BW About The Day: World Environment Day 2023: History, Importance And Theme
Right from birth to the last breath, human life witnesses several forms of nature that sustain life. Water, air, sunlight, soil and other living organism live in an interdependent ecosystem in which one cannot exist without another, and the system all together forms an environment. The environment provides food to eat, water to drink, scenic beauty in the forms of hills and rivers, and diversity in the form of birds and animals. The environment is the sacred adobe in which all living organisms live, grow and evolve.
In recent years, the risk to the environment has increased rapidly. However, the concern to replenish it has also increased significantly. World Environment Day is one initiative to celebrate the importance of the environment and raise awareness to protect it.
History
After the industrialisation of the world, the health of the environment declined heavily which led the countries to organise United Nations Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 in Stockholm, Sweden. This conference resulted in the foundation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), an agency of the UN completely dedicated to looking after the environmental condition. UNEP is the prime body that pushes countries for forming and reforming their environmental programmes.
UNEP aims to bring a revolutionary change in the environment with the cooperation and collaboration of countries across the globe. UNEP was the same organisation that proposed to celebrate World Environment Day in a direction to wake people of the current environmental situation and raise awareness regarding the same.
Importance
The environment is directly related to humans, animals and plants, as we are heading in the direction where the environment will have more threats. Animals and plants cannot step ahead to protect the environment, but humans are able to take up measures to conserve it. We have been practising activities that have proven lethal for the environment’s health, hence we need now to take up the methods to replenish it.
World Environment Day represents an opportunity for all the inhabitants of Earth to return the favour the environment has given to mankind. Every sector, company and country come forward to enrol the policies for the betterment of the environment. Environment, Social and Governance are the key fields in which every public and private organisation is working significantly.
Theme
For the year 2023, when World Environment Day is completing 50 years, the theme of this year is ‘BeatPlasticPollution’. As per UNEP, World Environment Day 2023 will be hosted by Côte d'Ivoire and supported by the Netherlands and the theme will focus on solutions to plastic pollution under the campaign #BeatPlasticPollution. This theme will be an endeavour to make people aware of the increasing threat of plastic pollution and take the crucial step to overcome this.
A report, named “Forever Toxic: The Science on health threats from plastic recycling,” unequivocally confirms that recycling exacerbates the toxicity of plastics. It is pointing to the alarming fact that plastics contain over 13,000 chemicals, with approximately 3,200 known to pose hazards to human health.
