Dr Asangba Tzudir
The theme for the World Environment day 2025 is “Ending Plastic Pollution” and through which it aims to strengthen global commitment to this urgent cause and also catalyze collective action for a sustainable future. It is a very pertinent theme considering the menace of pollution caused by plastic. It is a very serious environmental problem which has widespread consequences causing harm to the ecosystem, wildlife and humans in equal measure. Plastic pollution leads to ecosystem degradation, biodiversity loss, water contamination, Soil degradation, harm to wildlife, health issues, and climate change. More so, climate change is indeed real and so alarming that if humans do not act responsibly the world - our home will become unliveable.
Living in an age of technology, obviously, it has brought about various comforts, but it also seems to be making humans more mechanised thereby impacting on human’s ability to think and reason critically, even as screen time interaction increases as an immediate effect. Looking at the generational gaps, it is quite obvious that the Generation Z children are different in many ways from Generation X, and the Millennial Kids, and which is greatly manifested by the way in which different value systems are built based on their perception.
As such, there is detachment and attachment happening within the changing value systems. And so with every passing generation, the moral side of human beings also seems to be losing its value, and which can also be attributed to the changing nature of perception often triggered by the changing times. But no matter how technology emerges, the fact that we are human beings raises a very fundamental question – What does it mean to be a human? To be a human being means to create meanings by engaging in meaningful pursuits and which calls for any individual to be responsible. To be responsible also requires a sense of awareness and which is also conditioned by one’s perception, that, there is need for broadening one’s lens of perception based on how the global world and conditions are evolving and changing.
A message to the young people is that there is more to life than technology. One may get so caught up in the technological world that the technological world not only mechanizes the mind and changes the lens of perception but also have an enslaving effect. The technological space and time can also make one more arrogant, and this will only make it more difficult for young minds to connect with the world, the world of the living. It is only when a connection is made with the world of the living that one will also understand the idea of belongingness. This idea needs to be really injected into the senses which in turn will act as catalyst to help understand the need to be responsible towards the environment and the world at large.
With this understanding, it should also enable one to change the lens of perception where, as one is emotionally connected with one’s home, the same emotions and feelings needs to be connected with the world outside one’s home. There is also a need for the mind to decolonize in order to create a change on the lens of perception which somehow finds ‘normalised.’ This also requires an attitudinal shift where one also begins to see the world as an extension of one’s home, that ‘the world is our home’ and within which one can develop a model of anthropocentrism that is directed towards responsible acts. A dirty home is not only ‘unhygienic’ but also disturbing enough, the same is for the space beyond one’s home but sadly we generally do not feel disturbed to see places littered by garbage. Within this spirit one needs to be very mindful about one’s action. Even a small plastic wrapper adds to the pollution and the effects it has on our planet Earth.
This message comes especially for the young people to own the world responsibly with a sense of belongingness and in tune with this year’s theme for World Environment day - “Ending Plastic Pollution”, it is time to make a sincere pledge upon oneself to ‘beat plastic pollution’ towards safeguarding our environment, our home, our planet Earth. This is a call for our own livelihood, for health and well-being.
(Dr Asangba Tzudir writes a weekly guest editorial for The Morung Express. Comments can be mailed to asangtz@gmail.com)
