Climate crusader
Not many can live by what they preach! But that’s not true for Bollywood’s climate activist, UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador and United Nations Secretary-General Advocate for Sustainable Development —Dia Mirza!
At the recently held youth conclave in New Delhi by Yuvaa, a youth community engagement organisation driven by Gen Z, Mirza was part of a panel discussion, ‘Greenwash, Gaslight and Gatekeep’, along with four other climate activists. Dressed in a vibrant pink bandhni by Injiri, Mirza’s sustainable fashion choices never fail to impress! The 600-seat auditorium at Bharat Mandpam, New Delhi, went gaga when she gave well-informed answers to all.
As Mirza discarded the popular belief that ‘climate change won’t affect us’, she vouched for the elimination of single-use plastic. She said, “Climate change, biodiversity loss and plastic pollution are the three major threats. These are endangering life, health and peace. Plastic has reached even the purest of places like the placenta in a mother’s womb or microfibres in deep ocean waters. If you believe that climate change will be partial in affecting human species, you are mistaken. My mother has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and my child is asthmatic. 
Mirza’s campaign to combat plastic pollution started in her own backyard. She has been carrying a stainless steel bottle ever since she swore to never use single-use plastic in any form. If she has stopped 10,000 plastic bottles from being dumped in the ecosystem, she sure has made a difference! She urged that even if half of the eight billion people in the world right now make a conscious decision of living responsibly, a chain reaction towards a greener and healthier Earth can begin. “Change occurs when we make individual choices. So, refuse single-use plastics. We need to go back to the basics, to our roots, because our ancestors knew how to respect the planet. We belong to the land where food was served in leaf plates and water in clay pots.”
Highlighting how big brands used terminologies like sustainable designs and green events to ‘green-wash’ their capitalist desires, Dia explained, “In light of recent findings, carbon credits have become the latest scam. For instance, the dilution of Forest Act of India is not right. You cannot fix or create what nature has already lost. When a 200-year old tree is chopped and you plant 40 trees to substitute it, you are a fool to believe that the damage has been repaired.” Mirza also drew attention towards the amount of waste generated at big celebrations like wedding, sports events and mass trips to the hills. The actress commended the Himachal High Court’s decision that all tourists entering the state must carry a large garbage bag.
She added, “For decades, the lobbies driven by consumerist approach have painted environmental action as obstructionism. It doesn’t suit agendas of those who are destroying Mother Nature. There has to be responsibility and accountability because many are paying the price of deforestation in the name of development, and tunnelling of Himalayas. It’s a wake-up call if we need fans in hilly areas of Himalayas and air-conditioners in cities like London.”
Taking a dig at the organisers of the recent Paris Olympics, Mirza said, “The Olympics committee claimed that they would make it a zero-plastic event, but the ground reality was completely different. Many people saw the bright red reusable plastic cups being used in the name of sustainability, but if you used plastic bottles to pour into those cups the whole purpose gets defeated.”
We have overshot Earth’s resources…
Dia Mirza, as UN Environment Goodwill Ambassador and United Nations Secretary-General Advocate for Sustainable Development, also attended the Youth Sabha 2047: Shaping India’s Future event to mark International Youth Day recently. She said, “Everything we use in our daily lives comes from the Earth and has to go back to the Earth in a form that is healthy for all. A few days ago, we highlighted to the world that we had overshot the resources the Earth provides annually for all of us — it’s called Earth Overshoot Day. This happened in August... we have four more months in this year left and we have already surpassed our consumption of what the Earth provides! That means we are stealing from our own children and grandchildren what they will require to live, to be healthy, to be happy.” — ANI