Every school and college going student must have had experienced mass bunk in their schools or colleges and most of them had fun doing that. Students go on a mass bunk to avoid their boring lectures or to enjoy short vacations, but how about going on a mass bunk to protect our community and our planet?
Well, this idea sounds exciting and we all witnessed such an amazing idea on 15th of March when students from schools across the globe marched in a protest against deteriorating climatic conditions. Many school students in India also joined in the protest over rising concerns on climate change. We all should thank the Nobel peace prize nominated Greta Thunberg for this initiative.
Greta Thunberg, a 16-year-old school girl sat on a protest every Friday since September 2018 in front of the Swedish parliament against inaction on climate change. She posted about her protests over climate change on social media with the hashtag #FridaysForFuture and this went viral all over. Schools across the globe including those of India are marching for climate change in over 1659 places across 105 countries. This global protest against climate change is gaining attention. “We have proposed Greta Thunberg because if we do nothing to halt climate change, it will be the cause of wars, conflict and refugees,” said Norwegian parliament representative, Freddy Andre Ovstegard. “Greta Thunberg has launched a mass movement which I see as a major contribution to peace,” he added.
Effects Of Climate Change
We all need to understand why is this protest is so important and needs immediate attention. According to research, it has been found that change in climate leads to degradation of the physical environment. There can be soil degradation which in turn may affect agricultural productivity thereby decreasing the food supply. Climate change can have a negative impact on the freshwater supply. All these can lead to displacement of population and thus a loss of life and livelihood.
According to some reports, climate change has been the cause of exacerbating poverty, malnutrition and diseases leading to an increase in risk factors causing depression in youth. The rise in temperature and humidity is a significant cause of mental health problems. Apart from this, for the sustainability of humanity, we need to save our planet.
The ongoing protest by school students holds a very important role in the contribution towards combating climate change. In India, the majority of our population is a part of youth and they will form the future of our country. Therefore, their participation in a sustainable future holds important. But I believe that doing such protests should be a beginning to a revolutionary youth movement.
We need to find a number of ways in which we can reach out to a large population to encourage them to participate so that we can stop degrading our planet immediately.
Let’s Go Green
As responsible citizens and as an aware youth, we must take careful decisions, decisions which are environmental-friendly. Let us all take a pledge to shift to eco-friendly products. Let’s walk and use public transport more often. Recycle our waste products. These simple efforts would make a great positive impact on our environment.
Engage And Encourage
We all must not only act responsibly towards our planet but also make efforts to reach out to more and more people to encourage them to do the same. Every Salman Khan fan must have heard of his dialogue in his movie “Jai Ho” about helping out 3 more people instead of saying sorry. Why can’t we apply this towards spreading the notion of being more environmentally conscious beings?
Social Media Can Be A Great Tool
These days, almost every youngster is on social media sharing their day to day happenings. Such a platform where a large number people can be connected within seconds, creating awareness among the youth on the environment and climate change can prove to be a great success.