Editor in Chief: Moh. Reza Huwaida Thursday, March 28th, 2024

Saving Mother Earth

Tomorrow, i.e.April 22 is going to be celebrated internationally as Mother Earth Day so as to emphasize the importance of the earth and its environment and highlight the challenges it is facing by the growing population, pollution and degradation.
The United Nations General Assembly decided to reserve April 22 as International Mother Earth Day in 2009, with resolution A/RES/63/278, after recognizing that Mother Earth is a common expression for the planet earth in a number of countries and regions, reflecting the interdependence that exists among human beings, other living species and the planet we all inhabit, and noting that Earth Day is observed each year in many countries, However, the Earth Day was first celebrated in the United States in 1970 and it is organized by the Earth Day Network. Its mission is to extend and diversify the environmental movement worldwide and to activate it as the most effective vehicle to build a healthy, sustainable environment, address climate change, and protect the Earth for future generations.
This year, the theme of the day is ‘End Plastic Pollution’. It is important that there should be awareness and information that can help in changing human attitude and behavior about plastic, its use and its threats for the environment.
For all the inhabitants of the earth, it is crucial to understand that our earth’s environment has been experiencing large scale degradation due to addition of excessive pollutants. These pollutants are basically the result of chemicals and products that are being invented and used with a great speed in the modern world. These evils have the ability to disrupt our environment and introduce disorder within the ecosystem which is crucial for the life to exist on earth. It is of vital importance to note that the possibility of life to exist within the known universe is limited to the planet earth alone. The distance of the earth from the sun, its temperature and other physical conditions exist in such an ordered manner that life is guaranteed here. Furthermore, the dependence of living beings on one another, their interactions and their reaction and influence over the environment have certain proportional arrangement, which is termed as eco-system by the scientists. If this eco-system is disturbed in some way or the other, the life is disturbed and the contaminants that are let loose by human beings in the environment has the capacity to disturb it greatly and has the capacity to endanger existence on earth. 
The contaminants basically form pollution, which can influence environment in many different ways. Pollution does not affect the air alone, there are different types of pollution that include; light pollution, littering, noise pollution, soil contamination, thermal pollution, visual pollution, water pollution and some others. Though from the very inception of human beings’ civilized life, pollution has been influencing human beings, nonetheless, in today’s world of ours, there has been extensive increase in it. With the industrial revolution, the release of pollutants within the natural environment has kept on increasing. Today, we are standing at a stage where many serious minds think that we have to be serious about saving our earth from the menace of pollution.
There are some important concerns that most of the environmental scientists believe should be pondered upon extensively. The first one is the degradation of natural environment to the extent that can prove fatal for most of human beings. Already, the pollutants within the environment have been able to introduce different kinds of diseases in the living beings, which, if left unchecked, can go out of control.
The other concern is regarding the overall warming up of the globe; this concept is known as “global warming”. This concept suggests that with the increase in pollution, there will be considerable rise within the average temperature of the world that may, at maximum, result in the liquefying of the glaciers on the poles and may drown the whole world. Moreover, considerable rise in temperature may disturb the conditions of living on earth and may disrupt the eco-system and jeopardize the existence. However, there are scientists and thinkers who believe that the climatic changes may take thousands of years. There has been cycle of changes and there will be such changes in the future as well. The climate of the earth will not keep on rising rather it will keep on experiencing fluctuations after certain years. In fact, they do not seem much convinced regarding the theory of global warming. Nevertheless, it must never be forgotten that the uncontrolled release of pollution can cause serious damage to earth and its environment.
The need of time is to save the earth by adopting appropriate policies. Any effort in this regard needs to be two-dimensional. Firstly, every individual must feel his/her responsibility towards the earth and must make sure that he/she does not become a reckless being and must prove helpful for the environment. However, extensive awareness programs in this regard can be really helpful. Mother Earth Day can be used very positively in this regard and much can be taught to the people through different sorts of programs and techniques. Secondly, there have to be efforts on national level as well. The governments in different countries can adopt strict laws regarding the safeguard of the environment and can make sure that different industries and enterprises adopt atmosphere-friendly attitude.