WORLD CLEAN-UP DAY
The World Clean-Up Day is a day set aside for concerned citizens of the world to globally engage in cleaning up activities in their local environment. On this day, every environmental enthusiast, Earth lover and citizens of the Earth are encouraged to get engaged in cleaning up activities either actively or passively.
Anywhere on the planet that humans inhabit, pollution is certain to occur — it is natural for us to produce waste — but what is done with the waste that has been produced is of great importance. An ever increasing population especially in urban areas is closely followed by a tremendous increase in pollution on land, water and air. Sadly, not much is done to reduce these pollution. People still discard waste indiscriminately without regards to its aftereffect and the environment is certainly not smiling at this unscrupulous behavior of man. The indiscriminate disposal of waste leads to pollution and pollution has a ripples effect viz. environmental degradation, toxicity of the atmosphere, toxicity of water bodies leading to the death of aquatic life and an unpleasant environment to live in due to the prevalence of diseases.
Why World Clean-Up Day?
World Clean-Up Day isn’t just a physical exercise to make the environment we live in look tidy, it is also an eye opener — an awakening of our consciousness towards environmental management. We have reached a stage where issues pertaining to the environment should no longer be treated with kid gloves — we should put on gauntlets instead. Environmental problems such as global warming, climate change, oil spill, plastic pollution, gas flaring, bush burning, erosion, ocean toxicity, atmospheric toxicity and a host of many others should be our top priority, but sadly, the powers that be aren’t giving much attention to it, they are more concerned about business as usual. But without the environment, there wouldn’t be business as usual. The World Clean-Up Day brings to the forefront these issues; it also opens up our eyes to see opportunities — things we can do to save our environment. We don’t have to wait for the government before we act, the little efforts we put would have far reaching effects.
Who should participate?
Professionals at all fields, non-professionals, market women, youths, students, in fact everyone is encouraged to participate. We all live in the society together; we can make it neat and tidy together; we can make it better together; we can save our planet together. Every person who is capable is obligated to be engaged in their own capacity. We should do the little in our own local environment. Those who cannot actively participate can passively be engaged by encouraging others.
What do we stand to gain?
A cleaner, better environment. A united sense of belonging and a healthier environment too. When we come together to achieve a common goal, there’s always that bond of unity among us; we feel a sense of belonging to a community of like-minded people who are willing to make a difference; there is a feeling of belonging and being part of a people who are willing to make our world a better place.
The World Clean-Up Day is another opportunity for us to make conscious effort towards protecting and preserving our environment. It puts before us various options that we can adopt to better discard our waste — recycling being one. Sustainability in every sphere is necessary, there’s no need to waste resources because we find them in abundance; water and land are resources we should put so much care on and drastically reduce its pollution. We depend so much on them that without them, we won’t have societies. So let’s join hands together and preserve them. It is an obligation. Let’s take responsibility.
19 September 2020
-Imoikor Joshua
#WorldCleanupDay #StepUpGreen #Recycle #SaveEarth #NoPlanetB #UN #ClimateActionNow #FridaysForFuture
