Swapnil Saundarya decade of Action 🦋 Striving for people..planet and peace

One month digital program to celebrate  World Environment Day| from Awareness to Accountability by Swapnil Saundarya ♠️

In the second series of our one month digital program (started on dated 05th May 2020) to generate awareness and encourage accountability for environmental protection under 10 years digital campaign  'Swapnil Saundarya Decade of Action for SDGs', launched on 27th of April 2020 by handicraft products manufacturing firm 'Swapnil Saundarya Label' to strengthen the Sustainable Development Goals (Global Goals), we have  discussed with several intellectuals and professionals around the globe not only about environmental awareness but about the larger component, awareness of sustainability. 

Actions to raise awareness about sustainability are vital to convince people that their individual actions do matter and that bottom-up movements do work. The question asked during the discussion was: how can we increase awareness of sustainability among the people?  

During the discussion, it became clear there is no one-size-fits-all answer and many arguments always came back.

It is all-important to provide the people consequent, simple, reliable and correct information, and research plays here a fundamental role. For example, it is not because it is snowing outside that climate change is not happening(weather ≠ climate). 

Misinformation is still a huge problem nowadays. So, showing people the correct facts can raise awareness and change their behaviour and point of view. 

Information can be provided in many ways, through education, (social) media, in stores/shops and much more.

Education (including parenting) is, as mentioned several times here, very powerful. Every level of education should include actively and directly lessons, activities, programmes and/or events about sustainability and the environment. 

Media can both have a direct and indirect role in stimulating sustainable behaviour. Directly, the media can provide good information in news, documentaries and talk shows. Indirectly, the media is also very powerful, think for example, in fiction series or movies that are close to reality. People tend to reflect their own lives to the characters. If you see a character on TV using a drinking bottle or being a vegetarian, people can be stimulated to do the same. Moreover, in TV-series for children, sustainability and environmental awareness should become common topics. For the youth nowadays, social media and YouTube can be very influential.

Raising awareness is not always enough to change people their behaviour and additionally, we have to be realistic. To obtain sustainability and to deal respectfully with the environment, society needs to be changed. This is something that takes decennial of gradual changes, it is an evolution, not a revolution. 

People are committed to their habits and do not like to change them. Slow and gradual changes would have worked if we started several years ago but now, we do not have this time anymore. As a result, people should also be stimulated in other ways to implement much quicker a sustainable lifestyle.

In addition, the government or other authority institutions have to take the necessary measurements by implementing rules and laws with the eye on reaching sustainability. 

People will be ‘forced’, which will cause discontent, but it is one of the only ways to make the quick changes towards sustainability the earth is craving for. However, clear communication and information are crucial, people cannot have the feeling that only measures against them are taken but also against, for example, the industry. 

In general, actions towards environmental and sustainable awareness should come from different stakeholders and levels going from individuals, families, schools, local authorities, NGOs to  government institutions.

Information, education and (social) media are important but to really change people’s behaviour in the short term, some kind of stimulation is crucial.

Considering the current situation, the economic shutdown under the Covid-19 pandemic has had two monumental impacts on our environment. It has improved our air and water quality dramatically, and slashed our material consumption, water usage and waste production.

 The point is that even though normal life has come to a standstill, the lockdown has given us a rare opportunity to step back and assess our impact on the environment. We are witnessing clean air, water and liveable cities that we have demanded for so long precisely because we have been shut away. Thus, before we resume life as usual, commitment to protect our environment is necessary to ensure that we instil principles of sustainable development in our social behaviour and public policy making.

Swapnil Shukla, Jewellery-Fashion designer-Columnist said , "Human beings often forget that we are largely dependent on Mother Nature and become ignorant towards taking care of it. We have been so reluctant to the preservation of natural resources and sustainable development that we had forgotten the beauty of the Earth completely."

"The Covid-19 lockdown imposed throughout the world has struck a chord in every one of us and it has made us thinking how nature is so important for our day to day living. The tangible improvements in nature have made us believe that the Earth can be saved. It has made us see that our actions can very well impact the Earth’s sustainability",she added.

Kerala based Homeopathic Physician, Dr Shyna Gopinath, while sharing her views on environmental protection said, "Mother Nature was here eons before us and we are just a small part of a great evolutionary story. We should stop acting like we own everything and realise the truth, that the nature owns us. If we have that in mind, we will never do anything that would harm our nature. We should start at our own homes, by creating little ecosystems of our own. Instead of taking too much from our environment, we must try and give at least a little back to it."

