It rings constantly in your ear, “this has been the worst hurricane, worst flood, or worst tidal wave on record.”
With more damage around the world and ecosystems going haywire, we see that many people have joined the bandwagon in a bid to protect Earth. Earlier, initiatives were taken mostly by the Government and NGO’s, but today we see people around the world waking up. But the question is, are we waking up too late?
In 2010, the world woke up to a very different weather in many parts of the world. The cold winter not only disrupted commute but also claimed several lives, not only in India, but all over the world. That apart, deforestation, illegal wildlife trade and encroachment into forest protected areas, has leads to a severe loss of natural resources, wild plants and animals; adding many species on the endangered list.
So what is it that we must tap on? Advertising, of course! The only resource that one seems to use up in this communication is the resource of money, but atleast we have companies the world over spreading the message of saving the ecosystem, before marketing themselves. Frankly, I don’t remember that it cellular company promotes the recycle of cellular phones using children, or which promoted the ‘wastepaper bin game’ in an effort to promote ‘Do not waste paper’. Lately I saw ‘Stop messing with Nature, I inherit it’ - a slogan on a leading shoe brand’s advertising posters. These advertisements however reinforce one thing – the Earth’s natural resources are dwindling and we need to do something about it.
Celebrity endorsements seem to work wonders. In the past we saw Elle Macpherson and Stephen Fry threaten to boycott the restaurant ‘Nobu’ for continuing to serve ‘Bluefin Tuna’, a fish on the endangered list. Abhishek Bachchan, the Indian brand ambassador for 2010’s WWF Earth Hour campaign pledged his support stating “I will, in my power, do whatever to save electricity and will request my friends in the film industry to shut down shootings in studios during the Earth Hour." Other Bollywood celebrities like Shahrukh Khan, Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra, Ranbir Kapoor; Arshad Warsi and Dia Mirza joined in, in a bid to provide solar power to villages across India through TERI's Lighting a Billion Lives initiative, by raising money and adopting villages.
So let’s stop messing with nature. Saving Earth has more to do with just turning off lights or lighting candles. Drive more efficiently. Turn off your engines at traffic lights. Re-use. Carpool. Eat organic food. Ride a bicycle. Conserve energy. Plant more trees. Start saving ‘The Earth’. Where I live, I still see greenery. So, before the colours begin to fade, lets save some for the future to inherit, ‘something green, and something natural’.
