New Delhi in India has been the host city two times way back in 2011 and 2018. In June 2013, an
written by poet Abhay K was launched by Kapil Sibal and Shashi Tharoor, and Union ministers of India. Since then, this anthem is widely used in the celebrations of World Environment Day.
. Many activities like planting trees,
, rewilding gardens, and cleaning up our rivers and coasts will be a part of restoring the ecosystem. Pakistan will be the host country this year.
The spotlight event of this year’s WED would be the launch of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration (2021-2030) that aims to prevent, halt and reverse the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean.
What’s the Need to Protect Ecosystem?
“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed,” said Mahatma Gandhi, an Indian freedom fighter.
We have been exploiting our ecosystems as much as we could. Scientists say that every three seconds, the world loses enough forest to cover a football pitch and up to 90% of coral reefs could be lost by 2050.
Global warming is an issue of concern as there is a rise in the rate of melting of glaciers and global greenhouse gas emissions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has shown how much should we do to protect our ecosystems. Starting from the shrinkage of natural habitats for animals to the loss of many smaller forests, we contributed either knowingly or unknowingly to the dissemination of many pathogens, including the SARS-CoV-2.
We can take this ‘World Environment Day’ to kick off all these issues and restore our ecosystems within this decade.
What can ‘We’ do to Save the Earth?
All of us can start from our homes to protect our Earth. Some measures that can be adopted include,
References:
- World Environment Day 5 June – (https://www.un.org/en/observances/environment-day)
- World Environment Day 2021 – (https://www.unep.org/events/un-day/world-environment-day-2021)
- World Environment Day – (https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/)
- World Environment Day in Brief – (https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/environmentday)
Source: Medindia
