We often hear that global warming is irreversible. But the people of India recently proved through their own inspirational example that the fate of our world is truly in our hands. Thankfully, there are plenty of good people out there who are ready to do something for the sake of humanity’s future — like planting a tree.
800,000 people living in the state of Uttar Pradesh, from students to housewives to government officials, collectively managed to plant 49.3 million saplings in just 24 hours. This is a new world record, and one which gave hope to the most densely populated part of India that it will breathe only clean air instead of gray smog in the future.
In accordance with the government’s environmental policy, India aims to plant trees across an area of 95 million hectares by the year 2030. This makes a lot of sense when you consider that six population centers in India — Gwalior, Allahabad, Patna, Raipur, Ludhiana, and Delhi — are among the most polluted cities on Earth. The people of India’s desire to alter that statistic for the sake of their and our future is truly inspirational.
北方邦首席部長亞達夫（Akhilesh Yadav）表示，種植5,000萬棵樹將會增進人們對造林與環保的意識和熱忱。
他對這項植樹活動的參與者說：「全世界都知道，有必要採行嚴肅的行動以減少碳排放，進而減緩全球氣候變遷的作用。北方邦在這方面先起個頭。」
儘管吉尼斯世界紀錄的稽查員尚未完成本次北方邦所種植樹木的數量清點，但根據參與的人數推估，該邦很有可能會刷新紀錄。然而，由於缺水和疾病等問題的影響，這些新種樹木中只有大約60%會存活。
印度政府正鼓勵所有29個邦展開植樹計畫，以增加該國的林地面積，並履行該國在去年的巴黎氣候峰會上所做的部分承諾。
針對該國各地的植樹計畫，印度政府已經撥款超過62億美元，以期讓所有林地面積在2030年之前達到9,500萬公頃。
除了造林之外，印度政府在推廣太陽能此一環保能源上也不餘遺力。該國不但擁有世界上首座完全依賴太陽能發電來運作的機場，而且擁有世界上最大型的太陽能發電廠，而太陽能發電的成本最近在該國已經低於燃煤發電。
Source: iflscience Preview photo credit: CRSHELARE/Shutterstock
責任編輯：林琮文 【 大紀元2016年07月18日訊】（大紀元記者陳俊村編譯報導）（圖擷取自赫芬頓郵報）