Our beloved mother earth

By Klaus Döring

“Beloved motherland” is a deep and powerful phrase that means a cherished, deeply loved country where a person was born or feels a profound sense of belonging.

It compares the love for one’s country to the unconditional love a person has for a mother. It connects individuals to their history, culture, family roots and traditions. It inspires a strong sense of duty, pride and willingness to protect and serve the homeland.

Writers and poets across many cultures use the term to express loyalty, longing or sorrow for their native lands during times of struggle. The poem “Mother Earth” is a beautiful description of Earth as a mother of everything, including all the objects in the world as well as human beings. The main idea of the poem is the love of nature and the role of Earth as part of nature’s beauty.

Our Mother Earth is currently facing a lot of environmental concerns. Environmental problems like global warming, acid rain, air pollution, urban sprawl, waste disposal, ozone layer depletion, water pollution, climate change and many more affect every human, animal and nation on this planet.

Our environment provides a wide range of benefits, such as the air we breathe, the food we eat and the water we drink, as well as the many materials needed in our homes, at work and for leisure activities.

Healthy ecosystems clean our water, purify our air, maintain our soil, regulate the climate, recycle nutrients and provide us with food. They provide raw materials and resources for medicines and other purposes. They are at the foundation of all civilization and sustain our economies.

The environment gives us countless benefits that we cannot repay in our entire lives. These are connected with forests, trees, animals, water and air. Forests and trees filter the air and absorb harmful gases. Plants purify water, reduce the chances of flooding, maintain the natural balance and provide many other benefits.

We hear about threats to the environment every day. Whether it’s the ravages of climate change, deforestation or pollution, apocalyptic-sounding events fill the news cycle. It can be overwhelming and challenging to discern what exactly it all means. The environment — which includes everything from the oceans to the forests — impacts every area of life. Here are 10 reasons why that’s important:

If you work in an office setting, you may not think about how the environment affects people’s lives and jobs. However, billions of people depend on the environment. Take forests, for example. Over 1.5 billion people rely on forests for food, shelter, medicine and more. If crops fail, many turn to the woods. Two billion people, or almost 27% of the world’s population, earn their living from agriculture. Another 3 billion people depend on the ocean.

Caring for the environment could create millions of new jobs and help reduce poverty. In a report from the International Labour Organization, shifting to greener economies could create 24 million new jobs by 2030. Many fear that switching to green energy and more sustainable practices would cause more people to fall into poverty, but if green jobs take the place of old jobs, it does the opposite.

The loss of biodiversity has many negative consequences, but weakened food security is a big one. As the world loses animal and plant species, the ones that remain are more vulnerable to disease and pests. Our diets get less healthy as well, which increases the risk of diet-related illnesses like heart disease and diabetes. Protecting environments like forests and oceans ensures there is food for every living thing.

Polluted air is a major issue in our world. Nine in 10 people breathe unclean air, which impacts their health and lifespans. Health effects include developmental delays, behavioral problems and diseases like Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s. Every year, polluted air contributes to the deaths of 7 million people. Trees are especially effective filters. They remove air pollutants like nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide and sulfur dioxide while releasing oxygen.

Environmental factors account for many infant and childhood deaths every year. Issues include a lack of access to clean water and clean air. Waterborne diseases alone kill about 1.4 million children each year. To save the lives of children, healthy environments and basic rights like clean air and water are necessary.

The vast majority of medicines have origins in the natural world. As an example, chemicals from the Pacific yew tree led to the creation of two chemotherapy drugs. Scientists and pharmaceutical companies constantly look to the environment for new and better medicines. Unfortunately, about 15,000 medicinal plant species face extinction, so if they disappear, humans could miss out on potentially life-saving drugs.

Mental health is complex. It is the result of factors such as genetics, lifestyle, relationships and the environment. Researchers have studied the effects of nature and green spaces on mental health for years. Many studies show a significant benefit. In a 2019 review in Current Directions in Psychological Science, researchers found that green spaces near schools encourage cognitive development and better self-control in children. Another review from Science Advances found that nature is associated with greater happiness, well-being and a sense of purpose.

Humans drive climate change. In the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report, the authors determined that the last decade was the hottest in human history and that we can now link specific weather events to human-made climate change. Climate change’s effect on the environment is hard to overstate. Diseases, droughts, severe weather events and more threaten plants, animals and humans. If fossil fuel emissions are not reduced immediately, the environment will become uninhabitable.

It is challenging not to feel hopeless in the face of environmental disasters and climate change. However, we cannot afford to be hopeless, and there are many solutions we still have time to implement. Protecting plant and animal species, conserving healthy green spaces and reducing emissions will make a difference. Humans can save the planet for future generations by caring for the environment.

We are all thankful to our Mother, the Earth, for she gives us all that we need for life. She supports our feet as we walk upon her. It gives us joy that she continues to care for us as she has from the beginning of time. To our Mother, we send greetings and thanks. But how long?

What is your contribution to keeping Mother Earth alive?

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