A Greta Thunberg I may not be but that does not deter me from voicing out the big concerns looming over us currently.
I went to bed with a heavy heart yesterday night after reading the UN warnings - the red alert on the impending weather extremes and climate change disasters as a result of Global warming.
I should be unquestionably blamed. My previous generations' and my thoughtless actions (pollution, industrial emissions, deforestation, etc) have messed up the situation for future generations to come. I have deep remorse for what I have done and was rueful thinking about the legacy I am leaving for my children, their children, and grandchildren.
All this heavily wrapped up in my heart, I went for a walk around the nearby football playground while the son practiced his game. The motto of the walk was some serenity and peace in the lush green football field. Instead, I was actually triggered!! Triggered at the sight of the litter. Glass bottles, chips packets, straws, and what not were strewn all over the field. Perhaps the culprits were the teenagers/young adults who would have played there the previous night.
This playground is unsupervised so obviously, it does not have security unlike other general parks in the city which are clean and well maintained.
Eventually, two garbage pickers showed up in their pick-up vans and cleared up the whole mess. The Government of Dubai works round the clock to provide its citizens with a clean and organized city. But what are these citizens implying? Where is their civic sense?.
That's when it dawned on me that apart from messing up on industrial emissions and deforestation we have probably not taught our millennials basic civic sense. In our overbearing hurry in making money and acquiring a life of convenience, we have taught them that there will be someone picking up behind you. Be it in the form of hired help or supportive grandparents.
Greta Thunberg's "Fridays for future" movement of school students demonstrating and demanding action from the world leaders is surely a great step.
While the world leaders, Greta, and many social environment activists work on the bigger picture we can at least sensitize our children to the environmental needs and make them more conscious and responsible citizens in their homes and more so outside their homes.
