Each year, Earth Day -- April 22 -- marks the anniversary of what many consider the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.
The need to raise environmental awareness was acutely felt in the mid 90’s, especially in the USA, where rapid industrialization was a major factor that contributed towards pollution.  According to a source, “At the time, Americans were slurping leaded gas through massive V8 sedans. Industry belched out smoke and sludge with little fear of legal consequences or bad press. Air pollution was commonly accepted as the smell of prosperity. “Environment” was a word that appeared more often in spelling bees than on the evening news.”  Such  indifference, bordering on arrogance even, was what probed the Americans to really reflect on what they were trying to achieve. They were forgetting that in their rush to make money, they were destroying their own environment and eventually themselves. This called for some serious thinking – hence the birth of Earth Day. In 1970 it was more or less a national event. In 1990, it was brought to the global stage. Since then,  internationally, April 22, has been celebrated in the name of our environment.

Fifteen  years later,  has there truly been a change? Is air pollution less? Is the use of chemicals and pesticides less? Are the threats on animal lives less? Is desertification less? Is deforestation less? What about the depleting ozone layer? Don’t even start on global warming…  At the bottom of your heart you would  know whether there has been a turn of events to the betterment or not. In spite of Earth Day.  And World Environment Day, Rio Summit,  Kyoto Protocol, Ramsar Convention - we could go on.

More closer  to home, along the Kantale - Seruwila road to be precise, there lies a garbage dump.  It spans across a vast area and attracts many species of wildlife, especially elephants. They seem to relish eating all that garbage, polythene bags and all. In fact, if the content within the bag is difficult to reach, they  do not hesitate one minute to consume the bag itself. Not only does the garbage warp the beauty of nature and cause slow,  painful death among these animals but it also pollutes the water ways. Sadly, although  many travel along this road, no one sees  such  pollution as a threat to the environment. Or maybe they do, but hardly anyone voices in protest. Surely all those multitudes of holiday makers from Colombo ought to have spotted it? One absolutely cannot miss this dump.

On Earth Day or April 22, events worldwide are held to demonstrate support for environmental protection. In fact, everyday should be dedicated towards protecting our Earth. How can one day be sufficient?  Nevertheless, the initiative to raise awareness is indeed important and perhaps in the aftermath of 2015’s Earth Day, if not most, atleast, someone somewhere decided to seriously show concern towards the threatened environment we live in.

Earth Day : What are your views? 

Samendri

On Earth Day, events are held around the world, demonstrating   how to protect the environment. In my opinion, a specific day is not needed to protect the environment. The world we live in needs protection everyday rather than protecting it one day and destroying it every other day. Being a person who loves wildlife, I have learnt to love the environment and value it enough to try and do whatever is possible to save it. Pollution is immense and it is sad to see that this destruction is performed by man himself. People need to know what to do and what not to do. Mankind should learn how valuable the environment is, and protecting it should be in everyone’s day to day schedule. Yes, creating awareness on Earth Day is necessary, but it is better to create awareness everyday than to wait for that one  day of the year to protect it.

Vrenika

I think Earth Day is a great initiative that reminds people about the need to preserve and protect the earth.  Everyday people tend to pollute the earth through various means and very few try to actually solve this problem. Earth Day reminds us that our carelessness throughout the year only reduces the natural resources and beauty of our earth not to mention the suffering the animals have to undergo  on our behalf. Various workshops and activities held on this day help remind us that it is not just one person or a certain organization that is responsible for the earth but  all of us, as a unit.

Vindya

In my opinion everyday is Earth Day. Because of man’s carelessness, it has come to a point where global warming is a realistic threat. As it is, ice burgs are melting and polar bears are losing their habitats at a fast pace.  It is important that all of us seriously contribute towards protecting the environment , taking responsibility for all that harms its equilibrium. Something as simple as throwing away a toffee wrapper can result in major consequences because we live in a world where everything is inter -connected. This is what is meant by the ‘butterfly effect’ where one small change in one area can result in a larger  change in another area. In this case, one small irresponsible action can cause life threatening consequences in a place as far as the North Pole. Everyone has to contribute because we all live in this.

Anupam

Earth Day is a wake up call for all those people  who are obilivious to the threats faced by our Earth. In recent times, development has proven to be a major challenge faced by the environment. Development, however is  inevitable. Therefore,  there must be a system where development and the environment can co-exist. This is a necessity if we are to move forward. We must also be aware of the carbon footprint, especially when using detergents, agricultural chemicals ,cosmetics etc. Whenever possible, bio degradable items should be manufactured. Disposal of e – waste and hospital waste should be performed in a manner which does not harm the environment. Haphazard discarding of unusable technical gadgets can be lethal. This ought to be the message given by Earth Day.

Oshadi

International Mother Earth Day also known as Earth Day is celebrated to remind us what a valuable gift the planet earth is. However,  we have gotten so used to controlling everything and adapting new technology into our lives that we've forgotten we need mother nature more than she needs us. Therefore, I would say everyday should be "Earth Day" and it's everyone's responsibility to take care of mother earth if we are to expect her to protect us in return.

Matthew

I think Earth day is a very good concept and we should not limit this to one single day, instead we should try and incorporate this into our everyday life.

By Vajini H. Gunaratne