(The World Earth Day is celebrated across the globe on April 22)
We are most inhuman in dealing with our mother earth. Yet, we take pride in calling ourselves human beings. We plunder her natural resources as if there is no tomorrow. We pollute her land, water and air as if it has nothing to do with us. In our eternal greed, we ignore reality and tend to imagine that we own the earth. We imagine that it is okay to use up all the resources while we can, even if that means overdrawing some of them.
This is a strange philosophy. This attitude is unacceptable. This must change. We must change our attitude towards mother earth. We must be more considerate towards her. Not so much because it is going to help her but because it is going to do us a lot of good and also to our coming generations.
Long, long ago a Nigerian chieftain told his tribesmen: “I conceive that the land (read “earth”) belongs to a vast family of which many are dead, few are living, and countless numbers are still unborn.”
Expressing a similar sentiment, a Native American proverb goes on to say: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors; we borrow it from our children.”
These words of ancient wisdom should set us thinking. These words must convince us beyond all doubts that we do not own this earth…that we have merely borrowed it from our children. And, take a look at this Indian proverb: “Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught, will we realize we cannot eat money.” That is absolute madness. But we have only ourselves to thank for bringing earth to such a pass.
Voicing his concern over the ever-growing pollution levels, Henry David Thoreau lamented: “Thank God men cannot fly, and lay waste the sky as well as the earth.” But, sadly, man has learned to fly with the help of flying machines and spaceships and is happily polluting the earth as well as the space.
Robert Orben takes a dig at air pollution when he declares: “There is so much pollution in the air now, that if it weren’t for our lungs, there’d be no place to put it all.” Pained at indiscriminate tree-felling, Bill Vaughn once remarked: “Suburbia is where the developer bulldozes the trees, then, names the streets after them.”
Tom McMillan made an interesting observation when he said: “For 200 years we’ve been conquering Nature. Now we’re beating it to death.”
At a nature spot in Baltimore, there was an enlightening message for visitors. It said: “Take nothing but pictures; leave nothing but footprints; kill nothing but time.” I cannot stop admiring whoever it was that came up with this brilliant motto.
But remember one thing: no alien will come from outer space to save the earth. Nor can we shove the entire responsibility for saving the earth on the shoulders of a handful of environmental activists and go off to sleep. Like Marshall McLuhan said: “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.”
Darryl Cherney of Smithsonian Institution vowed his commitment to work towards saving the earth for future generations when he proclaimed: “I am not an environmentalist. I’m an Earth warrior.” That is the kind of spirit we need to kindle. And, that’s the kind of people we need to rally around to save the Earth from destruction.
Let us vow on this Earth Day that we will replenish the Earth for everything that we take from her. Let us vow that we will clean up the earth of all the pollutants that we spread around her. Let us vow that whatever we have taken on loan from mother Earth is replenished simultaneously. We must ensure before we depart from this Earth that we may return to the generations to come what we have borrowed from them.
Let this be our firm resolve and commitment on this Earth Day. But, let us not forget our resolve after we celebrate the Earth Day today. Let us remember the anonymous quote: “Every day is Earth Day.” And, let me conclude by repeating the powerful words of Marshall McLuhan: “There are no passengers on Spaceship Earth. We are all crew.”
