Would a Date Save our Planet? (10-10-2010)

Would a Date Save our Planet? (10-10-2010)

Batoul Wehbe

09/10/2010 With a shovel in hand, Secretary General of Hezbollah Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah appeared on television screens planting and watering a small tree outside his home in the southern suburbs of Beirut. His message to the whole world was save the environment; go green.

Hezbollah’s Jihad al Binaa foundation has led a campaign to plant one million trees in Lebanon where Sayyed Nasrallah’s tree was the millionth.

These actions come in line with other campaigns throughout the world. Tomorrow environmental activists around the world move to take from the date 10-10-2010 a day of action with more than 7,000 community organizations partnering to dedicate this date to environmental work.

To a certain extent, any day would be appropriate for a global environmental work. But this day, which is full of occasions, is an easy-to-remember date.

“Circle 10/10/10 on your calendar,” read an invitation from environmentalist Bill McKibben that’s posted on climate crisis website 350.org. “That's the date. The place is wherever you live. And the point is to do something that will help deal with global warming in your city or community.”

Also in Lebanon, a series of activities are organized in more than one area. Musician Habib Alberto is organizing a concert where donations will be collected to buy a solar heater. The heater will be provided to the Ministry of Environment, to be installed on the roof of its headquarters in a building in Azarieh.

Fashion designer Jean Fares chose to celebrate this day by planting olive trees in his atelier garden near Jdeideh road, Beirut.

Climate change, polluted air, acid rain, depletion of the ozone layer, global warming all are the reasons for our global crisis that nobody knows when our world would revolutionize against us.

Imagine you are coming out from your home and all you see is black smoke with no trees, hear cars uproar not birds, smell gasoline rather than flowers. So come out from your houses now before it’s too late and answer Sayyed Nasrallah’s call: Go green.

River to Sea Uprooted Palestinian