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Climate Warrior Bhumi Pednekar Rings In The New Year With A Call To Unite And Save Environment
New Year 2020: Bollywood actor Bhumi Pednekar who actively participates in clean-up drives and climate strikes called to become climate warriors and protect the environment
New Delhi: We have stepped into a New Year, 2020, and New Year often comes with new aspirations and resolutions. But this time the year 2020 has come up with a countdown; according to the Composite Water Management Index (CWMI) report released by NITI (National Institution for Transforming India) Aayog in 2018, 21 major cities (Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai, Hyderabad and others) are racing to reach zero groundwater levels by 2020, affecting access for 100 million people.
Climate change is upon us and there is no denying that. Our cities are running out of water, existing forest areas are losing tree cover (Indian State of Forest Report 2019), and rivers like Yamuna are dying a slow death. But how many of us have resolved to take care of the environment and protect Mother Earth?
On the New Year’s Eve, Bollywood actor Bhumi Pednekar, raised a similar issue on social media, and called for a change, asking everyone to become climate warriors. The Toilet – Ek Prem Katha actress took to Instagram to share a video that talks about how the year 2019 was just a beginning and a step towards working for the environment.
2020 will need all of us to unite and do our bit. I will ensure I spread as much information as possible and take all the necessary steps in my day to day life to save our environment, reads a text in the video.
The video also shows the actor taking part in beach clean-up drives with beach warrior Afroz Shah and picking up waste. The actor captioned the video as, “We need change today and the change starts with me 🙂 Thanking all the #ClimateWarriors who have worked so hard towards preserving our home. Here’s to loving and co-existing with our planet, our home. Let’s all become climate warriors.”
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The video is a part of Bhumi Pednekar’s initiative ‘Climate Warrior’ started earlier in September 2019. It is an attempt by Bhumi to highlight the environmental crisis, climate change and initiate a dialogue with people working relentlessly to save the environment.
Climate Warrior is my attempt to start a dialogue with people who work tirelessly to save the environment and highlight the crisis that we find ourselves in due to climate change. (1/4) pic.twitter.com/GD7s0IMBS0
— bhumi pednekar (@bhumipednekar) September 21, 2019
The campaign will champion the efforts of these warriors regularly and ask people to participate in saving our planet because the threat to humanity is imminent and the time to act is now. I want to make people aware that by making minor yet significant changes in their daily lifestyle and thought process, they can help stop the damaging impact that’s happening on our climate, had said Bhumi Pednekar.
In November, Bhumi released the first episode of climate warrior, that deep dived into the work being done by Fridays For Future Mumbai, Mumbaikars fighting for their survival by protecting the environment and propagating the message of climate conservation.
In the second episode, Bhumi brought the story of the lawyer and beach warrior Afroz Shah who along with other beach crusaders changed the face of Versova beach in Mumbai. In October 2015, what started with a lawyer deciding to clean up the dirty beach behind his house along with his neighbour, turned into a revolution with hundreds and thousands of people, belonging to different strata’s of life, joining and coming forward for the environment.
Bhumi has always been vocal about climate change, water crisis and other environmental issues. Time and again, through different social media posts, Bhumi has raised the issue of environmental crisis. For instance, in June 2018, the actor reposted a picture of a thirsty child trying hard to get a drop of water from the water tank, the actor captioned it,
This image truly broke my Heart. It made me cry. A large part of our population is dealing with the problem of water scarcity. Many of us have the monetary means to buy it but there are many that don’t. As individuals, we must become more responsible with the way we utilise this soon depleting natural resource.
Also Read: ‘We All Should Be More Responsible With The Way We Utilise Water,’ Urges Actor Bhumi Pednekar
Bhumi has often participated in beach clean-up drives and once even participated in the peaceful strike hosted by Fridays For Future Mumbai to stand up for climate justice.
It was an eye opening experience for me to hear how socially conscious our next generation is and how fiercely protective they are about their future and environment. It is our responsibility to leave a better planet to our future generations and we have to make this happen. Let’s stand up and take action now, said Bhumi.
Also Read: Bollywood Celebrities Who Supported India’s Biggest Cleanliness Drive – The Swachh Bharat Abhiyan