Sunday, March 19, 2006

International Earth Day





We have one earth.... but we have two days in a year, when people celeberate and call it 'International Earth Day'. Like most uninformed or rather misinformed sources, i knew about the earth day, but didnt know that there were two of them. What strikes me immediately is the absurdity of the whole thing. Its like celebrating mothers day, well it does help these days, because now there is a day, when everyone forces you to remember about your mother. And like we have the valentines day, which is good and useful during courtship, but the value of which seem to diminish soon after marriage, atleast for most husbands and men.

And so, thanks to the many years where we have abused the planet we live in, some noble souls create a day when we could remember about it and do something (atleast for that day) different. So then why two days ? One is March 20th and the other April 22nd !! Well, read the link provided and info on wikipedia for more information regarding these two days.

I am not sure which day is the true eath day, and the necessity for one. Because for me, it is important that we use each day to resolve to use even less resources from this precious planet, so that we may leave a legacy for our children. For me it starts with water, reducing consumption as best as possible, but enough to have a hygenic and safe life. The same goes for electricity, food and gas/petrol. To a large extent this behaviour of mine, comes from my upbringing, where everyday we had to grow up knowing that each of these resources were precious and cost money (sometimes lot of it), to be prudent and not waste. The water shortage in Chennai, Oil crisis of '74-75, and power cuts were all good lessons in my life and ones that thought me skills to be able to survive with less, than more. Irrespective of my efforts, i do know that my sheer existence is still a burden to the planet, and that these efforts have to multiply.

So, irrespective of which day you choose to celebrate as the Earth Day, try to do your bit to save the planet, not just on that day, but on everyday after that. Draw your line yourself, but do draw the line, of what you call is wastage and what constitutes living.


Earth Day - wikipedia


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