Every 5th of June we celebrate World Environment Day, an important reminder that we must all do what we can to protect our natural surroundings and the planet we live on. World Environment Day was created in 1972 on the first day of the first ever UN conference to focus on humans and how they interact with the environment, and the first official World Environment Day was celebrated two years later with the slogan ‘Only One Earth’.
Just as it was back then, today the event remains extremely relevant. We don have ‘Only One Earth and the catastrophic effects of climate change are increasingly visible in our day to day lives, from unusual weather patters to natural disasters. Continuing deforestation is causing precious and unique ecosystems to be destroyed, and leaving their animal inhabitants, as well as human, with nowhere to go. Pollution is ruining claiming not just nature but human lives, and each year an estimated 7 million people die from causes related to air pollution, with a majority occurring in the Asia-Pacific region. Climate change has huge social, economic and environmental repercussions and it is a crisis which must be taken seriously.
Forests🌳🌲 are a critical #ClimateAction ally.#WorldEnvironmentDay host Pakistan will showcase its forest restoration success stories in an event organised with @FAO⤵️#GenerationRestoration https://t.co/TezhNovOGc
— UN Environment Programme (@UNEP) June 4, 2021
World Environment Day is both a global celebration and a platform for public outreach, a day to encourage worldwide activism and remind us all to do our best to care for and respect our environment, whether this is recycling our waste, reducing out transport emissions, purchasing responsibly sourced food and goods or taking to the streets in protest to drive policy changes. Even the small acts help in the fight to protect our planet and the special environment in which we live, both for ourselves and for future generations. It is a big task, and one that we must tackle together if we are to succeed. To learn more about the importance of our protecting our environment and about the world’s unique and incredible ecosystems, take a look at the World Environment Day website.
