Climate action is something that the world needs right now and activists and organisations world over are doing their bit in different ways this 'Earth Day'. Ruehie Karri ust like Mothers' Day or Teachers' Day, Earth also gets her own day where she is made to feel special. Several activities are organised, start-ups and other environmental organisations devise new methods of conserving our everdegrading environment and many hashtags start trending on the internet. Just as celebrating our moms and dads on one particular day rather than every single day is a pretentious effort, so is trying to protect our Earth on a single day. The world prepares to celebrate 50 years of Earth Day, this April 22, and this day should be focussed on assessing how much has been achieved the past year in terms of environmental protection. How much more needs to be done as it's an endless process, and the destruction of the ecosystem has been relentless. It is no joke how pressing the ginormous challenge of acting on climate change has become. When U.S. Senator decided to force environmental awareness onto the national politi-
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Environment & people
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April 2020
cal agenda! Gaylord Nelson is the founder of Earth Day, which was founded in 1970. When the ravages of a massive oil spill in Santa Barbara, California in the year 1969, painted an alarming picture of the consequences to come, Nelson decided to give a voice to these environmental concerns, thereby channelling the energies of the anti-war movement towards this cause. And, 50 years later, this movement is still going strong, spreading awareness and demonstrating support for all things environmentrelated. This year, the theme to commemorate this day is 'Climate Action'. Earth Day in India India is the 14th most climate change affected country in the world, according to the Global Climate Risk Index released by Germanwatch. Economic losses to the tune of Rs 2.7 lakh crores due to climate change were recorded by this report. This is the second-highest record in the world. All these statistics and reports cement the
