With many nations having banned mass gatherings to slow the spread of the deadly novel coronavirus, green activists are urging environmental action through apps, webinars and digital campaigns. This push to raise public awareness about the environment and inspire actions to protect it comes amid a health crisis that has forced unprecedented shutdowns in countries around the world.
Michelle Dilhara is a well known face in the mini screen and among those who have a passion for social welfare activities. The multitalented youth was in the spotlight last year for bagging the Asia Inspiration Award 2018 at the Second South Asian Youth Summit 2018 which was held in Colombo at the end of 2018. Now, adding another feather to her cap, Michelle has been selected as the Earth Day Network Ambassador for Sri Lanka.
Earth Day Network is a global environmental organization that operates with 75,000 organizations in around 193 countries. Its mission is to build the world’s largest environmental movement to drive transformative change for people and the planet. The first Earth Day was celebrated on the April 22, 1970, activating nearly 20 million Americans. 2020 marked the golden anniversary of Earth Day. Earth Day Network planned massive marches in many countries to coincide with this event but due to the COVID-19 pandemic they had to broadcast it online for three-day live stream.
“It featured global leaders like Catholic Church Head Pope Francis, Joaquin Phoenix, Denis Hayes, Ed Begley Jr, the Prince of Monaco, the 45th vice president of the United States Al Gore, the 68th United States Secretary of State John Kerry, American actor Zac Efron, and Indian actor Anil Kapoor. As the organisation’s Sri Lankan ambassador I was invited to feature in their ‘My Future, My Voice’ campaign. The main focus of Earth Day Network is to form new generation of environmental activists to inspire and to engage millions of people worldwide,” Michelle explained adding that seasoned Indian actress Juhi Chawla is the Earth Day Network Ambassador to India. She notes that the ‘My Future, My Voice’ campaign which she was a part of was initiated as an environment platform for the youth to “Restore our earth”.
“The vision of the event is to take actions to reduce the carbon footprint, develop renewable energy, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, aim for zero waste, save our precious natural resources and educate those less fortunate. The campaign featured voices of 50 youths from around 17 countries. It still operates online because of the COVID-19 pandemic. You can witness the video messages of them voicing what they have done, elaborating the problems that need to be addressed by the governments and the society.
It is an honour to work with Earth Day Network and their directors like the Earth Day South and South-East Asia Director Nishu Kaul and Asia Earth Day Network Regional Director Karuna Singh because they are always very creative. They think out of the box to approach climate change adaptations and mitigations and use different avenues such as art, crafts, folk tradition and culture as indirect mind suggestions to protect biodiversity, stop the use of single-use plastics, increase the green cover and plant trees for climate change. Recently there was an event for the World Music Day organised by the Earth Day Network-India featuring celebrities, and musicians like Juhi Chawla, Dr. L. Subramaniam, Melissa Tan, Mariyam Maeesha, Kavita Krishnamurti Subramaniam,” she elaborated on the work she was involved in to create a greener planet for the future.
Michelle had gotten involved in climate change activism in 2016. She organized a number of campaigns to reduce environmental degradation. The first was held in Negombo for three consecutive days to remove all the plastic objects that were littering the beach. She took part in a project to plant 1000 trees in Katana, Divulapitiya, and Seeduwa next.
She also conducted continuous awareness programmes on climate change at Rajarata and Sabaragamuwa universities. She was invited to take part in a tree planting campaign organized by the Government Nursing Officers’ Association. Danushka Clark and Manusha D Navarathna of Michelle’s ‘The Invisible to Visible Movement’ joined her in putting together a three-day climate change camp which included some well known climate change activists.
“The global warming that’s changing our climate is already having dire consequences. It is also affecting the global economy because of frequent and more intense hurricanes, floods, downpours, and winter storms. According to a Cambridge University research in 2019, approximately $100 billion damages were caused due to climate change and extreme weather events. If it is not controlled within the next 30 years damages from climate change may reach $8 trillion,” Michelle noted stressing on the need to attend to this matter urgently.