Chennai based Consultant gastroenterologist Dr. Vaibhav Patil said, "We, human beings owe a lot to nature. Incredible and selfless gifts by nature needs reciprocation. The adversity created by us, is affecting us evident with current Covid situation. This is an opportunity to understand nature and rectify what we did!"

"Hospital wastes are being heaped in open because of insufficient waste disposal facilities. They are proving toxic for terrestrial and marine life equally. Waste burning along with old school sources of energy viz coal and gasoline has rendered environment unbreathable causing serious lung diseases issue globally. Cherry on the cake, lack of plantation and deforestation is leading to increased heat waves and resultant heat stroke cases in our metropolis", said Dr Syed Basit (Internist) from Pakistan while throwing light on the Environmental Hazards of Medical Waste and other related issues.

Tanushree Shankar, working as Data Manager and associated with Bangalore based NGO Mahadev Foundation said, "When you see a tree without leaves what do you feel about it? Lifeless!Yes, Lifeless.That’s how we will end up if don’t nurture or look after our environment. They are important to balance out the planet.Let’s pledge to take care of our surroundings."

Sha Mohammed, Project Associate, SETS, Chennai while sharing his views said, "This earth is so beautiful that I can hardly believe it exists. The beauty of nature can have a profound effect upon our senses.In these days of pandemic, nature reminds us what we are and what we are supposed to be. Nature is  healing itself. We must remember the fact that protecting our planet starts with us only."

Working as MEP Design Engineer (Team Lead) in a Dubai based company Sujith Eswaran said," after the recent pandemic crisis, most of the earthlings has started to realise how vulnerable we humans are! People are looking a sustainable world and all they need is proper education and guidance. Swapnil Saundarya has already kick started its part and I hope it will do more in the future. Wishing you and your crew a great success in this mission."

Political Science Graduate Shah Jalal Jony living in Saudi Arabia said, "Environmental protection is influenced by three interwoven factors: environmental legislation, ethics and education. Each of these factors plays its part in influencing national-level environmental decisions and personal-level environmental values and behaviors.Education and ethic should be thought from early age by starting at home and kinder gardens. Researcher can play an important factors in legislative part."

It is appropriate to say that the earth is a truly remarkable place, but its environment is something that all too often we take for granted. The natural beauty of seas and forests are beyond compare, and yet we continue to pollute and corrupt them. We depend on our environment for our very existence, while all the while we continue to destroy it for materialistic gain. If humanity wishes to thrive, we need to learn to protect and embrace this planet and not work against it. If we don’t, we run the very real risk of destroying our home, and condemning future generations. We cannot let that happen.

To sum up, we’ve brought together a series of 03 poems on the theme of environmental protection by Abhishek Sharma, a B.Tech Degree holder and content writer by profession hail from Himachal Pradesh..... Abhishek has unique ability to express to communicate with his audience more effectively than anyone else.....

Endearment to the necessity of love 
Possession of scars in the earth
The beauty that confides in the love
The obsession that took off the love
Have you been embracing the sorrows
Have you been fighting for the living that we borrow
Little lamps have been shattered
As if those stars never mattered 
Lost in the light of the shown path
Destroying the love of the planet earth 
Dissolved in the absence
To the beautiful atmosphere's presence 
What you perceive
To the life you conceive 
You have an orderly manner
Live through it by taking care 
Hold the beauty 
As if it's our duty.....
*****


It felt I was like a bird
No existence of the shroud
I was stuck in the cage all of a sudden
The worst breeze ever reached in an abundant
Obsolesce of various bacteria carrying with
As if it was hike in the price from the goldsmith
Nevertheless we were left with scars
As if we’re all sent behind the bars
Not the love I could see
Not the care I could feel
It was a sudden change, not all people could talk
It was a sudden change, not all people could walk
We were so brave dealing alone
Fighting the bacteria, united as if we are one.

******


Anxiety deprived out of the breathe, thy hold on from the trees
It overwhelmed my existence to the solitude of the cold breeze
I wouldn’t have realised your presence
Until you talked about the sourness of your absence 
The click with the flick of your hair
I wasn’t there to console you, just because you thought I wasn’t fair
Thy to these massacre
Thy to the relief I could chase with excess of care
Infinity of the air I could breathe’
Dignity of the soul one can heal
Freezing here as if cold breeze strike my body
Deceived to the anxiety of the severity 
I was tickling her as if I am nobody.

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🦋Swapnil Saundarya 🦋

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About us |

Swapnil Saundarya ezine, founded in 2013 is India's first hindi lifestyle online magazine that curates info on art , lifestyle, culture , literature, social issues etc and inspire its readership to raise their voice against all sorts of violence and discrimination. We focus on art Activism, protest art and participatory communication and social action.

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