A discussion on Planetary Health and Reimagining Sustainable Lifestyle post COVID19.

April 22 is observed as Earth Day. The theme for Earth Day 2020 is Climate Action. While the coronavirus (COVID-19) has been spreading around the world and dominating news headlines, thoughts, and attention, the need to take climate action has remained as urgent as ever. Earth day 2020 is not just the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day, but also the anniversary of the signing of the Paris Agreement to take climate action. An occasion planned to bring people physically together across a series of events, COVID-19 has now prompted a dramatic shift to completely digital and virtual platforms. To observe the earth day, Climate Desk (ECOSIDE) Caritas India (CI), in partnership with Earth Day Network (EDN), organized the first-ever webinar on ‘Earth Needs Our Care’- a discussion on planetary health and reimagining sustainable lifestyle post COVID19.

The webinar started with a short prayer to the Almighty, to bless the humanity and free everyone from diseases and disorders, and to grant us wisdom so that people realize their individual responsibility to take care of mother earth. Reverent Father Paul, Executive director of Caritas India welcomed all the participants with a very motivating address. In the words of Father Paul: “There is a very strong linkage of culture to nature and subsequently nature speaks of our future, there is a beautiful connect between culture, nature and future. In the context of COVID19, this earth day is a wakeup call for humanity to build a new culture for a better future.” Father Jolly threw light on the history of Earth Day and how it has become the world’s largest environment movement as we celebrate the 50^th anniversary of Earth Day. He expressed that in the wake of global pandemic, there are indeed enormous challenges, but there are vast opportunities for concerted and concrete action on environment protection and climate change. Ms. Nishu Kaul, Director, India and South East Asia, EDN, highlighted talked about the successful campaigns like #treesforearth, #artistsforearth, #PlasticFreedomChallenge, #gogreen, climate strikes, etc. that have taken place under the CI-EDN partnership banner. She played dharti maa song, a multilingual song, sung by eight renowned musicians to pay tribute to mother earth.

A panel of four distinguished speakers joined the webinar for panel discussion. Dr. Haridas, manager, Climate Desk Caritas India, spoke on “Earth Needs Our Care” and discussed the challenges and solutions for a sustainable life while talking about renewable resources, energy-saving measures, sustainable farming practices, plastic burning and planting more trees. The next speaker, Mr. Rishabh Mittal, one of the co-founders of Indian Youth Climate Network(IYCN) and Chief Impact Officer at Earthbanc, spoke on “Planetary Health and Food Security. The third speaker, Dr. Jayashree Venkatesh spoke on “Life cycle an importance of recognizing ecosystem processes for sustainable future.” The fourth speaker, Mr. Kaushik Doberah, PhD scholar, Ecology and Environmental Science dept, Pondicherry University, threw light on “Reimagining lifestyle in the post COVID19”

Ms. Ruth Mukhia, a 16 years old child participant from Earth Day Programmes in Darjeeling, participated in the video conference and shared some insights on 90 days challenge, and the role that children and youth can play in shaping the climate change regime. She pledged to shift to a plastic-free lifestyle.

The webinar was moderated by Mr. Rajesh Upadhyaya, H.O.D. Partners Support Services, Caritas India. Towards the end of the webinar, there was a short question/answers round, where participants asked a few questions around the discussions and made a few suggestions to the climate action trouble that we are in right now. The webinar saw the astounding participation of 97 people from across the various states in the country.

The dynamic discussions lead us to an understanding that it is high time that we re-set the lost equation among the living beings and bring the diseased earth back to its state of harmony and peace. If there was ever a time in which humanity should finally recognize that we belong to one connected family on Earth, this should be it. We share a single planet, drink from the same water, and breathe the same air. When COVID-19 is finally behind us, instead of returning to normal life, we must hold on to these lessons in the fight against climate change.