One day my sons Mohit and Pavit and I drove through the the middle of the city. We passed a stream, which flowed into what was previously a pristine river.
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| Pollution destroys waterbodies and the oceans, killing all life, slowly but surely. |
We humans had turned the beautiful gift of life, the river, provided to us by nature, into a sewer.
I sighed and shook my head muttering, "What the hell are we doing to our environment? If this continues we humans will destroy the world. We must save the Earth?"
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| Choked and polluted streams attract pigs and disease |
Mohit responded,
"Dad, if we do not respect nature, how can we expect nature to respect us?
Humans cannot destroy the Earth though we are causing much damage and numerous ugly scars. It is the arrogance of us humans, that we think we are going to save the Earth.
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| Bird dies from eating junk, mistaking plastic for food |
The Earth has been around for 4.5 billion years and humans for only 7 million years. What we humans are really doing is, we are destroying ourselves and our future generations.
At the rate we are going, we humans will be extinct pretty soon. In 20,000 or even a 100,000 years Earth will simply recalibrate and reset itself without humans"
No one spoke a word for the next three hours.
22nd April is marked as Earth Day.
Countless speeches, media articles, editorials, and Facebook comments will change little or nothing.
Unfortunately many religions, ideologies, and governments preach that nature belongs to Man for his pleasure and exploitation. The truth is, Humans are not apart from but just an integral component of nature.
We can only survive as a species if there is respect. **Respect for all nature, all life, different people, faiths, thoughts and cultures.
