Since being crowned Miss Asia Pacific in 2000, Dia Mirza has established herself as a versatile actor and producer in the Indian film industry as well as a committed climate crusader. As Goodwill Ambassador for the UN Environment Programme, she works to raise awareness on priority issues such as clean air, clean seas, wildlife protection and climate change. In an interview with Down To Earth’s Snigdha Das, Mirza discusses how today’s youth can navigate eco-anxiety and take meaningful action:
Snigdha Das (SD): You have been an active voice in environmental and conservation issues for over 20 years. Do you think there is enough acknowledgement of the crisis unfolding around us?
Dia Mirza (DM): No. I do not think we are treating the issue with the urgency it demands. When we started working in environmental action 20 years ago—when I first began participating in these efforts—the reality felt distant. We were talking about melting glaciers in far-off oceans. But today, that reality has reached home. We are now grappling with a triple planetary crisis, one that is putting the human species, and many others, at risk of extinction. In just the last 100 years, we have caused an extraordinary level of destruction that will require the involvement, par-ticipation and awareness of everyone to address.
While the problems are vast and planetary in scale, and often feel unreachable, we must recognise that at the individual level, each of us has a part to play. It starts with a basic understanding: everything we need for our health, peace, progress and survival comes from the Earth. This is our home. If we disconnect ourselves from this understanding, we will continue to contribute to destruction rather than becoming part of the protection we so urgently need.
So if you live in Delhi, care about pollution. Take concrete actions to mitigate air pollution. Make better choices in your everyday life: seg-regate waste, compost, manage every aspect of the waste you produce at home and reduce wasteful consumption. These are tangible actions that help us feel less overwhelmed by the enormity of the issue.
SD: Most young people today say they feel helpless by the environmental crisis. How do they deal with this?
DM: Eco-anxiety sets in when you confront the scale of the crisis and realise how little is being done to address it—governments are not showing the will, industries are not showing the will, and conversations are often collapsing. That is why I emphasise identifying accessible solutions and working on the ground, in your own environments and immediate neighbourhoods. I often return to what Dr Jane Goodall [English prima-tologist and anthropologist] has said: hope is a verb. You have to apply yourself to solutions; you have to do the work towards them every day to feel less despondent. I find that I am far more hopeful and far less miserable when I am actively involved in solutions each day. Become a part of the solution—whether it is joining a beach clean-up, protesting against tree felling, helping to grow an urban forest, or ensuring that your neighbourhood segregates and manages waste better. Whatever the action may be, get involved.
SD: As a mother, do you worry about the kind of environment your child is going to inherit? Do you feel overwhelmed by such anxiety?
DM: Oh yes. We are nurturers; we are mothers. More than anything else, what matters to us is the health and well-being of our children. I delivered an extremely premature child, which led to serious complications, including risks to his life and to mine. In fact, there is a growing number of women giving birth prematurely because of environmental pollution: the polluted air we breathe, the food we eat, the plastics we ingest—these all cause profound disruptions in our bodies.
So from that point on, every day I worry about the air my child is breathing, the food my child is eating, and the fact that he does not have access to free play. There are so few parks and pedestrian spaces in our urban centres. In a normal world, my child would be walking to school every day. But it is not safe, because there is no infrastructure to support that kind of mobility. So I worry. I worry like every other mother.
SD: Panha, a Marathi short film by your production house One India Stories, has won the Best Indian Short Film award at All Living Things Environmental Film Festival 2025. Please share your vision behind the project.
DM: Panha is one of the first films we produced, and I am incredibly proud that we chose to back a story like this. I believe environmental action will arise from intimate storytelling. We need to humanise the climate crisis and help people understand that our interpretation of progress must change. And what better way to do that than through the lens of an eight-year-old child? Panha tells the story of a young boy who feels dis-placed from his ancestral mango orchard due to a large new project. This is not to say that I am opposed to infrastructure. But infrastructure must never come at the cost of ecological balance—and, most importantly, it must never come at the cost of robbing children of what secures their lives and livelihoods.
SD: Sustainability is a big part of your persona. How do you ensure it reflects in your lifestyle?
DM: I have become far more mindful of my consumption and waste. I waste much less than I did when I was younger.
There is this idea of success—that the more wasteful you are, the more successful you are perceived to be—but that mindset has to change. I have become so conscious of waste that I almost turn blue in the face when I see someone pull out an extra tissue at the airport just to wipe their hands. Ultimately, it is about recognising that every resource has a carbon footprint. It all comes from the Earth, and we need to be mindful of how we use it.
This interview was originally published as part of the January 1-15, 2026 print edition of Down To Earth