It was the 22nd of April and a beautiful sunny day. Ali woke up early and was very excited about school. So he put his drawing sheet in his bag, all painted blue and green, portraying a happy face of the earth. In beautiful cursive writing, he had mentioned, “Happy Earth Day”. As soon as he reached school, he met Ayesha, his classmate and friend, and greeted her. Out of curiosity, he immediately asked her: “Hey Ayesha, did you make a poster on Earth day?” Ayesha blushed and smiled and excitedly showed Ali her poster. Ali praised her work. There was a happy earth with a thumbs up and big black shining eyes on the paper. Similarly, Ali showed her his poster, and they both discussed and appreciated each other’s art while walking towards the school auditorium. When they reached there, they were surprised to see different posters displayed there. They took a whole round of the auditorium and were stunned as the posters representing earth were totally different from what they had portrayed. They saw posters showing the earth burdened with a heavy load of factory smoke with a burning earth. Worried, they looked at each other, and Ali asked: “Why is the Earth melting? What happened to it?” “Ali, I have no idea. Let’s go to class and ask Miss Sajal. She will definitely help us understand this.”, replied Ayesha.
Leaving the auditorium, they entered the computer lab, where Miss Sajal had the very first lecture with them. She entered the room and greeted the class. Then she asked the students if they had got a chance to visit the auditorium. The students shared their concerns with the teacher, and so did Ali and Ayesha. All of them wanted to know the reasons behind the deteriorating condition of the earth. After listening to their queries, Miss Sajal responded: “Our earth is deteriorating because of Global warming – a process due to which the average temperature is increasing. This causes the glaciers to melt, ocean levels to rise, animals to migrate, etc. Global warming has also put several animal species on the verge of extinction. Moreover, extreme weather would also fuel powerful hurricanes and flooding. All this is happening because of human activities like deforestation, pollution, and overuse of coal, oil, and gas. However, we can help the earth recover by conserving energy, driving less, planting more trees, and opting for eco-friendly options. Now, let’s figure out how we as individuals are affecting our climate and then come up with a solution to overcome this problem.”
Miss Sajal provided the students with this link https://www.footprintcalculator.org and asked them to click on it and take a quiz. Ali and Ayesha, along with the whole class, checked out their carbon footprints, and everyone showed their reactions by clicking the emojis. Later, Miss Sajal asked them to locate the position of their community and propose a solution to reduce the rising temperature and, eventually, the impact of Global warming. Once they were done with it, she asked a few of them to share their proposals with the rest of the class.
In the end, Miss Sajal appreciated the students’ viewpoints, and the rest of the class applauded them. She then asked the students to share the link with their friends and family, help them figure out their carbon footprints, and devise solutions to resolve the burning issue. With this, the bell rang; the students thanked their teacher, and everybody got up to go back home – with new energy to right the wrongs.
