By Hridya H Kumar
A recent trend everyone has been following was the 10-year challenge. This challenge was a strange new trend that had been picking up speed in many social media platforms. In this challenge many started posting their current picture with a picture of them 10-year back. It was more like a glow up challenge. Well, sounds pretty interesting right. But did anyone try to do a 10- year challenge of the Earth?
When the earth was newly formed, it was a beautiful home to millions of species. Later human beings stole the limelight and gradually everything changed. Many must have heard that wild animals are the most dangerous creatures alive. But that’s a big lie because the villains are not them. The most dangerous being on earth are us. Yes, human beings are ruled by their greed for power and money. Surviving on a notion that the earth belongs to them and other living beings just exist to satisfy them.
So, what happened in the last 10 years?
Tanzania lost half of its elephants, ocean acidification is getting worse, Scotland Orcas will vanish within a generation, Polar bears are on the verge of extinction due to global warming, more than 1 million seals have been slaughtered in the past 5 years alone in Canada, extinction of many sea creatures, glaciers in Garhwal Himalaya in India are retreating so fast that the most central and eastern Himalayan glaciers could disappear soon.
The above is just a small list of problems we are facing right now, there are many more. There are problems we are not even aware of. Human beings are unbothered and negligent about all the mess we are in. Are we in some kind of denial? Maybe just caught up in our own life and running a rats race to keep our soul and body together. But losing a home does affect us right. So, the day we realise that earth is our home and losing it can affect each one of us might just open our eyes.
Ten simple ways u can protect the Earth
• Reduce, reuse, and recycle : Cut down on what you throw away. Follow the three “R’s” to conserve natural resources and landfill space.
• Plant a tree : Trees provide food and oxygen. They help save energy, clean the air, and help combat climate change.
• Shop wisely : Buy less plastic and bring a reusable shopping bag.
• Conserve water : The less water you use, the less runoff and wastewater that eventually end up in the ocean.
• Volunteer : Volunteer for cleanups in your community. You can get involved in protecting your watershed, too.
• Educate the future : Make it a point to educate the youngsters and make them realise the importance of protecting our planet.
• Stop Deforestation : Stop cutting down trees and clearing down a huge forest for human purpose.
• Consume less meat : Adopt “less-meat intensive” diet and opt for climate-smart agriculture to produce more food grains so that we can save our degraded resource for future use.
• Use energy efficient Lightbulbs : They are a simple way to reduce the amount of power we use
• Regularly maintain your vehicle : If the vehicle engine is running correctly, the filters are clean and the tyres correctly inflated, the vehicle will be more sufficient on fuel.
