By: Dr. Gideon Lasco, Best Friend of the Forest
What on Earth have we done? Earth Day is a timely opportunity for us to take this question literally and reflect on our collective and individual impact on our planet.
Collectively, we know that all our activities have led to climate change; our wasteful lifestyles are not sustainable and would bring irreversible damage to the planet and to humanity itself. Forests and coral reefs alike have been decimated and many species have gone extinct, or are at the brink of extinction.
Compared to the global scale of human activity, we may think that our individual impact is minuscule, but this is exactly this kind of thinking that is keeping from making Earth-friendly decisions in our everyday lives. Reducing our use of plastics, including straws and grocery bags, may not count for much as an individual gesture but multiply it by the numbers of days in a year- or by the number of people in our communities – and you have a sizeable effect.
This is also true for positive steps like planting a tree, picking up a piece of garbage on a mountainside, or supporting individuals and organisations who work for the good of the environment. If all of us will do these all steps and do so as a habit, then we may yet live to see Earth Day not as a preview of a planet we stand to lose – but a celebration of a home whose inhabitants realised was worth defending before it was too late.
Disclaimer:
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Forest Foundation Philippines. Furthermore, the Foundation assumes no liability or responsibility for any inaccurate or incomplete information presented in this article.
