June 5 the World Environment Day is also known as Eco Day and Environment Day. United Nations came together with its 133 member countries on June 5, 1972, in Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. The reason for their gathering was something directly concerning millions of people they represent including themselves: environment. The first conference held about this issue was the Environment Conference in 1972. Later, 5th of June was announced World Environment Day to continue the actions and raise awareness. The day is celebrated every year in over 100 countries since 1974.
Humanity’s Never-Ending Playing Ostrich
A big part of the population in the world now lives in the cities. According to the UN report, this number will reach 68% of the world population by 2050. We spend our lives in cities, where our direct connection to nature gets weaker more and more. Most of us don’t have to walk a long way for the water source we use and drink every day.
The thing we forget between our tall apartment lives is that we are still in nature. We may have forgotten this, but climate change, endangered species and the state of glaciers remind us every day that we are not independent of nature. All we have to do is to stop playing ostrich. All the damage we caused to the environment affects the biodiversity and in the end, us.
Look around, see your nature!
On these days we are taking a back seat due to global coronavirus, we are getting the news of nature all over the world, that it is able to take a break with decreasing human activities. With transportation decreasing considerable and along with factories that emitted harmful gas break downing or decreasing production, air pollution in the atmosphere also decreased. All this shows us, that if we become compatible with nature again, we can prevent the irresponsible damage we caused our only home earth from going any further. Perhaps the most important thing is that we remember once more the part we choose not to see with the technology we wrapped ourselves with: we are a part of nature.
Bees, suppliers of 90% of the food on our tables, is one of the most important subjects of biodiversity.*
7 Advice to help nature!
- Minimizing food waste
- Stop wasting water at home, work and school
- Planting trees
- Not harming the existing greenery
- Using our clothes for a longer time
- Throwing our trash by sorting it correctly
- Using natural cleaners like vinegar instead of chemical one
This environment day, the biodiversity will be discussed
The 2020 theme of World Environment Day, attracting attention to nature with many organizations done by NGOs and government-sponsored organizations, will be ‘’biodiversity’’. Meaning the difference between species living in the land, sea and all the other living spaces, biodiversity is a situation we must preserve to maintain the life on this planet and for us to live.
We can resemble the importance of biodiversity for nature to the importance of water for humans. Without it, it is not possible for the other to exist. Along with the planned actions for World Environment Day, the UN also declared the years between 2021 and 2030 ‘’ Decade on Ecosystem Restoration’’.
It is decided that this year World Environment Day and the meeting where resolutions on nature will be taken, will take place in Colombia with the support of Germany.
This Environment Day, by visiting this site, you can learn about biodiversity and many other things on nature in ‘’ Earth School’’ with fun.
Turkish4 wishes us all a world we can commune with nature!
If you want to read this article in Turkish, klich here.
Sources
www.unenvironment.org/news-and-stories/press-release/colombia-host-2020-world-environment-day-biodiversity
https://wesr.unep.org/
https://www.wwf.org.tr/hikayemiz/ilkelerimiz/
https://d2hawiim0tjbd8.cloudfront.net/downloads/doann_yok_oluu_ve_pandemilerin_yukselii_25_04_20.pdf
https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/
https://ed.ted.com/earth-school
https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revision-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html
https://www.eea.europa.eu/highlights/air-pollution-goes-down-as
Translated by: Esra Nur ELMAS
May 2020
