This year sees the 40th anniversary of the event that led to the establishment of World Environment Day. WED, as it is often called, was established by the United Nations General Assembly to mark the start of the UN Conference on the Human Environment held in Stockholm from 5thto 16th June 1972. The first World Environment Day was on 5th June 1973.
The Stockholm Conference was the first occasion that world leaders met to discuss the political, social and economic problems of the global environment with a view to actually doing something about it.
Each year World Environment Day is hosted by a different country and this year the host is Brazil and the theme is Green Economy: Does it include you?
This can be summed up as being a socially inclusive, low carbon economy that is efficient with its resources.
India is also not far from contributing to save our Planet earth. As a part of social duty corporates from all sectors are coming forward and contributing. Corporates in India have stopped using plastics or papers cups for tea coffee. Many corporates are coming forward and planting millions of trees and to new a few are Reliance India, Cocacola and Vodafone India. Corporates have been collecting E-wastes and are sending it for recycling. Nokia around the world are planting a tree in lieu of one old cellphones which is again a great gesture in order to contribute some positives towards this special day. Entire world have been contributing and celebrating “Earth Day” by switching off their lights for an hour’s time. Entire world has stopped using papers instead of that we all are using internet and doing paperless work across the world.
In spite of taking so many initiatives in all corners and from all walks of life we have been failing to produce desire results and the reason for the same is that we have been producing more pollution than we have been working on saving the earth. All developed countries are emitting millions of tons of wastes and pollution, which is again deteriorating our progress towards saving the environment.
The 2012 gathering in Brazil is being hailed as one of the largest and most important gatherings in the history of the United Nations. In addition to 2012 being an important date in the history of World Environment Day, it is also the 20thanniversary of the first Earth Summit that was held in Rio in 1992.
This year's Rio+20 Earth Summit is seen as a once in a generation opportunity to set the world on a path leading to a sustainable low-carbon green economy. It is confidently expected that at least 130 world heads of state will be attending the gathering.
Unfortunately the major problem facing the world is that in spite of the determined efforts in recent years to improve the environment, according to some experts the situation is actually getting worse rather than better.
A report from the World Wildlife Fund cites a combination of swelling populations, mass migration to cities, increased energy use and soaring carbon dioxide emissions that are putting a greater squeeze on the planet's resources than ever before. Particularly hard hit are animals and plants whose diversity depends on a clean water supply, plus a range of other natural
Climate-warming carbon emissions have increased by 40% since 1992, but two thirds of that increase has occurred since 2002.
In the past 20 years the populations of the world's cities has risen by around 45% and urban residents typically have much larger carbon footprints than their rural counterparts. In China, for instance, the average Beijing resident has a footprint three times the average for the rest of the country.
The clear message of World Environment Day is that everyone has a duty to push for a Green Economy and hopefully the world leaders at Rio+20 will take this forward. Turning things around will be difficult; it will need unity and strength of purpose, but it simply must be done.
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