By Divyana Barman (Winner)
The Climate Clock Is Ringing: Will We Answer
One day, future generations will ask why we watched the planet unravel and called it a progress. The signs were always there, harsher droughts, heavier floods, shrinking forests, melting glaciers. Our hunger for growth has come at the cost of balance, wrapping the Eart in a heat trapping blanket. Forests, which were once the lungs of the planet, fail to deforestation. Oceans, which were once a cradle of life, is now warm and acidified. Weather no longer follows familiar habits. In one part of the world, rain refuses to fall and in another it arrives with a destructive force that sweeps away from homes and livelihoods.
Reversing Collapse Costs More Than Preventing It
The reason is no mystery. Burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases that trap heat in the atmosphere. This triggers a chain reaction, ice caps melt, seas rise, and warmer oceans disrupt wind and rainfall patterns. Deforestation removes nature’s ability to absorb carbon, while industrial pollution worsens air quality and raises temperatures further. The poorest nation which contributes least to the problem face the harshest consequences. Crops fail not because farmers forgot how to grow them, but because seasons arrive late or not at all. Floodwater creeps into homes not once in century but once every few years. By the time mankind wakes up, reversing it will cost far more than preventing it ever would.
The solutions are within reach. Clean energy can replace fossil fuels, reforestation can heal scarred land and sustainable choices can reduce pressure on our planet. Government must enforce climate policies, industries must adopt greener practices and individuals must make conscious changes. The clock is not ticking; it is already ringing. And if we do not act, the story will end the same way it had been told for years; the Earth is crying and in near future, so shall we.
