We are delighted to share a blog written by student Aahana Shroff from D Y Patil International School, Mumbai, India, who is part of a team delivering a Global Goals project for the 2019-20 Global Goals Competition.
Their project is among over 957 social action projects currently running as part of the GSL movement and we are excited to be supporting them to design and lead positive social change in their community.
The Earth provides for everyone’s needs, not everyone’s greed.
Project Overview
This world is really disrupted due to humans. Animal’s habitats are getting damaged and trees are getting cut. People would go for walks and jogs in polluted air as there was no option, however since there has been a worldwide lockdown due to the Corona Virus people cannot get out of their houses when the air is actually fresh.
We are destroying this ecosystem by killing animals and their habitat, and we are also cutting trees. When you look at a habitat of a particular type you think about how it all works together and how they adapt to their environment but if we take that away, then where would the animals live?
Our Journey
We learnt about a new plant called micro-greens, its nutritional value and also learnt how to grow them. To grow plants, you need a lot of love, care, patience, and most importantly you need to have fun while growing your plant.
For Phase-1, we decided to give these micro-greens to others, however we grew them ourselves and were successful in doing the same before handing them out. Once we handed over the kits prepared by us for the micro-greens, it worked perfect for the people who managed to grow their own micro-greens with our assistance and their passion. It was a proud moment for us to see people actually grow it and use it in their daily meals.
For Phase-2 we did the same but instead of micro-greens we did it with vegetables.
The impact of our project was to spread awareness on urban gardening and encourage to use these plants in their daily meals in some form or the other.
The outcome was great as many people had shown interest in growing plants and also, they ate fresh food from their house so our main goal was successful.
- Forests cover about 30.7% of the Earths surface.
- Every year 13 million hectares of forest are being lost, which is between 3.5 billion – 7 billion trees every year.
- 3.6 billion hectares of dryland has continuously degraded causing desertification (which means fertile land becomes dry due to drought or cutting of trees).
- Research says human are approximately 0.1% of all life but have destroyed 83% of wild mammals and half of the plants on our planet. Inspite of being a drop in the sea, humans dominate our planet and are extremely efficient in exploiting the natural resources.
- Forest covers 30% of the land and host 80% of life on land. The damage done by humans due to deforestation, urbanisation, emission of carbon etc will bring in tsunami of problems, Corona virus is a very recent one, we all know how difficult it is for the humans (who thought they dominate the world) to control its spread and cure it.
The Next Chapter
We are trying to find solution to this problem in research labs, pharmaceutical companies, where the best of the human brains are working on it. It is for us humans to understand that we can get the solution to our problems from our own natural world.
The world will continue its beautiful life. It is we humans who have put ourselves in a cage and cannot get the essential oxygen that we have depleted due to our selfish desires.
Posting some of the videos from India where humans are lockdown and animals and birds are walking freely on the roads.
It is so amazing, rhinos and elephants in Asia and Africa and Tapir in Brazil are natural Foresters, they swallow the seeds of trees and spread them across many miles in their dung. They support another life called plants and trees. Plants and trees support humans by supplying oxygen.
As the future leaders and decision makers of our world, We green girls believe, we must be empowered to make a positive and lasting difference to ensure a sustainable and healthy future of our planet. One of the cheapest and the best way is through restoration of living systems, by protecting and restoring natural forest and by planting plants and trees to repopulate deforested land.
In conclusion our main goal was successful and the earth is slowly becoming better and healthier, so we need to make up for trees that have been cut by planting more trees. Also growing a plant is not that difficult and you require quite less space but if you are not sure if you want to grow a plant then we have micro-greens. If you want to grow a plant then follow us on Instagram grow fresh_eat fresh.
Your continued support, in making this world, a better place would highly be appreciated. Hope by now everyone must have started thinking of different ways to support” life on land” by listing the Essential Survival Strategy (ESS).
We have begun our journey by implementing and encouraging Urban Plantation
What’s yours?
The 2019-20 GSL Global Goals Competition is now open and runs until June 2020. If you belong to one of the 700+ teams of students currently delivering a social action project as part of the competition we would love to hear from you and feature your blog and project photos on our website to inspire others.
