As time passes, and some places in the world do not have access to drinkable water and edible food, often times those who do have access forget about these valuable treasures.
There is an island called the Great Pacific Garbage Patch (GPGP) which consists of 1,800,000,000,000 (1.8 trillion) pieces of plastic. The size of the plastic island is 600,000 sq. miles which is larger than Alaska or 3 times bigger than France. This caused 100,000 marine animals & more than 1,000,000 seabirds to die yearly because of eating plastic. It is estimated that in 2050, the total mass of all waste in the ocean will be equal to the mass of all fish.We do not only mean water and food, we mean everything that sustains life with the presence of nature. Animals, plants, water forms, land forms, light, air, and the list goes on, learning ways to save resources is not the only thing we can and should do, but it is the complete shift of mindset that has to be done by every individual.
This shift is the intention, interest, care, knowledge, habits, sincerity, efforts, time management, faith, and devotion that determines the true action that we take to care for the earth and make a change, because our actions are based on our intentions which comes from our mind. Excuses can never solve the way we and others live. We already know that our life relies on our actions – if we take care of our planet, it can take care of us (and if we don’t, it won’t).
So how do we start? We should start by realizing that if we are keen on it, we can take action for ourselves and the life of all living beings around us. We must ask ourselves a few questions: Is my comfort and waste not harming anyone? Can I live without resources from nature? Is everyone in the world getting the same resources as I get? Can I live if I am the only creature living on this planet? Can plants and animals live without us? Can we live without plants and animals? What if there was a sudden worldwide starvation and drought? Is it still worth it to waste? How long should I continue to waste? Maybe I can rely on others to make the change? If you rely on others, just keep in mind that others might also be relying and waiting for you to take action.
Whenever possible, with sincerity, following the common good ethics, and the purpose of sustaining ourselves and the world, we have to try to save things. Use more refillable, reusable, and biodegradable items. Throwing trash into their designated recycling containers. The most important thing is to preach what we practice and PRACTICE what we preach. We have to share our knowledge with others. It is very important that we make a checklist of the progress we make, and soon we must see improvements.
If we continue to live the way we are now, in a few years our finite resources would not be able to regenerate and therefore cannot sustain the life of the living beings. We have to choose either of these two options:
“The choice is ours:
– Form a global partnership to care for Earth and one another or;
– Risk the destruction of ourselves and the diversity of life.”
Earth Charter Preamble.Always remember, “Everything you do comes back to you.”
Anonymous
Little constant actions is much better than actions with many large time gaps. A person may be the reason to change the world towards a better, peaceful and equal life for everyone.
Written by ECYL, Khadeejah bint Malik H.
