As a kid, I loved watching sci-fi movies and TV shows based on the end of the world, climate crisis, exploring the unexplored, the destruction of earth and so on. I loved how in the end, people and scientists worked together with superheroes against the evil forces and saved our earth. I was so addicted to this euphoria that I even dreamt of such situations where Earth was in some problem and was about to end and then came a superhero to save it.
When my tap didn’t work for a while and there was no water, when we had a power cut for 37 hours some days back, when TV channels reported natural calamities and multiple deaths due to heat stroke and increasing temperature, however, it was different. Cold sweat broke loose with the realisation of my dream coming true, except there would be no happy ending.
I remember that utopia and I am seeing it turn into dystopia with each passing day. Many of the films I saw would have this one particular scene where some capitalists and scientists would collaborate to get away from the end of the world and plan to save themselves by shifting to another planet. Similarly, the rich here will colonise Mars, while the poor will be left to the hands of destruction and extinction. This statement is problematic but true on so many levels. The privileged are major contributors to pollution via their living standards, but it is the poor who suffer as a result of their actions. Air conditioners cool you, yes, but at what cost?
So, who has more responsibility towards climate change?
Scientists have declared that we have around 10 years to save the planet. If we fail to do so, we’ll set in motion an irreversible chain reaction wherein none of us will be able to retrace our steps. This is such a terrifying thought for those who want to live in a healthy future. Others who are fed up of their lives and believe that nothing matters, may continue with their ways of polluting lives.
These 10 years seem like a period to evoke a superhero from each one of us and save the planet and give ourselves the happy ending that we dream of.
This environment day, lets not just observe it by posting on social media. Rather, let’s take a pledge to make each day better for our environment, by doing a small nature-friendly activity and contributing our own bit. We have globalized and developed at the cost of deforestation and soil erosion – we have already harmed the earth enough. Let’s not turn back on nature when it needs us the most. I’m not sure we’ll be able to survive it’s wrath.