World Environment Day 2021: Revivify the Planet.
The Earth’s average temperature is increasing. Desert encroachment is intensifying. Polar ice melting is accentuating. The climate is capricious. Plant and animal life are going extinct and the ecosystem is at a tipping point. The beautiful planet Earth — the only planet in the ecosystem that can support life is sitting on a keg of gun powder, waiting for that last damage before it becomes antiquated.
Man is in the midst of all of this chaos, ironically he has contributed immensely to its occurrence. Man’s activities on Earth may have been of great benefits but the indiscriminate cutting of trees, burning of fossil fuel, air, water and land pollution, plastic dumping in the ocean and his desultory hunting of wildlife is causing serious imbalances in the Earth system and there is a need to correct this. In light of this, World Environment Day 2021 is aimed at resuscitating the planet and its theme is Ecosystem Restoration.
There is a dire need to correct all the wrongs that have been done to our dear planet. Global warming and climate change would cause much more problems than all our activities combined can bring about. To revivify the ecosystem, conscious efforts need to be taken with alacrity to bring about quick positive changes.
Plastic pollution has become a serious threat to aquatic life and an eyesore on land. They are not biodegradable and when they get to landfills they just remain there causing more pollution and preventing plant growth. In the water bodies they are broken into tiny pieces which are taken in by aquatic creatures such as fishes, turtles, porpoise etc and these driblets of plastics remains inside them which may lead to their death or its transfer through a process known as biomagnification. We cannot stop the use of plastics abruptly, but to fight plastic pollution, we need to reduce, reuse and recycle plastics.
We reduce the amount of plastics at our disposal by reusing the ones we already have. By so doing, the demand of plastics are drastically reduced. There is also a need for communal sensitization on the use of plastics and its impact on the environment. Everyone has a role to play. In cases whereby we cannot reuse, we recycle. Less than 30% of plastics ever produced have been recycled, the rest end up in landfills and water bodies. The recycling of plastics would be of tremendous benefits not just to man but to the Earth in general.
The environment is no one’s property to destroy; it is everyone’s responsibility to protect. Let’s restore the ecosystem, take responsibility and build back better.
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8th June, 2021
- Imoikor Joshua
