Tuesday, March 5, 2024
Year : 2, Issue : 10
by Salman J. Choudhury
Droplets of sweat dripped down our bodies as we went along our way on a scorching hot day in New York. It felt like the sun had gotten angrier at us as the years passed, with Mother Earth watching with disdain. Water is scarcer around our land, and glaciers have melted due to warmer temperatures, causing sea levels to rise, but Mother Earth won’t raise a finger to help; why? As of record, 2023 was the peak of the hottest year ever recorded since anything we have witnessed since the 1980s.
Our own hands are ripping apart our earth, and there’s only so much we can do to sew it back together. Hearing stories around the world about the effects of climate change and how devastated people are makes me wonder how long we, the ones lucky enough to have a healthy, sustainable life, will feel these effects in years to come. Little me back in my hometown wasn’t so lucky.
Air pollution is so thick that it clogs up my lungs, blurs my eyes, and tricks my brain into inhaling the fresh smell of air surrounded by trees. Instead, it’s the car emissions spreading in the air. Walking to school through various neighborhoods felt repulsive, yet people around me seemed to be in Wonderland. Seeing how far my eye stretches and seeing filth everywhere saddens me. I feel that we, people from our generation, have turned a blind eye to these matters, especially kids younger than me who see the streets of our neighborhood as their home, Spilling trash everywhere without a single care. Parents play a massive role in their kids’s lives and should encourage them and promote self-responsibility and cleanliness. Teaching them basic morals and principles would take them further in life than most people in today’s world, who are incapable of doing the simplest things. To end this small story, I believe parents should encourage their kids to adopt such practices to keep our community clean because they are what this community in the future will become.
Author: Executive Editor, The Generation