The 5th of June every year is considered as World Environment Day by the United Nations since 1972.This is a very important World Day suggested by UN and every year being celebrated as such.This year the celebration and connected Global action is the responsibility of Canada.
Every year a theme is being selected and approved by United Nation.This year 2018 the theme is "PLASTIC POLLUTION"
The aim of the theme is to employ such methods to save every nation from the illeffect of Using plastic which could even lead to death if not proper care is not taken to avoid the impact of Plastic usage.Every Nation is expected to take steps to avoid or destroy Plastic products without allowing the, to mis with water resources like,lake ,river,.The idea is to avoid Plastic wastage to spread and finally joined with Sea.
The best policy is to destroy Plastic by burning .
Every year in most of the nations in the world there is a system prevailing to save forest and mountains.This also include excessive use of the mountain soil by digging the mountains to obtain mineral soil
Besides this every year planting more Saplings of different plants and trees also suggested by the UN and is being implemented by all nations.
In India also every places and cities planted saplings of plants and trees as a matter of routine.
But the fact remains that even after the ceremony of planting saplings and the photography session the leaders who perform the deed mostly do not look back to ensure that the plants are grown up and not destroyed by various reasons.
So generally very few plants survive to help the purpose of providing shades and protection from heat.
By just performing this every year on 5th June as a matter of routine does not appear to have any urose served.
This year the theme is Plastic Pollution which is a very serious matter.The use of Plastic can not be stopped overnight.It has to be stopped gradually by stopping use .For example one can resort to use of glass bottles instead of plastic bottles for drinking water.Every school going child has a water bottle made of Plastic material.
The milk is being supplied in Plastic covers.
Earlier Milk was being supplied in glass bottles.we changed the system for convenience and from economic point of view into plastic covers.
Similarly the breakage of glass bottles made us to change to plastic bottles.
So all of a sudden we can not stop plastic totally.
But it has to be done as the menace of usage of plastic has been found to be devastating.
We must realise now that 5th June ,the world Environment day is not just for plantation of saplings and to take photographs of such ceremonies.
This year's theme of Environment day being " Plastic Pollution",it is our duty to gradually destroy plastic by stopping it's use.
All of us know that the plastic bottles of cold drinks,plastic covers used for carrying goods are thrown away after use.
Where do they go ultimately?Into the sea around us.Many of us do not know these plastics accumulated in the sea causes dangerous damages and ultimate death of life in sea like fish,turtles and many more.
The facts about Midway Islands alone is enough to indicate how much life is affected by Plastic by way of it's presence around us.
The story of Midway Islands is enough to make us think and to act to remove plastic from our life.
Midway Islands is a a place where human living is impossible.It is between the Asian Continental and America in the pacific coast far away from places where people live.This group of Islands is the place where Albatross birds are living in groups in plenty.It is estimated that there were around 15 lakhs of Albatross birds in this group of Islands.Today the Island is becoming the graveyard of the birds.The sea we see around is not the same we saw many years back.Today the sea is full of plastic materials.Whatever we throw away ultimately reaches the sea travel to far away places and get deposited every where including islands similar to Midway Islands
The Albetross birds are dying because they think what is floated in plenty in the sea are food materials for them and eat plastic .This resulted in the death of the birds every day.
Similarly in another incident,it was found in 2004 a small dead whale came to the shore through shore.When it's dead body was examined it was seen that it's stomach was full of plastis blocking entry of food into the Stomach and this caused it's death.
There are many incidents of the sort happening all over the world causing harm to all kinds of living beings including human beings.
So this year's theme of "Plastic Pollution" is of Paramount importance.
We should ensure that Plastic is no longer used liberally for domestic purposed and gradually stop total use of Plastic.
It is the duty of every citizen to bring to the notice of his/her acquaintances to avoid use of plastic as far as possible and stop totally invdue course of time.
The theme of waste materials and their accumulation could be the theme for next year .
Thus protecting Environment like forest,mountain water resources ,avoid use of Plastic totally and planting more saplings every year and looking after them later on are our basic responsibility to ensure welfare of Humanity with a view to living free from illnesses.
SreedharanMundanat
5th June 2018
