By Nasiru Medugu Idris
World Environment Day occurs on 5th June every year and is the United Nation’s principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment. First held in 1974, it has been a flagship campaign for raising awareness on emerging environmental issues from marine pollution, human overpopulation and global warming, to sustainable consumption and wildlife crime. The campaign is led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) which is the largest global platform for environmental public outreach and is celebrated by millions of people across the world.
This UN principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment is a very vital platform for promoting progress on the environmental dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals towards championing environmental causes by corporate bodies, non-governmental organizations, communities, governments and celebrities from across the world.
This year it was hosted by Sweden with the theme “Only One Earth”. This was the slogan for the first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972. This put sustainable development on the global agenda and led to the establishment of World Environment Day. Under the theme “Only One Earth” World Environment Day 2022 highlighted the need to live sustainably in harmony with nature by transformative changes in our policies and choices toward cleaner and greener lifestyles.
Why take part now? Time is running out, and nature is in emergency mode. To keep global warming below 1.5°C this century, we must halve annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030. Without action, exposure to air pollution beyond safe guidelines will increase by 50 per cent within the decade and plastic waste flowing into aquatic ecosystems will nearly triple by 2040.
We need urgent action to address these pressing issues, making “Only One Earth” and its focus on living sustainably in harmony with nature, as pertinent as ever.
Therefore, growing trees, greening cities, rewilding gardens, changing diets or cleaning up rivers and coasts are of great importance for the betterment of our environment today.
Why the year 2022 celebration? The celebration of 2022 World Environment Day
June 5 should provide an awareness campaign and the importance of annual celebration and most importantly Tree Planting Campaign within our immediate environment so that we can connect people with nature, urge them to stay outdoors and enjoy the breath of fresh air and appreciate its beauty and to think about how we are part of nature and how intimately we depend on it.
By supporting World Environment Day 2022 and the #OnlyOneEarth campaign, you can help ensure this unique and beautiful planet remains a comfortable home for humanity.
The first World Environment Day (WED) was organised and celebrated since 1974 with the theme “Only One Earth” but in the year 1987, the idea for rotating the centre of these activities through selecting different host countries began. WED has been a major campaign for environmental issues ranging from marine pollution, to human overgrowth, and raising awareness about global warming, sustainable consumption, and wildlife crime among others.
This day can also be celebrated in unique ways such as through tree planting campaigns, awareness programmes in schools and on social media platforms, sensitization programmes in churches and mosques as well as distribution of flyers in public places on the importance of the day.
The theme “Only One Earth” is very critical today as millions of plants and animal species are facing extinction, thus there has never been a more important time to focus on the issue of one earth than now. Therefore, 2022 is a year for urgency, ambition and action to address the crisis facing nature which is coupled with climate change.
So I am encouraging each and every one of us today to accelerate, amplify and engage people, communities and even the governments to take action on critical environmental challenges facing the planet so that we can preserve and restore ONE EARTH and in return, the ecosystem will provide us with its services which include food availability, water supply, fresh air among others.
The rate at which human activities are destroying the ecosystem through deforestation, bush burning, construction activities including mining, intensified agriculture, and encroachment of wildlife habitats will continue to destroy the entire universe and/or exceed the Earth carrying capacity, thus, it will be beyond the limit of nature and thus biodiversity loss will have severe implications for humanity, including the collapse of food and health systems.
Now, you can see the importance of celebrating the World Environment Day yearly as to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the protection of the environment.
This day was designated to help raise worldwide awareness of the threats to our environment and to ensure environmental problems are tackled from the grass root level. This day could be the day to start changing our lifestyle so as to reduce our carbon footprint.
United for Environment, for a better tomorrow!!!
Professor Idris is the Dean, Faculty of Environmental Science, Nasarawa State University, Keffi
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