World Environment Day is round the corner. Offices will hang green banners. Children will march with placards. Social media will turn leafy and hopeful with hashtags like #OnlyOneEarth and #BeatPlasticPollution. For a day, it’ll feel like the whole world is rooting for the planet.
But once the noise settles and the hash tags fade, I always find myself asking, whether any of it will actually change how we live?
It’s a question that came to me in a rather unexpected moment. The AC in my bedroom gave up last week. No warning, no noise, just silence. One moment, I was sleeping peacefully in a cool room. The next, I was sweating and tossing in bed like a fish out of water. When the mechanic finally came, he glanced at the unit and said with a tired smile, “Madam, the air vents are completely clogged!
I stood there, mildly embarrassed. Turns out, the dust had been building up for months. Quietly. Slowly. Until one day, the machine just couldn’t take it anymore.
A few days later, while flipping through the newspaper, I saw the headlines. Mumbai flooded. Bengaluru underwater. Glaciers in Nepal melting faster than ever. Heatwaves gripping North India.
And just like that, it hit me. Isn’t the Earth going through the same thing as the AC?
Worth pondering!
We Can’t Filter Plastic Out of Nature
Back to the AC for a moment. The mechanic explained how the unit’s filters were never designed to handle constant, fine dust from the construction site next door. They were overwhelmed. Just like Earth’s ecosystems are overwhelmed by plastic. And, just like that overheated room, we’re feeling the heat, literally. Heatwaves in India are becoming unbearable. Cities are running out of groundwater. Forests are disappearing. We see frequent flooding all around.
Here’s what the numbers say:
- 11 million tonnes of plastic enter our oceans each year.
- Microplastics have been found in human blood, lungs, and even placentas.
- Plastic pollution costs the world $19 billion in environmental and economic damage annually.
We’ve filled the Earth’s vents with trash. And still, we expect it to keep us in ambient environment. We think a social media post on World Environment Day is enough.
Most of us will scroll past, maybe post a selfie with a plant, and go back to our usual routines, plastic bottles, stuffed bins, overflowing tanks, long showers, and forgotten switches. It’s not that we don’t care. It’s just that we forget. Until something breaks.
Plastic Makes the Water Crisis in India Worse
In India, 600 million people face high water stress, and more than 70% of surface water is contaminated, often with industrial plastic waste and packaging. Plastic clogs drains, pollutes rivers, and worsens flooding in cities like Mumbai and Chennai. This water contamination not just affects the marine life, but also the coastal residents of the vicinity. We are making the fresh water resources unusable for ourselves!
Another government report says that 21 cities including Delhi, Bengaluru, and Chennai may run out of groundwater by 2030. Meanwhile, over 600 million Indians face high to extreme water stress. Still, I see tanks overflowing every day, and people washing cars with running hoses. Clean water being wasted like it’s endless.
This isn’t just an environmental issue. It is for our survival. Which is why World Water Day and World Environment Day go hand in hand. Because you can’t talk about saving the planet without talking about saving water.
What is the real fix? Like the AC, it starts with a good clean-up, and regular checks to stop pollution. I guess this is why we need days like World Environment Day to remind us that we need to take care of the only planet with environment suitable for life.
About World Environment Day
Since 1973, June 5 has been a global moment of pause and purpose. We celebrate the day as World Environment Day. Initiated by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), it brings together governments, industries, students, and everyday people to reflect on the state of our environment and, more importantly, take action. Every year, a new theme takes center stage, shining a spotlight on one urgent environmental concern.
World Environment Day 2025 theme, “Ending Plastic Pollution”, couldn’t be more urgent. The planet is choking, like that AC unit. According to UNEP, the world produces over 430 million tonnes of plastic every year, two-thirds of which becomes waste within weeks. And only 9% of that is recycled. We’ve packed our oceans with plastic bottles, clogged rivers with wrappers, and buried ecosystems under microplastics we can’t even see.
So, this is not just about hashtags. This is a service alert, for the only planet we have.
Do World Environment Day Activities Actually Help?
Don’t overthink it. Do something small but do it often. The planet doesn’t need perfection. It needs persistence. You don’t need to join a UN summit to make a difference. Nor can the hashtags clean the filters! You just need to open your kitchen drawer. Look around your home, workplace, daily lifestyle and switch to earth friendly habits.
Switch to sustainable living
- Use energy-efficient appliances.
- Choose public transport, cycling, or carpooling.
- Buy local and seasonal produce.
Tackle plastic pollution
- Carry your own bags, bottles, and containers.
- Avoid microplastics in cosmetics.
- Reuse before you recycle.
Save water
- Fix the leaky tap and reduce shower time.
- Install water level controllers.
- Go for rainwater harvesting.
Cut down digital clutter
- Unsubscribe from emails you never read.
- Store data efficiently to reduce cloud storage energy.
Not all actions are equal. So, what should your World Environment Day activities look like this year? Here’s what helps more than a hashtag:
- Advocate for reuse, refill, recycle.
- Organize or join a plastic clean-up drive in your locality.
- Say no to plastic cutlery and water bottles.
- Host a plastic audit at your office, home or school.
- Switch to bulk-buy dry groceries in cloth, paper or glass containers.
- Push for water kiosks in your housing society or college canteen.
If sustainable living sounds expensive, start small. Start now. Eco-friendly habits often save you money and save the planet. Reuse. Refill. Repurpose. Recycle!
Does Earth Need a Hashtag? Is that Enough?
When my AC finally gave up, it wasn’t sudden. It had been suffering silently for months. I just didn’t notice. That’s how systems fail, quietly, until it’s too late.
The Earth is giving us signs, too. Melting glaciers. Flash floods. Record-breaking heat. Unseasonal rain. Crops failing.
We can either keep ignoring the dust… or clean the filters before the whole system shuts down. Climate scientists warn that if we don’t restore land and ecosystems now, we could lose up to 40% of global biodiversity by 2050. The World Meteorological Organization predicts we’re likely to cross the critical 1.5°C global temperature threshold within five years. This isn’t just science. It’s a matter of survival.
World Environment Day isn’t meant to be celebrated. It’s meant to make us uncomfortable. One that comes once a year to tell us that the Earth is overdue for a service. It’s time to clean the filters. To reduce the noise. To simplify the mess, we’ve made and prevent more. To shake us out of auto-pilot. To remind us that this is not someone else’s problem.
Don’t just post green. Live green!
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In a country battling a water crisis, Flosenso helps you build eco friendly habits without changing your routine.
One smart step for your home. One quiet win for the planet.