“Climate activists and climate scientists focus on global warming due to rising sea levels, more frequent and intense extreme weather events, changes in the timing of seasonal events and hotter days. What’s causing these harmful changes? It’s mainly us! We humans are the ones who burn fossil fuels and chop down forests, causing average temperatures to rise worldwide,” she pointed out. She will be a part of the Rain Day Virtual Fest which is held to mark World Rain Day on July 29. Michelle and the other celebrity EDN ambassadors such as British Indian musician and composer Soumik Datta, Thai actor AlexRendell, Bombay Jayashri Ramnath, Indian classical vocalist Kaushiki Chakraborty, Indian composer and music producer Ricky Kej, Sonam Wangchuk, and Filipino actor Ding Dong Dantes will be featuring in the event.
Queried on what she suggests to minimize the damages done to Mother Earth, Michelle notes that you need to involve youth and students in efforts to recover ecosystems that have been damaged, or destroyed. “We can start student projects on eradicating invasive species, repairing and replanting wetlands, creek beds, forestland, and other habitats, monitoring pond and lake habitats and preparing reports on the findings for government authorities. We also need to replace turf grass with native species and plant rain gardens to absorb rainwater running off roofs or asphalt. Research has revealed that if this process of restoring the earth is implemented globally with the support of all the nations an average forest ecosystem can recover in 42 years! It takes about 10 years for the ocean bottom to recover,” she expressed.
Her keenness towards the subject inspired ‘The Story Of Unintended Consequences | The Point of No Return’, a documentary about climate change and global warming. It also fleshes out the details on how we can restore the earth before it is too late.
“We need to have a clear vision of what we do to cause this damage. It also talks about biodiversity, adaptation and mitigation because when it comes to biodiversity. It gives immense direct benefits to humans, with at least 40 percent of the world’s economy being derived from biological resources. I was motivated by many events such as the September 23, 2014, United Nations Climate Summit speech by Leonardo DiCaprio and the work done by my seven-year –old Indian friend and environmental activist Licypriya Kangujam to make this documentary,” she said adding that she interviewed many experts in the field like academics, professional climate change activists, international climate change environmentalists and globally renowned celebrities with a green thumb for the project. She has six teledramas in her kitty at the moment: Thilina Borelessa’s ‘Sihina Samagama’, Christy Shelton ‘Sakuna Piyapath’, Nimal Rathnayaka’s ‘Kisa’, Dhanushka Raymond’s ‘Race’, Sivagurunadan’s ‘Thiraya Arapan’and ‘Kiss’. She was nominated as Raigam Tele’es Best Up-Coming Actress of the year and Most Popular Actress of the year awards for her portrayal of Ayoma’s role in the television series ‘Sudu Andagena Kalu Awidin’.
“This was my first nomination at a national award ceremony. This television series became one of the turning points in my career. I am grateful to Sunil Costa for giving me the opportunity to portray the character and also to the crew who also played a major part in the production,” she said adding that she wishes to thank Rupavahini for telecasting the production and all her fans for embracing the series.
Michelle is currently following a Higher National Diploma on Psychology.
“There are approximately 7.8 billion people in the world population. According to the UN, about 255 babies are born in a minute, 360,000 are born each day and that’s more than 130 million a year. In the past, our ancestors lived and constructed their businesses with nature. They lived in a clean environment with fresh air and even built tanks and anicuts to store water for droughts. After the industrial revolution started in 1760, we chose the path to go against nature and develop an artificial world around us. As a result global warming has critically increased and we have to face many climate changes such as rising sea levels, sinking mountain glaciers, change in flower and plant blooming times and change in rain patterns. These climate changes have created an unhealthy environment for the future generations. Carbon dioxide and methane gas emissions have critically increased and continuous disposal of garbage to water have destroyed many lives under water. So if we could try to reduce the plastic usage, plant some trees whenever we can, reduce the poisonous gas emissions from our vehicles by doing a vehicle emission test and avoid throwing garbage to beaches and rivers, I think we could restore our earth and make it a better place for the future generations,” she concluded.
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