Staff Correspondent, Dhaka
Chief Adviser Dr Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday urged everyone to avoid the use of plastic items to protect the environment and planet.
"If we do not change our lifestyle, our defeat to plastic is obvious," he told a function as the chief guest at the Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Center in Dhaka, marking World Environment Day.
Yunus said humans are destroying nature, but do not realize that nature also has a destructive mode.
Highlighting the adverse impacts of plastic on the planet, he said plastic use is accelerating the climate crisis, natural disasters and biodiversity destruction.
The chief adviser said the country's waterbodies and biodiversity are being destroyed due to the lack of proper plastic management.
About the longevity of plastic in nature, he said everything has a lifespan, but plastic is a thing that has no death.
Describing the harmful impacts of microplastics, Yunus said: "If we do not leave plastic use, destruction will not leave us."
"We are on a suicidal path as the indiscriminate use of plastic and polythene is everywhere. We all know it is dangerous. But microplastic is more dangerous than it (plastic)," he said.
He mentioned that the presence of microplastics was found in breast milk and ilish fish recently. "So we cannot sit idle. We must start work [to this end]," Yunus said.
He suggested stopping the production of plastic and polythene.
Issuing an appeal to countrymen to stop one-time plastic use, he said they should make a decision to gradually prevent plastic use.
Terming plastic a poison for the world and all living things, the chief adviser said the use of this poison is increasing gradually with the rise of the population.
He said the young generation should consider pollution more seriously, as pollution is the biggest enemy to their survival.
Yunus urged the young generation to come forward to address the climate crisis.
He stressed changing the perception of development, saying that no development work should be undertaken that destroys the country's environment and nature.
"Nature has given us all... refrain from destroying it," he added.
In addition to carrying out the government's tree plantation campaign, the chief adviser suggested launching a "stop tree felling campaign," aiming to protect the environment and nature.
In his speech, he recalled the martyrs of the July Uprising and hoped for the swift recovery of the injured.
Yunus inaugurated the Environment Fair 2025 and the National Tree Plantation Campaign and Tree Fair 2025 at the function.
Environment Adviser Syeda Rizwana Hasan and Environment Secretary Dr Farhina Ahmed also spoke at the event.
