Earth Day is intended to inspire appreciation for the earth’s natural environment facing a crisis. Earth day celebration intends to activate an international environmental teach-in movement on the subject of Earth’s environment. It aims to highlight & protest against the unabated effects suffered by Earth’s environment due to modern technological onslaughts including oil spills, industries, factories, power plants, vehicles, sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeway & express revolts etc. It proposes to develop an international consciousness about the deteoriating trend of Earth’s environment and pave way for developing a collective social approach to resist the aggressions against the overall balanced natural environmental system.
The name and concept of Earth Day was pioneered by John Mcconnell in 1969 at a UNESCO Conference in San Francisco and was first observed on March 21, 1970. This day was later sanctioned in a Proclamation signed by Secretary General U Thant at the UN where it is observed each year. About the same time a separate Earth Day was founded by US Senator Gaylord Nelson as an environmental teach-in first held on April 22, 1970. Earth Day is now being co-ordinated globally by the Earth Day Network, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries every year. In 2009, the UN designated April 22 as International Mother Earth Day.
Earth Day is the largest, most widely celebrated international environmental event. Earth Day helps celebrate earth’s unique place in the universe for being the only planet of the solar system which comprises & is teemed with incredible bio-diversity. Learning about and protecting this bio-diversity is what Earth Day is all about. People all over the world celebrate their joint efforts to protect plants and animals and to clean up the world we live in. Earth Day reminds us that we all share the same planet and as such have to share the responsibility for what we use and how we use it. It is a day to think of the environmental challenges we face and how to solve them. Protecting Earth is every person’s and each country’s responsibility. Earth Day is the day which transcends all national borders, yet preserves all geographical integrities, spans mountains and oceans and time belts, and yet brings people all over the world into one resonating accord & is devoted to the preservation of the harmony in nature. Given the basic motive of Earth Day as “Teach-in” let us try to understand basics of pollution & its types.
There are many types of pollution such as Air Pollution, Water Pollution, Soil Pollution, Radioactive Pollution, Thermal pollution, Electrical pollution etc. All these types of pollution faced by our earth have badly disturbed the ecological balance. We as responsible human beings mastering & enjoying the resources of this planet owe a great responsibility towards safeguarding its composition, structure & balance. We also owe a responsibility towards our coming generations in maintaining the ecological balance and transfer it to them in a better condition. In this context we need to show our solidarity with the global organizers of Earth Day by actively involving ourselves both at individual as well as organizational level in highlighting and protesting against the aggressions & atrocities perpetuated on the ecological balance of earth every now & then. While acting locally we need to co-relate & co-ordinate with those thinking & operating globally. We need to take a pledge of practically contributing towards the restoration of ecological balance of earth as an individual, as a family, as an organization and as a society. While highlighting and protesting against national & international policies badly affecting the ecological balance, we also need to develop a powerful civil society voice to influence the governments to enact strict environment laws & legislations.
We need to create an energy efficient environment and focus on encouraging earth-friendly choices. We need to commit ourselves to the policy of “Re-think, Re-duce, Re-use & Re-cycle” to boost our dedication, commitment & contribution towards a balanced ecological earth system. Let’s take a pledge to encourage use of public transport whenever possible, use plastic bags to a minimum, and avoid using chemical pesticides, separate garbage at source and save water & forests. Using fewer natural resources like fossil fuel will reduce pollution and will also help make sure that future generations won’t run out of things like clean water, air, and soil. We need to oppose the unabated felling of green trees and instead activate the culture of tree plantation and encourage a green revolution everywhere in our neighborhood. Products that use less electricity, water and heat need to be preferred by us for our household uses. Reducing consumption of electricity will have an immediate slashing down effect on the multi-dimensional pollution content contributed by the generating stations as well as the electricity itself. We need to switch over to safe & pure sources of energy like solar & other renewable sources of energy. This will yield significant societal benefits to public health.
Though creating a risk-free environment is a complex task, still certain types of pollution are more easily contained than others and since most of the categories of pollution often interact with one another, with one type of pollution often spreading and leading to another form, containing and reducing the amount of pollutants that we produce is vital if we are to balance & ecosystem. There is not any alternative available with us other than adhering to our social duties & obligations if we really wish healthy lives, bright carriers & conducive atmosphere for our children. As Earth Day Network members let us focus on environmental education; local, national, and global policies; public environmental campaigns; and organize national and local earth day events to promote activism and environmental protection. This is the message of “Earth Day”. Feedback at manzoorwani78@yahoo.com

Lastupdate on : Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:30:00 Makkah time
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