Around the world, Earth Day is celebrated on April 22 to demonstrate support for environmental protection. As the world celebrates Earth Day today to mark the support for environmental protection across the globe, leaders from across the world on Wednesday came out to reiterate their commitment to work towards the well-being of planet Earth.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday reiterated his commitment to work towards a cleaner, healthier and more prosperous planet. "On International Day of Mother Earth, we all express gratitude to our planet for the abundance of care & compassion. Let us pledge to work towards a cleaner, healthier & more prosperous planet. A shout out to all those working at the forefront to defeat COVID-19," PM Modi said.
Vice President of India Venkaiah Naidu said, "On World Earth Day, let us all renew our commitment to shaping our collective future on this planet by preserving and replenishing earth's valuable resources."
Taking to Twitter, Minister of Environment Prakash Javadekar wrote: "Mahatma Gandhi said, "The world has enough for everyone's need, but not greed". PM @narendramodi brought "lifestyle" issue into the #ClimateChange discourse. On #EarthDay today let us pledge to shed greed and adopt a sustainable lifestyle."
Other ministers and politicians too joined in to spread awareness on World Earth Day. Railway Minister Piyush Goyal said, "Since ancient times, we Indians have lived in peace and harmony with nature. This #EarthDay, while we unite against COVID-19, let us also pledge to nurture our Mother Earth for a better & healthier tomorrow."
Jaggi Vasudev, popularly known as Sadhguru, said that "Mother Earth is so generous and effervescent. If only we give her the chance, she will restore everything in absolute abundance and beauty."
Parveen Kaswan of the Indian Forest Service asked people to raise awareness about the deteriorating situation of Earth. "Today is #EarthDay. Today think; It was the hottest decade on the record, Oceans are at the highest recorded #temperatures, Sea is 26% more acidic than pre-industrial era, It touched 417 PPM CO2 for the first time, Antarctica saw record-low ice several times last year, We are in a pandemic."
On World Earth Day, UN Development took to Twitter and said, "Every breath of air we take, every mouthful of food we eat, depends upon a healthy natural world. As humanity faces the global #COVID19 pandemic, Sir. David Attenborough's appeal for nature is more relevant than ever on the 50th anniversary of Earth Day."
As people have to stay inside their homes amid COVID-19 lockdown, World Earth Day 2020 is all set to be celebrated digitally. Celebrated since 1970 on this day, people hope to underline the harsh fact that the unprecedented global destruction and rapid reduction of plant and wildlife populations are directly linked to causes driven by human activity such as climate change, deforestation, habitat loss, trafficking and poaching, unsustainable agriculture, pollution, and pesticides to name a few.
