An Ode to Environmental Restoration
Human Beings since the onset of the Industrial Revolution have been obtuse,
The contemporary generation now finds the effects of global warming abstruse.
The pernicious effects of climate change are no longer covert,
Floods, droughts, and forest fires have now become rampant and overt.
The indiscriminate chopping of trees, which we would all agree,
Has pared the earth’s carbon sinks to a substantial degree.
It is high time that the words of the environmentalists are heard,
Or our next generations might not hear the chirp of a single bird.
Ingenious feeds need to be dished out to the cow,
Or methane may melt our glaciers now.
The global community needs to strive to make our earth affluent
And obliterate every single effluent.
We need to pay heed to Solar, Wind, and Hydrogen,
This will weed out pernicious pollutants and save every denizen.
Batteries and Hydrogen should power the car and ferry,
This will help the world make merry.
Villagers need to stave off cow dung, coal, and wooden stoves,
And replace them with electric ones to avoid woes.
Every individual needs to join the energy revolution by becoming prosumers,
The earth does not want mere consumers.
People should aspire for clean rivers and streams,
Waste sequestration technologies would surely help us to achieve our dreams.
Let us keep every element of our atmosphere clean,
Not a single respiratory ailment is to be seen.
Industrious efforts should be made towards coral accretion,
This would extirpate the ocean’s cruel attrition.
We should no longer procrastinate or digress,
Or else cataclysmic pandemics like COVID 19 would undoubtedly continue their ingress.
Chlorofluorocarbons have widened the ozone hole to trigger an apocalypse,
Using innocuous refrigerants could help us correct our lapse.
Arid nations should engender a green wall,
Desertification would be averted by this novel overhaul.
Assiduous efforts need to be exerted at all levels to prevent environmental vagaries,
Otherwise, we may soon end up in mortuaries.
Every cohort needs to exhibit sagacity,
Or our next generations would never absolve us for our audacity.
Each and every individual needs to indulge in environmental restoration with heart and soul,
This would prove to be a vital stepping stone towards achieving UN-aligned’s goal.
About Partho Pratim Chatterjee
Partho Pratim Chatterjee is a prize-winning engineer working with Aditya Bioinnovation Private Limited, Nagpur, India in the capacity of Co-Founder and Technical Advisor.
This poem was submitted during the 2021 UN-aligned poetry competition.
