Earth is for all

Seeds of Change India Habitat Centre New Delhi

"I may be just planting a tree here, but just imagine what's happening if there are billions of people out there doing something. Just imagine the power of what we can do." These words of Nobel Peace Prize winner Wangari Maathai lie amidst the many hard-hitting sound bites of ecologists, environmental activists and local grassroots activists that adorn the walls of Seeds of Change. The exhibition organised by the international non-governmental organisation Soka Gakkai on January 20-31, 2005 expounded Boldly-coloured panels crammed with photographs and text dealt with different themes: deforestation, poverty, water depletion, education. Statistics hammered home the forgotten truths about our unsustainable inequitable existences. The cruel truth that 30,000 children die everyday from starvation was juxtaposed with the economic injustice that the five wealthiest nations have a greater gross national product than the next fifty nations combined. The Earth Charter recognises that environmental protection, human rights, equitable human development and peace are interdependent and indivisible. So far, it has been endorsed by over six thousand organisations, representing millions of people worldwide.