Swetha Tandri (USA)
UN Environment Prize

Many children have a book that is very special to them. For me, that book was “The Giving Tree.” From the moment I read it in kindergarten, I was immediately swayed and heartbroken for the tree that sacrificed everything she had for a boy who did nothing but use her.

Looking at this work now through a new lens, I realize that “The Giving Tree” was not only a tragedy, but also a powerful allegory. Seeing trees falling down and more buildings rising above, I feel a huge wave of sadness as I realized though I empathize with the tree, I embodied the boy all along.

Because for me, simply watching the Earth sweltering in an abusive relationship is significantly worse than single handedly destroying it.

As I am writing this, rampant forest fires burn down millions of giving trees in the Amazon Rainforest, releasing all their stored carbon into the atmosphere. The cruel irony is that rainforests around the world have the potential to reduce carbon pollution by 2.4 billion metric tons per year, a number that sharply decreases with time. If the Amazon, which provides 20% of our oxygen, were to perish, our winning card to curtailing air pollution would have been discarded along with millions of flora and fauna. Our harmful emissions need to be reduced significantly, but many pleas to do so remain unanswered. Even from a young age, I knew something wasn’t right.

***
One foggy day, my mother was driving me to school. Sitting in the back, I noticed white translucent smoke billowing out from the cars in front.

“What is that?” I innocently asked. After being told it was waste smoke, I watched it disappear into the surrounding air. Glancing out the back window, I observed the smoke from our car clouding up the cars at the end of the line. Even though I was just 6 years old at the time, I knew the smoke was foreign and dangerous. Yet it was ubiquitous.

I was confused. At school, we had recess every day for the purpose of getting fresh air. But what I saw that foggy morning certainly wasn’t pristine. Why are so many disregarding the seriousness of climate change? Why are we adding more toxins into our atmosphere? And why are we chopping and burning down the antidote to our self-inflicted poison?

***
To unravel the answers, we must dissect air pollution using the three Cs: camouflage, convenience, and consumerism.

Camouflage - then you see smoke, now you can’t. For example, the exhaust smoke from a car lingers for a second before vanishing into thin air, “out of sight, out of mind.” This might seem trivial with only a few vehicles, but more than a billion emit every day. I once believed that car emissions should be purple so that everyone would at least notice its huge presence. I still stand by that statement. We know that a problem exists, but since we can’t see it, it is tempting to resume our status quo, even though millions suffer from carbon air poisoning.

Convenience is a great business model, but it’s not sustainable. Countless times in India, I saw a plethora of Uber Eats motorcycles on the already congested roads. In addition, single-use plastic items are easy to use and obtain, but they decompose into a gas 20 times deadlier than carbon: methane. Excessively trapping solar radiation, methane contributes to rising global temperatures that endanger 1 million plant and animal species(according to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services).

Lastly, the common phrase “Made in China” is an embodiment of consumerism. Since 2009, more than 1.7 billion people belong to a class desiring larger cars, fast food, and most importantly, single use goods. Where do those materials come from? The culprits are developed areas like the United States and Europe that outsource to developing countries like China. As the world’s largest emitter of carbon dioxide, China used 1.3 million tonnes(13% of total) making items to satisfy the consumer class. Increasing demand calls for more warehouses, which means clearing more carbon cleansing forests.

Our future doesn’t have to be devastating. It is imperative that our society be thankful for and do service to the planet we call home. Luckily, the tides are turning.

To tackle convenience and consumer culture, the San Francisco Airport, which normally sells 10,000 plastic bottles daily, implemented a plastic water bottle ban on August 20th, 2019. Now, 100 free refill stations are open, plastic straws are only available through request, and single use foodware is provided in compostable containers. All these changes contribute to the airport’s goal of having no landfill waste by 2021 and taking a stand against carbon-emitting plastic production.

Emissions may still be invisible, but now can be linked to a tangible item: money. When I visited London this summer, I noticed very few personal vehicles. This April, London enacted the Ultra Low Emissions Zone policy on its most congested roadways. Any automobile that emits over the ULEZ carbon limit will be charged 12.50 pounds per instance. As a result, traffic is forecasted to drop 5%.

Finally, everyone can contribute to replanting the Amazon Rainforest through their internet searches. The carbon-negative search engine(and app) Ecosia uses its ad revenue to plant trees in areas that need them most. 45 searches plant a tree, and I, a proud Ecosia user since May, have planted 12 with 553 total searches. Imagine the amazing global impact if we all pitched in!

I always thought that the Giving Tree had a definitive ending, but now realize that WE represent the unwritten next chapter. Let us push more boundaries to secure a greener world, a better world. Let our story not be remembered as a heartbreaking ballad like its predecessor, but instead a tale of carbon-free victory.