The young get it right

Just as a school-going 16-year-old Greta Thunberg from Sweden sent a message to the world, loud and clear, with her consistent efforts that this planet Earth belongs to the future generations, more and more young people are devising innovative ways to go about everyday activities sustainably, from coming up with bio-degradable plastic to dry shampoo to simple water-saving techniques, to adopting a zero-waste and plastic-free lifestyle, the young do realise much better the need for sustainability with respect to climate change, a cleaner planet, and a pollution-free life. In addition to such young innovators, students from Delhi-NCR have created two Guinness World Records for environment protection on the occasion of Mahatma Gandhi's 150th birth anniversary. The first record was in the category of ''environmental sustainability lessons to the largest number of students at one place'' wherein close to 5,000 children participated; and, second record is of ''the largest number of assembly and lighting of solar lamps'' in which more than 5,000 students took part. The Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar's congratulatory address to the students called for creating oxygen bank by planting at least seven trees during one's lifetime and administered the oath of non-violence towards the environment to all the students. It is true that children need guidance in understanding the implication of matters like clean and healthy environment but given the record-making turn-out, perhaps India can rest assured that her future is in safe hands, aware and informed.