By Thais Lopez Vogel
These days we are having the coincidence of the celebration of Earth Day with the upcoming arrival of Mother’s Day. This is a very fortunate timing, because it allows us to reflect on the relationship between mothers and our planet.
“Mother Earth” is an expressive and ancient term from many cultures. It speaks to us, in the most literal sense, of how we are formed and born from the earth itself, how it provides us with air, water, food and everything necessary for our existence to be fulfilled.
But today I wish to approach it in a different way. I want to make a call to all the mothers who are reading me, to defend the Earth as we defend our children.
The reason? Quite simply: their livelihood and survival is at stake to the same extent that our planet is threatened. And this is real, it is already happening.
When the earth is sick and polluted, human health is impossible, said Australian activist Bobby McLeod. I ask the mothers who read me: what are you willing to do for your child’s health? I answer myself: everything. And I’m sure that is the answer of every mother in the universe.
Or is not the survival of our children dependent on that air, that water and that soil that certain people treat irresponsibly? Are we not risking the food of future generations?
Our soil is polluted by improper agricultural practices and inadequate waste disposal. We are talking about cumulative damage, which takes hundreds or even thousands of years to heal. In many cases, the human footprint remains there forever.
Yes, it is true, in both liquid and frozen forms, water covers approximately 75% of the Earth’s surface; but it is also true that 97.5% of that water is salty, which leaves a tiny amount for human consumption. This is a percentage that must be treated with the greatest of responsibility, because it is the most precious inheritance we can leave to those who will be coming after us.
Air pollution comes from gases and particles released indiscriminately into the atmosphere, the same ones that decreased significantly when activity was reduced to a minimum as a consequence of the pandemic. A difference that could be seen with the bare eye in the big cities.
Bottom line: the responsibility is ours.
When you have one child, you have all the children of the earth, according to the poet Andrés Eloy Blanco. Let’s get active. For my children, for your children, for your neighbor’s children and for those we don’t even know.
I am convinced that the power of mother’s love is the energy that will change for the better the relationship of humankind with the Earth. Let us begin today, let us begin with the tenacious and inexhaustible love of mothers.
I ask you to defend our planet with the same passion with which we mothers defend our children. This is their livelihood and their home.
