Earth Day 2012:

Call to save endangered planet

By Pramod DE SILVA

We have only one home - Planet Earth. We are not advanced enough (yet) to venture to worlds beyond, which might offer us another liveable habitat. Thus we have to live here at least for thousands of years to come. However, that will only be possible if we protect Mother Earth.

Yet, we hear so many stories about Man's destructive attitudes towards the Earth. We cut down its forests; drive its flora and fauna to extinction; pollute its seas and rivers; emit noxious gases to its atmosphere; dump non-decaying products everywhere. If these activities go on, the Earth might not survive.

This is why there is a dire need to listen to the Earth's stories and come forward to protect it. This is the aim of the Earth Day, which has been celebrated every year on April 22 since 1970. Today, more than one billion people around the globe will participate in Earth Day 2012 and help "Mobilize the Earth".

"Mobilize the Earth" is the theme of this year's Earth Day. Today, people of all nationalities and backgrounds will voice their appreciation for the planet and demand its protection. Their message? "Together we will stand united for a sustainable future and call upon individuals, organisations, and governments to do their part".

Pic: Sudam Gunasinghe

According to Earth Day Network, the organisers of Earth Day 2012, "as the 42nd Anniversary of Earth Day approaches, people are becoming frustrated with the failure of governments to take any steps toward protecting and preserving the environment.

The Earth Day 2012 campaign is designed to provide people with the opportunity to unite their voices in a call for a sustainable future and direct them toward quantifiable outcomes".

Earth Day 2012 will thus act as a launch pad for the environmental movement and will put forth a bold declaration demanding immediate action to secure Renewable Energy for All and a sustainable future for our planet.

The movement will call upon local, national, and international leaders to put an end to fossil fuel subsidies, embrace renewable energy technology, improve energy efficiency, and make energy universally accessible. One can also take part in the Billion Acts of Green campaign to contribute to the Earth's well-being.

Global referendum

Under this campaign, organisations, businesses and governments can voice their support by performing environmental actions and lending their names to this global referendum demanding change.

The goal is to reach one billion actions by the time the United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development (Rio+20) is held in June 2012.

Campaign for Communities is another Earth Day program that acts as a platform for leaders around the world to engage their communities in discussions about the challenges and opportunities related to sustainability. Looking back, Earth Day marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

The idea came to Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a US Senator from Wisconsin, after witnessing the ravages of the 1969 massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California.

Inspired by the student anti-war movement, he realised that if he could infuse that energy with an emerging public consciousness about air and water pollution, it would force environmental protection onto the national political agenda.

His efforts culminated in a show of environmental solidarity by 20 million Americans who took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment in massive coast-to-coast rallies.

Thousands of colleges and universities organised protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realised they shared common values.

Passage of Acts

In the US alone, the first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species Acts. By 1990, the Earth Day had become a global movement, mobilising 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting environmental issues onto the world stage.

By 2000, a record 5,000 environmental groups in 184 countries reached out to hundreds of millions of people, with the message that Earth is worth saving. Moreover, the Internet was entering mainstream usage around this time and the campaign gained additional strength through that medium.

Earth Day 2010, the 40th anniversary, reinforced Earth Day as a powerful focal point. Earth Day Network amassed 40 million environmental service actions toward its 2012 goal of A Billion Acts of Green, launched an international one million tree planting initiative with Avatar director James Cameron and tripled its online base to over 900,000 community members.

Today, the Earth Day encompasses every nation on Earth, big and small, rich and poor.

We usually think that only governments have to be responsible for looking after the environment and hence the earth. Nothing could be further from the truth.

This is the idea behind the Billion Acts of Green campaign. Even a small act - from planting a tree to recycling a plastic container - by an individual helps.

Even replacing an incandescent bulb with an LED or fluorescent bulb can make a big difference in the end. US scientists have estimated that if every 60-watt incandescent bulb in the US was replaced with a 10-watt LED/fluorescent bulb, the country would save about 35 terawatt-hours of electricity, the equivalent electricity of 17.5 electric power stations, or $3.9 billion in one year.

Moreover, the change will also avoid 20 million metric tons of carbon emissions, or the equivalent to removing nearly four million cars from the roads.

That is the power of one small measure, magnified by the population of a given country. Just imagine the scale of the positive impact on the environment if everyone around the world replaced their incandescent bulbs.

Renewable energy

There will be a huge emphasis on renewable energy this year, because these technologies are now going mainstream. With renewable energies such as wind and solar coming to the fore, talking about 'sustainability' is no longer an option, all need to take individual and collective responsibility towards 'living sustainably'. And that means living without damaging the fragile environment.

Another factor is the need to protect the planet's rich flora and fauna. It is true that new species are being discovered every day, but the rate at which species are going extinct is rather alarming. Some species are down to only a handful of individuals in the wild.

We have to act before they too become as dead as the Dodo. Do we really want to see a world without elephants, tigers, polar bears or pandas?

Climate change has become a major issue, especially in the light of the forthcoming Rio Summit. Man's own actions have resulted in phenomena such as global warming, which could mean a drastic temperature and sea level rise that could threaten especially the coastal and island communities.

We have altered the cycles and patterns of nature by cutting down forests and polluting rivers. Agriculture too is facing a crisis because the amount of arable land is becoming limited.

In October last year, the world population exceeded seven billion. This means that the resources of our world have to be shared by all seven billion of us.

We might be able to overcome this challenge, but only if we strike a balance between consumption and conservation.

Living sustainably while protecting and nurturing the Earth is the only possible - and viable - answer. Today, Earth Day, is a golden opportunity to ponder on these issues and to be committed to save our endangered planet.