Earth Day 2022 : Healthy Place For All

Today is the 22nd of April and we celebrate Earth Day today. Actually, why do we need An Earth Day? It's because people have forgotten what they're doing to our earth. It's not ours to exploit. We live here only for a few decades but we leave problems for generations. Let's talk about it. SRC

People do various things to keep achieving human needs. It's true that people get problems when those needs ain't fulfilled but the thing is, in order to fulfill those needs, the damage we do to our Earth is not that small. SRC

Electricity is one of the most needed things in our day-to-day life. These days, we face some electricity cuts and we feel it so badly. The question is, how do we generate Electricity.. Most of the electricity is generated by heat resulting from burning fossil fuels. It's about 75% of global needs. So, only 25%comes from renewable energy. SRC

See, in Sri Lanka, we don't have crude oil or coal of our own. But we mainly generate electricity by burning them. Sri Lanka is situated near the Equator of the Earth. So we get plenty of Sunlight Throughout the year. But seems like we don't use that much efficiently. So we have to buy oil and coal just to burn for generating electricity. That's the main reason for Dollar Crisis in our country. SRC

We need materials for making structures, clothes, electronics, etc. And we can't just produce those things. Those have to go under process. When a final product is made from raw materials, it undergoes many steps. And there, certain emissions happen. And those can be toxic. Those can be greenhouse gases. And heat is also released into the environment. Those things have negative impacts on the stabilization of the environment. SRC

And we can't forget cultivation and farming. People cut trees and forests to make ground for cultivation. And it can dry up the water content on the surface. When it comes to the cultivation stage, water is required for plants. Also, we add chemical fertilizers for the fields too. So it pollutes the water and it affects aquatic living beings and all these things hit back on humans.

These are only a few of what human does to fulfilling the needs of human. And we can see how the environment is polluted. And the results of these activities are interconnected.

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So it starts with an increase in temperature. So it will dry up the surface water and meltdown glaciers. So with the huge amount of vaporized water in the sky and the high temperature, it can create powerful tornadoes. Also, changes in rain patterns can be witnessed. So there can be rain for weeks and no rain for months. These types of things could cause flooding, landslides, and on the other hand severe droughts.
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When considering the effects discussed.. because of the meltdown of glaciers, the seawater levels will be increased. So small islands will be submerged by seawater. In the last century, there's an increment in seawater level of 15-25 cm. This only gets an increased rate of increasing also increasing. Due to global warming, the temperature of seawater will be increased and it will put aquatic lives in danger. The melting of glaciers puts the lives of animals who live there in danger too.
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With all these extreme weather conditions, it finally hits our stomachs. Crops will be decreased due to weather conditions. Fishery crops will also be decreased due to increment in seawater temperature.
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Changes in weather patterns could cause the spreading of deceases such as Dengue and Malaria. Extreme weather conditions could cause an increase in the death toll as well. Also, natural disasters such as flooding, and tornadoes could destroy the homes of people. And they have to face an economic crisis to stand up again.

So it's clear how these things are interconnected. But the thing is, the key to stopping this crisis is also in our hands. Millions of people stand up today to protect Earth from things like pollution, deforestation, and global warming. But one day for a whole year is not enough. We have to keep it in mind and do it every day. That's how we can make our world a healthier, happier place to live..