Nature is crucial to life. Nature is life. From food to water to flora to fauna, everything is from nature and yet, we spend so much time destroying our very necessity of life. With the increasing amount of afforestation, higher sea levels, holes in the ozone and the melting ice caps we might not have a long time to save the earth and so we should do what we can, while we still can. World Nature Conservation Day is celebrated on 28 July every year. If you haven’t known before, you do know. So let’s look at its history, significance and some trivia before getting into other matters.
History
The true history of this is still a mystery, it’s origins unknown. We speculate it must’ve been some concerned citizen who came up with this and does every founder of every international event have to be famous for us to take it seriously? It’s like World Environment Day but for nature conservation, in very very simple words. Praising this unknown origin lets move forward.
Significance
We shatter the very ground we live in searching for more of what we already have. In search of materials to fill the endless pit of greed, unaffected by guilt. Running away from the harsh consequences which will be severe for the future generations. And so to save our species we must start today. The history may be unknown but the past has passed. Live in the present and make a change for the future.
Our impact on Nature
By now you’ve heard these a million times already. The same ones taught in school. plant more trees, save water, save power, etc but let us go a little more in-depth.
Trees
A new study published in Nature (The science journal) estimates the planet has 3.04 trillion (around 3 lakh crores) trees. The research says 15.3 billion (around 1,500 crores) trees are chopped down every year. It also estimates that 46% of the world’s trees have been cleared over the past 12,000 years. We are almost halfway through our tree reserve. and at the rate we’re going it’s only going downhill. the number of trees planted every year is way too little to handle the degree of deforestation and so we must plant more.
Water
As India grows and urbanizes, its water bodies are getting toxic. It’s estimated that around 70% of surface water in India is unfit for consumption. Every day, almost 40 million (4 lakh) litres of wastewater enters rivers and other water bodies with only a tiny fraction adequately treated. Take the river Ganga for example in our own country. The holy river made unholy with all the cremations and the statues and flowers thrown into it. At present, the only thing one can get from bathing in this polluted river is a deadly disease. Try to do more cleaning and less of the polluting. Before we have another great pacific garbage patch
Electricity
Three billion (3 crore) units of electricity is wasted every year in India itself. We spend time building dams to generate more and more electricity but we have enough. It’s just distributed wrongly. Conserve power, it comes with a cost that money cant buy. nuclear reactors and thermal power plants bring along their respective waste and other downsides and dams affect the landscape. we need power but we shouldn’t waste it.
Paper and Plastic
China is the world’s largest paper and paperboard consumer in the world, using more than 113 million metric tons annually, followed by the U.S. with a consumption rate of nearly 71 million metric tons. About one trillion single-use plastic bags are used annually across the globe. That’s nearly 2 million every minute. More than half a billion plastic straws are used every day around the world. Over half of the world’s plastic thrown out in 2015 was plastic packaging. Plastic and paper are two devils in their own ways. while paper affects the trees plastic affects everything and so we should try to stop using so much of either.
Some effective nature conservation methods
- Use of alternative energy of energy such as solar and wind energy
- Plant more trees to maintain the ecosystem and to prevent soil erosion
- Use the water resources in a proper way and reuse the kitchen water for watering the gardens
- Grow vegetation in catchment areas
- Reduce the usage of electricity
- Use the recyclable and biodegradable products
- Ensure the recycling of wastes
- Try to minimize the use of cars for shorter distance
- Use paper bags or cloth bag instead of plastic bags
- Install water treatment plants and rainwater harvesting
We hope this may have enlightened you on our current situation. Hoping we can all work together to overcome this global issue we request you to spread awareness on this and take action. Have a nice day! 🙂
