Dubai
The carbon footprint of our planet is increasing by the hour and consequent global warming is causing irreparable damage to the environment. Our energy-hungry society guzzles tons of fossil fuels every second, belching out carbon-intensive smoke into the surroundings, inexorably choking the very life out of our ecosystems.
This drive towards self-destruction is quite ironical given the fact that Nature offers us such varied sources of natural energy which are clean, renewable, abundant and as yet untapped. Today, April 22, the world celebrates Earth Day and it seeks to draw attention to the fact that we need to take urgent action to save our planet and move to a sustainable future.
At Green Hope UAE, we believe that every day needs to be Earth Day. With this objective in mind, we organised a recycling campaign last weekend, on April 18, as sustainable consumption is a key way of moving to a greener future.
Our members, some as young as six years old, spent over four weeks collecting old newspapers, plastic bottles, cardboard containers, toners and other plastics items. It totalled up to a whopping 1,810kg of materials, which we handed over to Tadweer for recycling. These materials, which otherwise would have degenerated in trash cans, will now be recycled and reused, thus saving essential resources.
Tree planting is one of our core activities, since this is the most effective way of combatting land degradation, reducing carbon impact and mitigating climate change. We capped off our ‘Earth Day of Action’ by planting 70 saplings.
The global population has crossed seven billion and our planet’s finite resources are under tremendous strain. As responsible members of civil society, we, the youth, must take responsibility for the future of our planet and set an example by making better use of our resources.
We should imbibe the principles of sustainable consumption in our daily lives and recycling should be a regular part of our routine. Earth Day should not be a one-day event. Our call is to practice it daily so that future generations can enjoy the same pristine resources that we were blessed with.
— The reader is a Dubai-based student and founder of Green Hope UAE.
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