Save Planet….Save Mother Earth
Save Planet….Save Mother Earth
Climate change was a concept we had been hearing over the years, never thinking it would be something we would experience. As the mercury soars high; and nature is giving us a warning signal it’s now or never. This and Laudato Si became the two reasons for us to act.
There is an urgent need to act, to awaken people about the need to save our planet Earth. While it has become imperative to listen to the cry of the Earth and the cry of the people kept poor, we at Aashray Abhiyan thought it profitable to use this opportunity to bring about awareness in the different settlements.
The youth are the ones who will bear the brunt of the irresponsible manner in which we are living. The consequence of our disrespect of all living organisms, which is near to extinction, is causing untold damage for the future of our world. It therefore becomes imperative for every living person to begin to understand our interdependency and that we are not meant to dominate over our Earth.
We initiated Earth Clubs in different settlements, bringing the young people together interacting with them about what kind of world they envisage, what is it that we need to preserve. I was amazed at their knowledge and their awareness. Young people need action, so we thought lets have an activity on World Environment Day. We began by sharing with them how we can contribute to live sustainably. Some of them shared sad stories of how they felt about the trees being cut down. We planned together on Sunday 04, June, we made the charts with loud clear messages.
On 05, June, our rally began at 7.30 in the morning, walking through the streets, through settlements to create awareness among the people to protect Mother Earth – our Common Home; for the generations to come. Clad in green saris, salwar suits, and shirts we did make an impact along the road as people watched us; wondering what is happening. As we came to one of the settlements people offered us cold water to quench our thirst. Though it was only 8.30 am, the rays of the sun were quite strong in a way burning the Earth.
The young girls and women were enthused as they walked along shouting slogans to create awareness among the people. With banners in their hands and branches of leaves in their hands, an appeal was made to plant trees. The other message was to save water and use it responsibly as the level of water is going down. The message was people need to collect water in their buckets when they wash clothes and utensils. To make an attempt to close taps when we see them open with water flowing out.
Some of slogans were - ‘one tree is equal to 100 children – ek pead 100 putra samman’ ‘if there is water there is a tomorrow – jaal hain to kaal hain’ ‘stop felling of trees – we need oxygen’ – pead kaatna bandh karo – hume oxygen chhahye’. It was heartening to see the youth walking through the streets and vigorously giving the message with great gusto. The power of the youth has reached to many people as some passersby stopped for a while to try to understand why these youth were out on the streets.
Our Mother Earth is being raped because of corporate greed….because of insensitivity for our future generations. Greed, avarice and consumerist patterns have to change. Another world is not only possible but also imperative; we all have to work to stop this madness of the corporate world. The young ambassadors have to begin to spread this message in every nook and corner of the world.
We cannot speak of peace and integration of creation without addressing our value system. Let’s move out of our comfort zones and soil our hands and feet. Feel earth crying out and appealing to us to save, to protect her from the avarice of our greed.
I would conclude in the words of Gandhi: Be the change you want to see…..change starts with me and we have to continue to circulate this change.