn’t convince you then I don’t know what will.
Change, has to happen now and if not now, then never.
–Priyamvad Rai
