An Eye-opener

I have spent my whole childhood listening to my teachers yell, “Save the planet!” “Plant a tree!”  “Save Electricity!” “Do not pollute the environment, kids or our future will be doomed.”

My answer to each of these sentences was a lazy, careless yawn.

I never bothered and never thought it was even important to think about it. Why should I plant a tree? There are so many around here, was my train of thought. And indeed, my school was full of lush greenery. My naive mind thought that was enough. I used to think the teacher was stupid to be wasting her time and ours teaching us that we should plant trees and nurture them.

I can bet most of you are having a déjà vu here.

Right, agreed we were senseless kids back then but what about now? Haven’t we grown up? Don’t we clearly know what our teacher actually meant when she said that “our future will be doomed”? Give it a thought now, isn’t your conscience pricking you on the insides?

For our childhood we had a great excuse that we were “young and crude” back then. I ask the same question again, what about now? What excuse are you going to spew for the lack of responsibility you are showing as an adult and as a human being? You see a hundred year old tree being chopped down ruthlessly in your society and you do nothing except give the fallen giant one look and then walk away. Is speaking so difficult? Is at least trying to stop such meaningless acts so much for you?

Okay, keep your mouth shut but at least, plant a seedling in your backyard? No? Some of you may come up with the excuse of not having time because of a busy work schedule. Well, tell me this: How long does it take to plant a seedling? Not more than 5 minutes. Are you telling me you can’t spare 5 minutes of your precious television time or lazy time on the couch to do good for the environment to whom you owe your very existence?

Wake up. It is high time.