Anuska Sen, Team BioXone
The Earth Day event was first held on 22nd April 1970 by Senator Gaylord Nelson and it turned into an environmental movement in 1990. Since then, it has been celebrated by over 192 countries every year. The event is conducted by Earthday.org. In 2020, Earth Day was celebrated virtually by over 100 million people, which made the event be largest online mass mobilization in history.
This year marks the 51st year of Earth Day. The theme of Earth Day, 2021 is “Restore Our Earth“, which focuses on natural processes and upcoming green technologies, and innovative thinking, which can help restore the ecosystems. The five primary programs of Earth Day 2021 are:
- The Canopy Project
- Food and Environment
- Climate Literacy
- The Global Earth Challenge, and
- The Great Global CleanUp
The theme of this year clearly mentions that it is not only the natural processes but also innovative thinking and emerging technologies that can be relied on for making the Earth a better place to live. It is high time that we as individuals take up responsibilities to make our Earth greener and be a part of this change. There are hundreds of ongoing researches in various bioscience fields which aim to discover and propose novel strategies to save the natural resources available to us. For instance, there are molecular biology researches going on to reduce heavy metal(loid) tolerance in underground water and soil. Several strategies are being undertaken to replace diesel engines with green fuels/biofuels. Similarly, there are multiple such fields where scientists and researchers are trying their best to introduce novel technologies to make the Earth greener.
It has been seen that during the initial months of lockdown, last year in the pandemic due to Covid-19, the amount of pollution was significantly reduced. The Earth once again witnessed clear skies, fresh air, pollution-free atmosphere, clean rivers, and seas, etc.
Earthday.org has posted some videos on their official YouTube channel to spread awareness about Earth Day 2021:
- To promote this year’s theme, that is, “Restore Our Earth”: https://youtu.be/kB5lKaOJ0DM
- To spread awareness on the Great Global Cleanup program: https://youtu.be/glX01nQoHwU
The rampant ecological destruction, such as cutting down of forests, grasslands, loss of water-bodies, etc. should be immediately controlled. Therefore, it can be said that it is the responsibility of each and every person to make the Earth a better and greener planet to live in.
Also read:Aptamer: A novel active ingredient to fight Coronavirus
References:
- Earth Day: The Official Site I EARTHDAY.ORG. Earthday.org
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth_Day
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