World Environment Day 5th June
By Marianne de Nazareth
05 June, 2010
Countercurrents.org
With World Environment Day due on June 5th, the world is shame faced with the disastrous oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Efforts by BP to plug the oil well have met with failure and there is talk of the oil leak continuing into August, 2010. Apparently BP had been warned of safety problems with the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in June 2009, but with so much money at stake, obviously who wanted to listen? Now the oil spill has sullied over more than 160km of Louisiana coast and has invaded marshlands as well. Not only are the oceans being horrendously polluted, bird and marine life will suffer for aeons with the accretion of the oil mass on and in the water.
That is why it is important for us to take action for the well being of our planet Earth on June 5th. Children, adults, celebrities and the common man - every human being across the globe needs to stop for a minute and do something, never mind how big or small to help ease our limping planet.
Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary General and UNEP Executive Director, has in a special message said: " World Environment Day (WED) is an opportunity for communities and countries across the globe to re-affirm their commitment to substantially reversing the rate of loss of the globe's biodiversity while restoring and repairing the ecosystems--from forests and freshwaters to soils, coral reefs and even the atmosphere-- that underpin all life on Earth".
"Scientists advise that mismanagement of these ecosystems and the multi-trillion dollar services they provide has left 60 per cent degraded. Meanwhile the planet is undergoing a sixth wave of extinctions--we are removing the building blocks one by one without any notion of when the edifice of the natural world may suddenly and catastrophically fall,” he added.
"2010, the UN's International Year of Biodiversity, has to be a moment when we get far more intelligent about the way humanity manages its natural and nature-based assets including bringing them into the centre of economic discourse and development strategies. Otherwise natural resource scarcity will increasingly define lives and livelihoods over the coming years and decades challenging the international community's attempts to overcome poverty alongside the real and urgent need to combat climate change and feed a world of six billion, rising to nine billion by 2050," said Mr Steiner.
The faster we humans realise that our intrusion on the planet is a sure fire recipe for disaster, the better it is for us all. “What’s the use of having a World Environment Day?,” asks Sagayaraj the manager of a prominent club in the city of Bangalore. “ People should look after Mother Earth 365 days of the year.” He is standing on the pavement outside the club, personally watering and nurturing six saplings that he has planted in lieu of those cut down during various road widening exercises in the city by the city corporation. This is the usual response from city dwellers to the concept of a day set aside especially for World Environment Day. It is only once the concept is explained, especially to the youth that their interest to do something on the day is fanned. There are not many Sagayaraj’s with a personal agenda to plant trees and nurture them to maturity in the city, so encouraging interest which is achieved by programmes held on World Environment Day is a must. What have you planned for the day and the years ahead? Think of how you can contribute – it will help you, not only future generations.
The writer is a fellow with UNEP and teaches journalism in St. Joseph’s PG College, Bangalore.
