Sustainable development
This word has been used multiple times, almost considered trite by many students who have been studying this concept since 5th grade. Learn it, write it down in your exam, then leave it.
But have you ever considered why it might be important in our daily life? ( If your teachers and the CBSE committee pressed this concept so much to make you learn it throughout your middle school and high school, there must be something crucial in this topic, don't you think? ;) )
Stand up, go out and look around, You might see a lot of things, the brilliant blue sky, cotton candy-like clouds, smaragdine trees, melodious chirping of birds, and people going about their day-to-day life.
This must be something you see every day, nothing special whatsoever, but how would you feel if these things were taken away from you. Let me illustrate that:-
Dark, smoky - foggy sky, greyish clouds filled with dirt, dust, and poisonous smoke. No trees till your eyes can see, and you realize it's been almost a lifetime since you have seen a free bird flying, wings spread, let alone hear one. and there are hardly any people on the streets and the ones there are wearing big - lofty masks carrying oxygen cylinders on their back and you see all this from behind a thick glass window, in the safety of your house which now has an air purifier in each room.
Can you imagine a life like that?
This is what ' Sustainable development is trying to prevent. You loosing all those fun times with your friends in the park, blithesome vacations you spent with your family traveling to exotic new natural places and most importantly you loosing your healthy - functional body, this is what "Sustainable development" is trying to prevent that from happening,
Convinced it's important now? Now ready to do something for it
Wait! I am not asking you to start a million-membered revolution, stop using electricity or live a life of a sanyasi!
Let's start small,
1) Reduce your use of this human-made, pernicious devil in disguise -- Yes, I am talking about plastic
As simple as it might sound, It is difficult ( I know!) Once we have got used to using these cheap plastic-made products, it's difficult to get rid of that habit let alone try to convince others to do it.
So let's start small, try making this small change of switching your plastic bottle with either copper or steel bottles, They will last for longer while augmenting good health. Now you could try to extend this to other plastic items at your house:- boxes, pen holders, book covers, etc. If you have done that now you can feel blithesome that you are helping control the 3.3 metric tonnes of plastic waste dumped in India ( Yes, you were contributing to that before, Be proud of yourself that now you are not)
The Indus and the Ganga river will be praising you, The Sea turtles in the ocean will be showering you with good wishes, and if that seems too abstract, well, the next time you eat your curry you don't have to worry about finding a plastic bottle cap inside your fish piece ( 386 marine fish species are known to have ingested plastic debris, including 210 commercially important species)
2) Save Water! - Water is something which is of utmost importance for the survival of a living organism, hmm you are a living organism, the next generation of humans and the generation next to that will also be living organisms right? Then, Don't they need clean water to survive too?
By saving water you are saving your 'own' future.
Thousands of farmers suffer horridly when drought strikes, unable to even give their family a square meal, all because of the "lack of water". Remember this magnanimous ecosystem is strongly interconnected, just like how a virus that started 1000's of kilometers away from you, has still an effect on immediate society, the little things you do affect others too. When farmers don't produce enough food, we, who are dependent on their products for our meals, will get whirled into a food crisis.
Just remember this Karma circle works for good deeds too, so follow simple policies like #glasshalffull!
3) Do your best to save the earth from all sorts of pollution (Land, Soil, Air and Water ):-
This is a disease to mother Earth, a chronic disease that can be cured if you take the action. Ever been guilty of using the bike or car to go to a shop just a street or a few buildings away? Well, mother Earth is paying for your guilt as 27% of the total air pollution is due to vehicles.
People in the future ( Including you and your kids) will be suffering from chronic lung diseases, heart issues, etc just because of air pollution!
Now, Imagine, Earth is being dumped by waste... Our Mother Earth, gives us everything needed and everything we might want for an impeccable life and what do we do in return? Dump 2.12 billion metric tonnes of waste on her. 😓
Waste is something that can be reduced if we give a little thought to the things we throw, I am not completely asking you to jump into zero- waste policy, that is difficult for a generic family ( but you can slowly work towards it) and you can't become like Bea Johnson overnight, start small like for example before you throw an old pen, Question yourself:- Do I need to throw this? Or can I just buy a refill and continue to use it? Before you throw some used paper, think " Do I need to throw this or can I use it for some art project? " These little thoughts will accumulate and end up saving the planet!
Sustainable development doesn't have to be a difficult concept that needs to be mugged up before an exam... Sustainable development is simple actually once we start implementing it in our day to day life because remember "Someone is sitting under a tree, because someone planted a tree a long time ago" We are enjoying the benefits the nature has to offer because of our ancestors, now it is our responsibility to ensure the same to the next generation...
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