Earth Day: Caring for the planet as a human duty
‘For hundreds of thousands of years, man has struggled to make a place for himself in nature. For the first time in the history of our species, the situation has been reversed and today it is indispensable to make a place for nature in the world of man’.
With this sentence by the Argentinean poet Santiago Kovadloff – who has dedicated his life to raising social awareness of the responsibility we human beings have to care for and protect our environment – we open an essential reflection.
This April 22nd, we commemorate Earth Day, a day that emerged in 1970 with the purpose of generating a reflection between human beings and the planet. In recent years, the importance of this date has been growing, taking advantage of it to promote environmental awareness and encourage sustainable policies.
In the 21st century, issues such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, air and water pollution and the indiscriminate exploitation of natural resources have gained importance in the global sphere. These situations threaten life in all its forms, and Earth Day is an important date to send an urgent and profound message to raise awareness about the conservation of the planet.
On 28 July 2022, the United Nations General Assembly took a major step forward by declaring a healthy environment a universal human right. This resolution served to send a political and social message: A healthy environment is indispensable for the exercise of other human rights, such as the right to life, health and education.
This declaration emerged in a context of environmental crises, which, we must remember, do not affect the entire population equally; the most vulnerable communities and those in underdeveloped countries are often the most exposed to environmental degradation, and also those with the least resources to adapt or resist its effects. Recognising the environment as a human right has also served as a way to achieve social justice, to protect those who have historically been marginalised and to promote a more equitable distribution of resources and responsibilities.
The health of human beings is intrinsically linked to the health of the planet. According to figures from the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), every year we lose about 10 million hectares of forest, the equivalent of 15 football fields per minute. For its part, the World Health Organisation (WHO) states that more than 90% of the world’s population breathes polluted air, with these two factors alone causing more than 7 million premature deaths a year.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has announced that the global temperature has already risen by 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels, and we are on track to exceed 2.5°C if urgent action is not taken. For the WHO, if countries do not take imminent action to halt climate change, there will be around 250,000 deaths from extreme heat, floods and other environmental phenomena by 2050.
The above are just some of the consequences of poor care of the planet, so preserving it is not merely an act of natural charity, but an act of survival and ethical responsibility. Ecological balance sustains life.
Environmental education is undoubtedly the best tool we have for a healthy earth. It is therefore important that from an early age people understand the interconnection between their daily actions and the impact they have on the environment around them.
Furthermore, it is time for states to move from awareness to concrete action: strengthening sustainable public policies, holding polluting companies accountable, and ensuring citizen participation in decision-making. It is also essential to make visible and support the work of environmental activists and ancestral peoples who defend their territories and promote models of development that are more sustainable and respectful of nature.
Earth Day should not only be a symbolic date, but an opportunity to renew our commitment to the protection of our planet. While there are many challenges, there are positive factors such as major campaigns, social movements, committed states and individuals, and technological advances that are moving us towards a more sustainable future.
William Martínez Bustos, FIBGAR contributor
22 April 2025
