The topic of Earth Day 2022: invest in our planet
The topic chosen for Earth Day 2022 is very clear: invest in our planet. But what does it mean that we must invest in our planet? It means that we must all commit ourselves, more and more, to change our patterns, to rethink our daily consumption habits and also to reconsider some of our beliefs that, over time, have settled.
Thinking, for example, that we can’t do anything to safeguard and protect our forests, but that the responsibility always lies with someone else, is profoundly wrong. There are many ways to help fight the climate crisis, mitigate the effects of air pollution, protect biodiversity and restore ecosystems: adopting a tree, for example, is an investment within everyone’s reach, a gesture not only symbolic but concrete and of great value.
Forests are good for us: let’s take care of them.
It’s only when you know something well that you can learn to protect it: and we at WOWnature, the forests, we know them very well. And not only from a scientific point of view. By now it is clear to everyone: forests are essential for our survival on this planet, they are ecosystems that allow us to breathe clean air because they are able to sequester CO2, prevent hydrogeological instability, protect us from summer heat, combat desertification, provide food, active pharmaceutical ingredients and fresh water.
But forests are much more than this because they are able to perform a function as simple as vital: forests are good for our soul. It will have happened to all of you, at least once in your life, to find in the forests and under the canopies of the trees that peace and well-being that we needed so much. It can happen because of a period of great stress, a moment in life when we are undecided, doubtful about our future, sometimes even afraid; or it can happen because we are saturated with our city life, with the traffic, with the speed with which we are asked to live, think, act at work and in our private lives.
And it is precisely at that moment that we think of the forests we love as the only possible remedy to regain peace and confidence in ourselves. Investing in our planet, as the theme of Earth Day 2022 suggests, also means this: recognizing that when we need them, the forests are there. Always.
