June 5 -World Environment Day :

A wake-up call to care for our environment

by S. Weragoda

The environment is something we are very familiar with. When we step outside our house what we are faced with is the environment. It's everything that makes up our surroundings and affects our ability to live on the earth - the air we breathe, the water that covers most of the earth's surface, the plants and animals around us, and much more.

In recent years, scientists have been carefully examining the ways that people affect the environment. They have found that we are causing air pollution, deforestation, acid rain, and other problems that are dangerous both to the earth and to ourselves. These days, when you hear people talk about “the environment”, they are often referring to the overall condition of our planet, or how healthy (or unhealthy) it is.

World Environment Day (WED), commemorated each year on June 5, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action.

This year’s celebration on June 5 will be hosted by Mongolia and will focus on reducing food waste and loss. It is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action. WED activities take place all year round and climax on June 5 every year, involving everyone from everywhere.

Observance of WED began in 1972 as a way to raise awareness of the environment and encourage political attention and action. This year’s theme for the Day is “Think. Eat. Save. Reduce Your Foodprint,” which builds on a global campaign of the same name launched earlier this year by UNEP, the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and other partners to reduce food and waste loss. The theme for this year’s WED celebrations is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages us to reduce foodprint. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, one in every seven people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of five die daily from hunger.

Given this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, this year’s theme - Think.Eat.Save - encourages us to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices you make and empowers you to make informed decisions.

Implication

The first part of this year’s theme (Think) encourages people to become aware of the environmental implication of food production and wasted food and therefore help save our environment. On many occasions more food than needed is prepared in our homes, hotels or restaurants. Food waste contributes to negative environmental impacts like increase of greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss. Waste of food means also waste of all the resources and inputs (such as water, energy) used in the production of all the food and more use of energy in food processing and final disposal generates greenhouse gases in the process of degradation in the landfill.

The theme’s second part (Eat) encourages people to make informed decisions of the food choices while also improving the quality of their life.

The third part (Save) calls upon people for sustainable consumption, doing more and better with less, reduce their foodprint and adopt a more sustainable lifestyle, through Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

Shift

Mongolia has been chosen for its efforts to shift towards a green economy in its major economic sectors such as mining and for promoting environmental awareness among youth, the UN Environment Program (UNEP) said in a statement. The Asian nation is facing enormous challenges, including growing pressure on food security, traditional nomadic herding and water supplies as a result of the impacts of climate change, UNEP’s Executive Director Achim Steiner said.

“Indeed it is estimated that annual mean temperature has increased by over 2°C during the past 70 years and precipitation has decreased in most regions, except the western part of the country, indicating that Mongolia is among the most vulnerable nations in the world to global warming.

Challenges

“Yet its Government is also determined to meet these challenges and seize the opportunities of a less-polluting and more sustainable future – from a moratorium on new mining pending improved environmental regulations to plans to become a renewable energy power-house and exporter of clean energy regionally,” he said.

He made this known during UNEP’s Governing Council session in Nairobi, Kenya, where hundreds of environment ministers and civil society representatives met to discuss some of the most pressing environmental issues.

“I am sure that as the global host of WED, Mongolia will demonstrate to the world that a transition to a green economy is possible, even within some of the most traditionally challenging industrial sectors, when leadership, vision, smart policies and political will are translated into action on the ground,” Steiner said.

Are we too responsible for the safety and maintenance of a healthy environment? Our role in the felling of trees due to our ever growing needs has been on an unprecedented scale and has caused an alarming depletion in green cover. The overall rainfall has been decreasing over the years due to the greenhouse effect, leading to disastrous climate change.

It is found out that many important glaciers have significantly shrunk in size. Polar ice is also melting fast. Large icebergs have been seen floating near Antarctica.

If this trend continues, sea levels will rise and entire islands could be submerged. In order to avoid ending up in a watery grave, millions living on the coast or near the sea would be forced to relocate.

Further increase in global temperature will also lead to loss of vital flora and fauna. As each species has a vital role to play in the food chain, any imbalance means destruction of the ecosystem itself. It is incumbent on everyone concerned to avoid this possibility. Time is running out!