Let's H.E.L.P. (Heal the Environment, Love The Planet)
by Sainath Manikandan and Sai Sahana Manikandan
I am Sainath Manikandan studying in Grade 9 and my sister Sai Sahana Manikandan is in Grade 7 at GEMS United Indian School, Abu Dhabi. We are an aspiring environmentalist and an active member of the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), Ambassadors of Tunza Eco Generation, Students for the Earth (SfE), Drop It Youth (DIY) with the main aim of raising awareness about single-use plastic pollution and encouraging individuals and organizations to reduce their CO2 emissions through simple everyday choices.
I have started my own campaign, PEPC Campaign (Papers, E-wastes, Plastics and Cans) to inform the importance of recycling and to put an end to single-use plastics. As a green activist, we strongly believe that we can change our existing practices into green and sustainable solutions using technology. We are collecting papers, electronic wastes, plastics and cans for recycling from my school and neighborhood. As Drop It Youth, SfE and Tunza Eco-Generation Ambassadors, we are raising awareness by giving pep talks and presentations to protect our mother earth’s natural resources.
I also write articles for magazines such as Young Times (a part of Khaleej Times newspaper) informing the importance of taking care of our environment. Apart from that, I am also an innovator of 2 robots namely Marine Robot Cleaner and Agribot. These robots support UN SDG 14- Life Below Water and Zero Hunger.
Besides these, we are passionate social campaigners, Abacus graduates, Brown belt in Karate, Keyboard players and a budding artist. We use art as a medicum to convey the message to our community.
We are also involved in eco-friendly activities for the past five years. We got interested in sustainability when we noticed and read about various articles about environmental awareness and thought of involving in various campaigns to support our environment.
When we visited different cities and towns in my home country, we were shocked to see heaps of plastic and wastage being littered all over the places. We started to wonder if this were the status of one city, then if we consider all the countries in the world, what would be the amount of plastic wastes being littered.
At Drop It Youth First Campaign launch, we saw a movie “A Plastic Ocean”. That was an eye opener to the problem of plastic pollution and how marine species ingest plastic and then, in turn, we ingest them. We understood that “Plastics are not our body’s best friend”.
Plastic pollution is an important global issue. We want to change the world’s attitude towards plastic within a generation because if the same trend continues by 2050 there would be more plastics in the seas and oceans when compared to the marine species.
We are working on my PEPC campaign and collecting recycling materials from my community for the past couple of years. We want to inform the importance of following the 6Rs – Reduce, reuse, recycle, repair, rethink and refuse. Besides that, build the prototype robots to save our environment.
We live on a blue planet, with oceans and seas covering more than 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. Oceans feed us, regulate our climate, and generate most of the oxygen we breathe. Oceans are facing threats as a result of human activity. Every year, an estimated 8 million tons of plastic waste end up in the world’s oceans. I am worried about our marine species if the same trend continues.
Another initiative is Marine Robot Cleaner robot. It is a prototype robot that can remove floating wastes from water surfaces. I have designed an app, Plastic Cleaner (PC) App to send start and stop signals to my MBot Cleaner. MBot Cleaner Robot will be available on the coastlines and in different locations across the seas and oceans. As soon as the signal from the Plastic Cleaner App reaches the nearest Marine Robot Cleaner it moves to that particular location in the ocean/river to collect the plastic wastes.
Another robot Agribot is an agricultural robot used to assist farmers in ploughing the land, sowing the seeds and covering the seeds with soil. As most of the farmers have moved to towns and cities in search of better job opportunities, we don't have enough farmers to produce food for us and for our future generations. Agribot will greatly benefit the farmers as it is easy to control and program as per the farmers’ necessity.
We aim to preserve, conserve our marine environment and remove hunger from our society with these innovations and initiatives.
Educating young minds will surely make an impact towards preserving the earth’s resources for the future. Youth today just need to take one step at a time to save and heal our planet. Raising environmental awareness is very important and crucial not only for the present generation but for our future. We believe that together we can create a wave of change. People of all ages should understand the present danger that our world is facing. All of us should take a step forward and rethink plastic, reduce, reuse and recycle. It is our prime responsibility to take care of our mother Earth.
My friends now do understand the importance of taking care of our natural resources and would like to be part of these campaigns which indicates that there is a positive impact on them. They realize their responsibility and would like to act along with others by following these simple tips:
1. Carry a refillable water bottle
2. Refuse plastic food packaging
3. Refuse plastic straws, plates, cups
4. Take your own shopping bags (cotton/jute bags)
5. Save water and electricity
6. Plant trees
7. Walk whenever possible to your school or office to reduce air pollution or use public transport
One of the biggest environmental challenge right now is Climate change and its effects. The Earth's Climate is constantly changing. Human activities including air pollution and water pollution have introduced a new area of climate change, global warming. The current warming trend is of particular significance because most of it is very likely due to our activities.
A few of my community members don’t understand the importance of recycling and constantly use single-use plastic water bottles. They think that if they use one single-use plastic water bottle or straw or cup a day how is that going to affect our environment. We educate them that the plastic pollution issues are growing exponentially every year as we are producing more than 300 million tons of plastic. Most of the plastics used are single-use which ends up in our oceans. We are trying to convince our community that plastics are not our body’s best friend.
Apart from recycling, we are also trying to plant saplings and trees in our neighbourhood. We are in touch with Abu Dhabi Food Control Authority who are very supportive in our tree planting initiative. In June 2019, we had planted 50 saplings in Al Faya Agriculture for World Day to Combat Desertification – Let’s grow the future together. All in all, these environment awareness sessions, recycling campaign and tree planting activities will lead to a sustainable environment.
Our personal dream is to create a wave of change in the minds of the present generation and to change our existing practices into green and sustainable solutions using the latest technologies. Our regional dream is to educate, engage and empower myself in line with UAE Vision 2021 which aims to make UAE among the best countries in the world by the Golden Jubilee of the Union. We would like to lead and step forward to assist in the sustainable development of UAE along with its great leaders. We would like to change the future of the society with our behavior, tremendous energy and power.
Our global dream is to help the environment and save our mother earth from the present crisis of climate changes. We want to motivate our community to be a part of environment protection movements and engage themselves and show their support to heal the environment and love the planet.
The backbone of a nation is the youth. They have the power to bring about a change in their school, home and environment. They can change the future if they play an active role in protecting, preserving and conserving the environment. Small steps can have a big impact. By adopting environmentally friendly products and practices we can try to conserve our natural resources.
Technology plays a vital role so youth can make use of internet, and social media in a positive way and bring about a revolution and protect environment. Let us all join in United Nations #ActNow campaign to take immediate actions on climate change and contribute to ensure that we can achieve our shared mission of a net zero world by 2050.
We would like to work along with the government entities and support them to tackle these environmental issues and heal the environment; love the planet.
Together we can create a wave of change.
About
I am Sainath Manikandan studying in Grade 9 and my sister Sai Sahana Manikandan is in Grade 7 at GEMS United Indian School, Abu Dhabi. We are an aspiring environmentalist and an active member of the Emirates Environmental Group (EEG), Ambassadors of Tunza Eco Generation, Students for the Earth (SfE), Drop It Youth (DIY) with the main aim of raising awareness about single-use plastic pollution and encouraging individuals and organizations to reduce their CO2 emissions through simple everyday choices.