In recent times, India was declared as the third-most polluted country in the world. 22 of the 30 most polluted cities in the world, including 14 in the top 15, are in India, and these are the findings by a Swiss Organization, IQAir. It is essential to talk about environmental issues like increasing global warming, deforestation, wastage and losses of food, pollution, and many other things to stop such problems. The environment supports all life on Earth or we can say it is the basis that supports all humanity. Each aspect of human health is affected by it, and thus, we need to respect and celebrate the environment around us. And accordingly, Environment Day is celebrated for successfully planting on degraded lands, concentrating on forest management, dropping greenhouse effects, carbon neutrality, helping coral reefs and mangroves, and many other things.
Throughout the world, several campaigns are organized with a particular theme to bring efficiency in this matter. The theme of World Environment Day 2021 is “Ecosystem Restoration”, and it can take in distinct forms like growing trees, greening cities, and cleaning up rivers and coasts. This year our neighboring country Pakistan will host the World Environment Day event. Last year, the theme for Environment Day was ‘Celebrate Biodiversity’ and it was hosted by Colombia in partnership with Germany.
The World Environment Day has been in progress as an annual event on every 5th June since 1974, to raise the significance of the healthy and green environment in the human lives, to solve the issues by implementing some positive environmental actions through government, and other organizations. It is also important to take responsibility as an individual as well, because the environment is just surroundings in which we all live as individuals and develop a sense of belonging with each other as humans.
The environment includes air, water, soil, trees, animals, human beings, and many other things. Yet, after being a part of an inseparable region, we often observe that the environment around us was originally a natural landscape, for example, a forest that has been moved by humans for their infrastructures like buildings, and roads. And all other human activities like encroachment on wildlife habitats, intensified agriculture and several types of pollutions have disturbed the cycle of nature and pushed it beyond all the limits.
To meet our present-day demands from nature, with the increasing population levels, we have been determined to consume the natural resources. The United Nations has said that it would take 1.6 Earths to meet the demands that humans make of nature every year. And if this will continue, it will generate a massive loss of biodiversity that will have deadly effects on humanity as a result of the loss of habitat, water, and food.
According to a study by Ellen McArthur Foundation, about 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste has been generated in the world till 2015, and around 90% of this will not be even decomposed for at least 500 years. And countless tiny fragments of plastic have been also found in soil, water, and even in the air that we breathe. To tackle such disastrous matters, we observe World Environment, by which we can spread awareness among people about such issues in our environment.
Encouraging people from different communities in India and across the world, to actively participate in World Environment Day, and become an active representative in developing environmental safety measures has become a very important thing to attain. It is also important for us to understand that even individuals can help to save the environment by just using simple techniques like recycling and using solar devices.
If we surely want to save our environment, the need of the hour is to conserve our energy resources provided by nature, and this is possible only if action is taken on the individual level first, rather than depending completely on government and environment-friendly organizations. It is needed for us to make our surroundings clean and safe for a better future because saving the environment is exactly same as saving ourselves.
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Reference:
- www.worldenvironmentday.global
- www.timesofindia.com
- www.iqair.com/india