Photo taken by Sebastian Pichler on Unsplash.

World Environment Day, which takes place on June 5th every year, promotes and celebrates the act of taking care of the Earth. It focuses on current environmental issues and potential solutions. While we can’t reverse time, actions like forest restoration, recycling, and preventing deforestation can help to heal our relationship with the planet.

Something to be alarmed about this World Environment Day is a loss of bio-diversity. Every year, about 0.01% of species are going extinct each year. Though this
number seems small, it actually means that
around 2,000 extinctions occur annually. To expand on that, nearly 1 million living organisms are
on the brink of extinction. This stems from various factors, including invasive species, habitat destruction, and pollution. Many organizations, such as the United Nations and the World Health Organization have already put environmental-saving programs into initiative. One example is GenerationRestoration, which is a program that was created by the UNEP and the Food and Agriculture Organization. It has multiple objectives pertaining to environmental sustainability, and works with different countries in order to make these goals possible. These groups are not limited for those who work in public health- they’re for everyone, including you.

You might wonder, “How can I contribute during World Environment Day?” There are many ways that you can pitch in to a cleaner and healthier environment. You’ve probably heard the advice many times before, but make sure to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Reduce the amount of waste that you create in the environment- it has a bigger impact than you may think. It conserves energy and allows for less pollution to be exposed to the environment. Reusing items also benefits the environment by reducing waste that would otherwise end up in landfills. Lastly, recycling lets natural resources such as the air and water be preserved. Believe it or not, recycling also allows for more jobs to be made. More than 500,000 jobs in the recycling business open annually due to the amount of people who reduce, reuse, and recycle.

On June 5th, don’t let any environmental issues break your spirit. Instead, see the bright side of things in order to make changes in your way of life. Reducing our carbon footprint and making a positive impact on the world can be as easy as planting seeds or making a garden in the backyard. As the saying goes: go green, breathe clean.

References

Citizensinformation.ie. (n.d.). Reducing Waste.
https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/environment/waste-and-recycling/reducing-waste/

Wazed, S. (2024, June 5). World Environment Day. World Health Organization.
https://www.who.int/southeastasia/news/detail/05-06-2024-world-environment-day

United Nations Environment Programme. (n.d.). Becoming #GenerationRestoration.
https://www.unep.org/interactive/ecosystem-restoration-people-nature-climate/en/index.php