On July 11, 2016 — India planted 50 million trees in one day. A whopping 49.3 million tree saplings to be precise, blowing past the previous record for most trees planted in a single day.

That record, a mere 847,275 trees, was set by Pakistan in 2013. Clearly, India won that battle — a completely different kind of battle.

A battle that makes me wonder — what if countries like India and Pakistan stop fighting over land and instead start caring for the land they already possess. Let’s see how green the grass can really get.

The fight against poverty and illiteracy is important, but so is the fight for the preservation of our respective territories. If given a chance, our consciousness will allow us to identify our habits as our core enemy.

We need to wake up to a completely different kind of war that we need to be fighting. A few countries have not only woken up but are consciously working towards staying awake:

Iceland is wanting to be carbon free in years to come. Denmark is well on track to meet its 2020 goal of getting 50 percent of its power from renewables. Bhutan is on its way to becoming wholly organic. Sweden has been getting sustainability right since the beginning. France is doing its bit by being the first to ban plastic cups and plates.

In reality, these countries are at war and clearly winning the battle.

It gets easier if we wake up to the reality that collectively we have a far bigger enemy — climate change. Because when everything starts to fall apart and come crashing down, the lines of partition won’t matter.

When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind. — Jiddu Krishnamurti

So, if the true essence of patriotism can be re-defined and a sense of pride is warranted only if each one of us consciously and consistently adds value to our environment, then there is hope.

Hope for the world to religiously fight a war that’s worth fighting.