Each year the 5th of June is celebrated as World Environment Day to promote environmental awareness and encourage nature conservation. Established following the UN Conference on the Human Environment in Stockholm in 1972 and led by the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), World Environment Day has now become the largest global platform for environmental outreach. Millions of people worldwide participate in the Day through conferences, campaigns, and various other activities every year, resolving to reduce pollution, improve biodiversity, tackle climate change, and restore the planet earth.
The earth is a unique oasis of life. It is home to the human race and an uncountable number of other life forms, including plants, animals, and microorganisms. Such biodiversity is more than beauty and wonder. It also underpins the ecological system that humanity is dependent upon.
However, the future of life on our planet – and thus our own – is in jeopardy due to human-driven ecological change. Humanity has overreached in its pursuit of affluence and used the earth’s resources ruthlessly. Research shows that we have altered more than 75 percent of the world’s ice-free land. Over half of the planet’s habitable surface is now used to produce food. The ocean has fared no better, with a huge number of the world’s fish stocks having been overfished.
Making matters worse, fossil fuel carbon emissions from industry and agriculture have increased significantly since the 1970s. These emissions cause not only air pollution and ozone depletion but also the greenhouse effect and global warming. With the global temperature rising, we can no longer ignore the threat of climate change. If greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced as early as possible, it will be impossible to limit global warming to 2°C above pre-industrial levels, as foreseen in the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
Excessive exploitation of natural resources and greenhouse gas emissions pose a grave threat to the earth’s essential ecology. With the degradation of ecosystems, the quality of life for humans will decline. The natural assets they provide – clean air, clear water, and fertile land – will inevitably diminish. Humans will not be the only species to suffer. As ecosystems falter, other species large and small will come increasingly under strain, and will need to adapt or perish. It will take millions of years for the earth to recover its breadth and depth of biodiversity.
Whatever the consequences, it has to be recognized that if we humans continue to produce, consume, and power our lives the way we do now, land, oceans, and the atmosphere, which are all our environmental necessities, will collapse. For the sake of the survival and health of all species on earth, including our human race, we need to act with no delay. Protecting the environment is not a luxury but fundamental to us all. The task is monumental and everyone has to play a part.
People have started to protect the environment in small steps, but there is a dire need to take giant leaps. Every nation in the world needs to economize on energy and cut down on carbon emissions. Investment in new technologies and green innovation must be expanded. More stringent laws and rules must be formulated to deter actions that are harmful to the environment, and to ensure businesses and individuals comply with required standards.
Meanwhile, the measures we have long taken should be strengthened. We should establish more parks and nature reserves to protect wildlife and their habitats, and limit hunting and fishing to prevent the extinction of more species. This is both for protecting the integrity of the earth’s biological system and for ensuring that all creatures on earth have plentiful and varied resources. Take humanity, for example. Evidence has revealed that even if the extinction of one species bears no direct links to the welfare of humanity, it can impact the survival of some other species that we depend on.
We should also encourage more recycling, which is crucial for human society to achieve sustainability. Recycling is one of the three Rs (reduce, reuse, and recycle), which seeks to minimize waste disposal costs, reduce environmental and climate impacts, and realize zero waste. As the urgency to conserve our natural resources, save landfill space, and reduce harmful pollution increases, it is imperative to recycle to meet this need.
There is no denying that the need to preserve nature often conflicts with other needs. For some people, a wooded area may be a good place to put a farm. A timber company may want to harvest the area’s trees for construction materials. A business may want to build a factory or shopping mall on the land. All these needs are valid, but the benefits of development should be weighed against the harm to wild animals that may be forced to find new habitats, and against the depletion of natural resources that we human beings and all other life forms need to survive.
There are also people who argue that protecting the earth as planned by the current international agreements is too expensive or challenging. After all, we need to use the land and oceans to feed the ever-growing human population. But research already shows that the goals are attainable using existing technologies and with timely shifts in government policies, business practices, and individual behavior.
We have only one chance to get this right. Restoring the environment of the earth is an ambitious goal. But it is one that will secure a vibrant future for humanity and all other species on this planet. World Environment Day gives every person across the globe an opportunity to be empowered with environmental knowledge to energize protection actions. On this particular day, let us, as individuals or organizations, pledge to do whatever little we can to return ecological balance to the earth, so that every species on it can thrive and prosper.