A reminder – International Mother Earth Day – 22nd April 2012

It was interesting to note that there were two references in the Sri Lankan Sinhala blogosphere to the Earth day today and none in the Sri Lankan English blogosphere. I used to live in the United States where this day was remembered in a very big way in many states with a lot of events, to draw attention to the rapidly diminishing resources, and the United States responsibility as the largest emitter of Carbon emissions and the biggest contributor to global warming. I understand that China with its rapid development has now surpassed that of the US in emissions and now considered the largest polluter in the world. In any case we must do what we can in our small way to understand the problem and try and reduce the carbon footprint as the word is known today. In the globalized world we cannot keep to our borders and think we are safe. We MUST never forget that what others do affects us and vice versa. We are no longer isolated, we are one world no matter what we do to stop people from entering other countries!! What each of us does, affects the other in a favorable or unfavorable manner, and we MUST be aware of that.

In that same vein it is important that we explain to those who do not know or understand, how interdependent we are on each other. The climate change issue is still with us, and that is a prime example of this interdependence. Despite a recent lull in our focus thereon, with a zillion other more important and pressing issues we have to face, we must not lose sight of this issue everyday and make it a point to educate our children from the beginning to respect, understand and safeguard the rights to which they are born, so that we will have something to pass on to future generations, without subjecting them to a fate we do not wish for ourselves.

I did not find much reference to the Earth Day in the written printed media in Sinhala and English over the weekend and we must remind ourselves that the “Jagath Mihithala Dinaya” is commemorated every April 22nd. It is worth googling the Earth Day to get information on the origin of this, begun in the US and then spread internationally in 1990, check out the web site, www.earthday.org for additional information in that and other related web sites.

In an interesting turn of events, I like to think that medium of the internet where items like blogs and digital images can be stored in cyber space, that we can use less resources like paper, and keep all our records in digital format saving the loss of trees for paper just as one item on the agenda of success of new technology, that is compatible with sustainability of resources. We do not need school books either!