Actor Bhumi Pednekar runs a social media advocacy platform Climate Warrior that aims to educate people about climate change. During the second wave of the COVID-19 crisis in India, she also launched an initiative COVID Warrior that has saved many lives across India. Bhumi is an ardent climate advocate who has made it her life’s mission to save the planet through awareness programmes among the people of India.

We are in the middle of a climate crisis today. What do you have to say about this?

I feel that today we are actually at the edge and if we don’t start bringing about immediate change, things are about to get very bad. In the last two years, we have seen forest fires, cyclones and natural calamities of many kinds wrecking havoc to life on Earth. I think this is only the beginning. I feel that it is important for people to understand that the planet does not need us, we need the planet. Mother Earth will thrive without us, we have seen signs of this in the past year when mass lockdowns indirectly resulted in pollution levels going down. Animals seemed to be happy with us cooped up indoors. It pains me to see how short-sighted people are — littering, using plastic irresponsibly and now, with the pandemic, we are now dumping medical waste out in the open without any second thoughts for the health-related and environmental repercussions. These things hurt me tremendously because honestly, this is not just for our generation as much as it is for the future generations. What sort of a planet are we leaving behind for them? I believe that is our responsibility to leave behind a cleaner planet for our future generations as we got it from our ancestors. I would never want my children to be brought up in a world that is full of pollution and does not have clean and healthy sources of water and food. The way deforestation is happening, the way we are fishing and hunting I feel as humans we should just change our consumption habits, else we are headed towards some irreversible damage to our way of life on this planet.

Artistes like you have the power to bring about positive changes. Is that why you are so vocal about this glaring issue?

Absolutely. I feel that when you are in a place of power and hold some influence, you must be the change. As an artist, and as a person, my motive is to cause positive change. Climate Warrior was a step towards restoring the balance between nature and man and I believe we have done a considerable amount of work for the environment over the past two years. No matter, if no one is influenced by me. I will do what I can to the best of my ability.

What are your goals this year? What will make you happy as a climate warrior 10 years from now?

My goal as a climate warrior this year is to genuinely see people indulge in planet-conscious behaviour. For me, 2021 will be all about hammering home the need to develop better habits, right from less consumption of single-use plastics to make sure that individually we all reduce our carbon footprint. What will honestly make me happy 10 years from today is to see the achievement of goals set by the climate-conscious community. I also hope that the amount of compassion that we show to different species increases manifold. It would be a dream come true if 10 years from now the belief that humans are at the top of the food chain is replaced by the rightful belief that we are as dependent on other species as they are dependent on our various activities, or lack thereof. I want to be able to see us happily coexisting with all the other species we share this beautiful planet with. It would be nice to see some balance between development and conserving our nature. I hope that we live in a world that doesn’t abuse all the natural resources that our beautiful planet gives us. We live in a bountiful world that gives us a lot more than what we need, I hope we all come to appreciate this in the next decade.