Regardless of who we are or how different we are from each other, there is one thing that we will always love and protect – our common home. A home is a place that provides shelter for us. It is a place where we can live and grow in safety. The Earth, however, is far more than just our home. It does not just provide us with shelter, it sustains our very lives. It is the air that we breathe, the water that we drink, and the land on which we live.
We would not just be homeless without our planet; we would be lifeless. Why then, do we litter and pollute? Why do we tarnish and scar the surface of our lands? Why do we tear our forests apart and fill our oceans with toxic waste?
The potential of the human race is truly something to behold. We have evolved into creatures who are capable of cracking the very code of life and the universe. We experience emotions so complex that we may not even be able to identify them. Yet, beyond all of this lies one ability of mankind that surpasses everything else – the ability to reach. We have the capacity to reach every corner of the earth. We have the capability to reach other planets as well as the moon and leave behind footprints and flags. In the future, we may even have the ability to reach new suns or new planets. This ability, however, has started to lose its beauty. This is because the potential to reach the untouched parts of our planet now means that we have the ability to destroy and pollute those parts as well.
Mount Everest, which towers over 29,000 feet in the air, is the highest place in the world. On the other hand, a portion of the Mariana Trench, known as the ‘Challenger Deep’ has a depth of over 36,000 feet, and is the deepest part of the ocean. Both of these places share one common feature – they are polluted by plastic waste.
When we observe World Environment Day tomorrow, we must keep this year’s theme in
mind – solutions to plastic pollution. If we continue to remain on the path that we are currently on, we will destroy our planet. If our species survives for another thousand years, all that our children will have to show for our existence is tonnes of plastic waste. Our home will be gone. Our home will be nothing but plastic.
What is mankind truly worth if the only part of us that survives another thousand years is our waste?
Young people deserve a life that is not constructed around correcting the mistakes of our past
generations. Choosing alter-natives, reusing and recycling are all steps that are too small to mitigate a dangerously large problem. Our world does not need plastic any more than it needs to be polluted. Our world does not need plastic anymore.
