The world is becoming a small place, literally. With the advent of transportation and communication, no one and nowhere is faraway. But recently, this has started giving me some chills on my spine.
https://twitter.com/SanctuaryAsia/status/994511633883058176
I saw these tweets on my feed. It made me realize how bad we really are doing. As I was wondering, I had a very unpleasant realization. That could have been because of me. I might be the reason why a wolf had its head stuck in a plastic jar, a stork was trapped with plastic ring and another in a plastic bag.
Recently, I have been very conscious on reducing my usage of plastic. Refusing plastic straws, buying plastics that I am sure will be recycled and making sure they are recycled, reducing my use of it altogether, and so on. However, I never really thought about the consequences of using plastics earlier in my life. So, all these troubles could have been my fault. That plastic bag I threw after a single use. It might have been blown away. It takes hundreds of years for plastic to degrade. Who knows if that really was the plastic I used and threw carelessly in my ignorance.
Bagmati might have washed the plastic ring and the jar after I was done with them to the plains of India. Curious and hungry, the wolf might have looked at the jar with interest. The stork might have thought it was food. All because of me.
I am not sure if it was me. I am not sure if it was you. But I am pretty sure it was us. We are not living upto our standard. Labelling ourself the smartest is not just good enough. We should prove it. Yes, we landed on the mooon and have sent spaceships to the Mars. But does it really make a difference if we ruin this planet? Is a minutes worth of comfort really worth destroying the planet? Think about it. Not using the straw can save thousands of marine life. Refusing the plastic bag can be the difference between life and death for a stork. Recycling your plastic jar might save a wolf from brutal inhumane slow death. Think about it. Just think about it.
Don’t give me your logic of “If I refuse it, another will use it. It won’t make any difference.” because deep down you know it makes a difference. We make the difference.
Note: the ring was removed and the stork was saved. https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/the-stork-has-delivered-a-message-save-the-wetlands/312538