World Enviornment Day 2008. Let us save our planet by ensuring that our carbon footprints do not get longer.
5 June, 2008
‘CO2-KICK THE HABIT! TOWARDS A LOW CARBON ECONOMY’The World Environment Day, celebrated on 5 June each year, is utilized by the United Nations to generate awareness about the environment, to initiate new policies and to provide the momentum for the already existing ones.
The theme this year is ‘Co2- Kick the habit! Towards a low carbon economy’.
A ‘carbon footprint’ is an excellent way to evaluate the environmental damage by a person. It is expressed in equivalent tons of CO2 and is defined as the total amount of greenhouse gases produced to support human activities.
Climate change being the focal issue of our planet, the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP) has requested companies, communities and countries to discover ways to reduce their green gas emissions.
The core points of their drive includes highlighting the following-
• Resources/initiatives that accentuate low carbon economics
• Low carbon lifestyles
• Improved energy efficiency
• Alternative eco-friendly energy sources
• Eco-friendly consumption of energy
• Conservation of forests
The World Environment Day, which began in 1972, is now celebrated globally in many different ways, such as rallies, posters, clean-up campaigns, tree planting and several more.
Celebrity tree-planting ceremonies and crying ‘Go Green’ till you go green in the face are of little use if the world’s majority are ignorant of the ‘goings on’. There are many more who believe that no single individual can help to reverse the damages.
Future wars are forecasted, not over fair maidens nor over land and money but over the precious, life- sustaining commodity—Water!
We must realize that our collective everyday activities are snowballing into a global crisis that threatens our very existence.
This is when conscientious campaigns, at grass root levels, will generate awareness, which may be converted into positive action. All global policies should be based on a common environmental agenda, binding humanity in a single cause.
Let us bid to save our planet by closely examining our daily deeds. Let us ensure that our carbon footprints do not get any longer!
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Dr. REEJA THARU/L
