Sudarshan Patnaik, a sand artist from Orissa, on Earth day.
Recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic is a chance to set the world on a cleaner, greener and more sustainable path, tweeted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres as his World Earth Day message.
"Let us all commit to the hard work of restoring our planet and making peace with nature," he said in the video message he posted in his tweet.
He said that humanity continues to deplete natural resources and turn lands to seas into "dumping grounds". Crucial ecosystem and food chains are at the edge of collapse because of human actions which are suicidal. He adds that human beings must nurse nature back to health and advised the world to reduce pollution by building circular economies that drive down wastes.
Artists and activists took their Earth Day message to social media. Sudarshan Patnaik, the celebrated sand artist from Odisha, posted a picture of his sand sculpture on Twitter, which gathered much attention. The sculpture shows the face of a woman with blue and yellow hairs, his depiction of mother earth. The face is surrounded by stumps of cut down trees and a save-the-earth message below it. And a globe could be seen on fire in the sculpture.
"On earth day, let us commit ourselves to make our earth greener and more liveable. one of my Sand Art with message Go Green Save Earth," he tweeted.
The UN adopted April 22 as "International Mother Earth Day" in 2009. The current year's Earth Day's theme is reportedly "Restore our Earth".