Essay on "The greatest threat to our Planet is the belief that someone else will save it."
Answers
I believe one should understand the quote first to make it more relevant to comprehend. What does this quote ‘The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it….’mean? And who has written it?
We come across many things in our life that we know, either should not be there or should not happen. What do we do about it? How many of us are passionate about our drives to make a difference in our quality of life and also those of others? This is only in reference to our immediate surroundings. What about affairs on a national or global level?
Unless we care enough about our quality of life in relation to our immediate surroundings and take small efforts to make some difference for improvement, we could not develop to think on a larger scope and scale. Isn’t it true that it is easier to sense and talk than act? We always wait for somebody else take that first step of initiative! Right?
The quote means exactly that. The greatest threat is that we all wait for someone else to take that first step, let alone go all the way to save it!
This quote is the exclusive of Robert Swan, a great human being, and an ardent communicator. He has reached across the globe to drive home his point through this apt quote. He not only stops at just a quote, he takes initiative to make people realise and sense the meaning of his quote by giving them a glimpse of the same experience he had gone through, to make an impact.
Robert swan is a nature lover who tested his physical and mental prowess to its extremes in the world’s most hostile environments, by his walk to both South and North poles. He is one of the first ones to do it too and he had done it by the age of 33. Antarctica’s profound beauty had such an impact on him that he felt it should avoid the same fate as northern pole, the Arctic , which has been exploited and which is still being fought over for its natural resources.
Here is an interesting account. While on his exploration of the Atlantic, Swan observed that the natural colour of his blue eyes had turned to light grey. He eventually discovered that this was due to the hole in the ozone layer that lies above the continent. Swan also made a promise to the frozen continent that if she protected him and his team and let them live and return safely, he would repay her in some way. He still carries the weight of his promise on his shoulders and he is doing his best to keep that promise too. This oath is also reflected in the name of the company he floated – 2041. That year is significant as the international peace treaty that protects Antarctica from all exploitations like mining and drilling rights, comes up for review in 2041.
The Madrid protocol was signed by 46 countries in 1959, to declare that Antarctica was too important and too huge to belong to any single nation and to dedicate the region to peace, scientific research and cooperation at international level. As Swan had mentioned we should have the common sense to leave at least one part of the world alone, that is Antarctica. But the current situation in the world which is hungry for more and more energy and is looking for fresh resources for the same, Antarctica is in serious threat of exploitation.
Swan feels that though 2041 was set as a goal, we do not have that long a time with Arctic deteriorating, so we need to act now. The question that comes up is what next? We need to come up with sustainable solution to our problem for a better and brighter future.
Swan has been appointed special envoy for youth for United Nations and he uses this platform to collect support to protect Antarctica. He also arranges annual expeditions to the continent to drive home the point of preservation and to make the leaders of tomorrow realise the significance and also about the perils of the future. The torch of the generations is passed this way only. One generation leads the other to a greater task and the fire of youth and their idealism ignites the necessary heat to get the job done.
Though the common man finds himself removed from the original context of the quote, it still applies to him. On a very basic level, it has commonly been seen that the general public is not very supportive of any campaigns that promise reform and improvement. For instance, despite being aware of the government’s emphasis on the Swach Bharat Abhiyan, the average person continues to throw out empty packets of chips from the car. The concept of being a responsible citizen of the nation is missing simply because the belief that someone else will clean up the litter is ingrained in his psyche. To him, his convenience is of utmost importance. There are others to worry about the environment. With the multitude thinking this way, the challenge of saving the environment assumes enormous proportions.
A little awareness about civic duties of citizens can help avert such a threat, wherein the onus of taking action is continuously being shifted to a smaller and smaller group of conscientious people, who in turn need the support of the masses, but get none. Change has to come at the grass root level, irrespective of what the issue at hand is. It can be a crusade against corruption and dictatorship or a fight for equality and world peace. Each positive movement affects the common man directly or indirectly, but it is for the people to realise the importance of the issues and to contribute towards making the world a better place, one person at a time.
Leo Tolstoy’s words put everything into perspective, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself”, which is the crux of Swan’s worries.
