3 Issues to Focus on This World Environment Day
World Environment Day is an opportunity to celebrate our planet and empower the next generation. This year’s World Environment Day campaign focuses on land restoration, extreme climate change, desertification and drought resilience under the slogan “Our land, Our future”. We are Generation Restoration. World Environment Day falls on June 5 and this year the situation is concerning, temperature has soared beyond 45 degrees.
Multiple factors contribute to the Environment, and multiple actions are needed to address them. We’ve highlighted 3 major environmental factors and ways you can help this World Environment Day!
Climate Change
Human influence has been the dominant cause of the observed warming since the mid-20th century. Yes, the climate has always changed. But, the speed of recent change is unprecedented. For a decade now, we’ve been noticing extreme climate change, sea level rises evident that they’d be global. This increase in turbulence frequency is due to climate change. Climate change is taking centre stage, with the nations scuffling with high temperatures. The surge in floods and fires added an ‘uncertainty factor’ while also making some areas completely uncertain. It is due to logging, and illegal activities. These activities disrupt the delicate ecological balance.
Every little effort counts on this Environment Day and beyond. Trees in urban areas can cool the air by up to 5°C, reducing air conditioning needs by 25 per cent. Urban trees provide multiple health benefits, such as cleaner water. They also clean the air and reduce flooding, among many other benefits.
Deforestation
Deforestation accelerates climate change. Irrespective of the level of urbanization, development has always followed a certain pattern, but the end of civilization due to desertification worries policymakers the least. It is necessary to update development policies to reflect the excessive deforestation and rapidly increasing temperatures.
Conservation is another luxury. There are many ways to reconcile environmental well-being. Arable land, afforestation, and prevention of desertification matters. Reclaim land for trees instead of decongesting the route for the people. We need to plant and nurture trees. Ideally, 10 trees per person.
Plastic Pollution
The recycling industry is promising in environmental sustainability while addressing the issue of plastic pollution. It’s worth a reminder that as well as affecting human health, plastic pollution is contributing to the global decline of coral reefs. A few ways to avoid adding to the problem include: The use of plastics in circulation must be temporarily regulated. A ban will apply firmly to the use of non-essential plastics that are most likely to fragment into microplastics and then nano-plastics. Neutralise the toxicity of existing plastics once and for all by wearing clothes made from natural fibres, purchasing second-hand items and encouraging your favourite brands to adopt plastic alternatives for their products and packaging.