What is World Environment Day?
June 5 was designated by the United Nations to encourage worldwide awareness and action for the environment. It is an opportunity for us to recognize our personal responsibility to care for the Earth and to become agents of change. Every action counts.
This year, the focus is on “small island developing states” and the celebration will be hosted by Barbados. Small island developing states are the most at risk from increasingly severe storms and rising sea levels attributed to changing climate patterns. Ironically, all together these states produce less than 1 percent of the world’s greenhouse gases. Most are working hard to achieve climate neutrality through the use of renewable energy and other approaches. These islands play an important role in protecting the oceans, and many are biodiversity hotspots, containing some of the richest reservoirs of plants and animals on the planet.
How will you respond to the challenge this year? Any and all actions are welcome.
Click here for a World Environment Day video.
You can:
- tweet, blog, or vlog.
- recycle.
- bike, walk, carpool or take the bus instead of driving to work or to run a short errand.
- clean up litter.
- plant a tree or plan a rain garden.
- paint a picture.
- write a song and Instagram it.
- post your photographs of sunrises and sunsets (c’mon, you know we all have some).
- take the LiveGreen Pledge if you haven’t already.
- volunteer for the LiveGreen Committee (contact Melanie Stewart).
- Send a Green U to someone you see doing something that saves energy.
- Explore the World Environment Day website and forward it to your friends.
My favorite part of the website is CinemAmbiente 2014. In addition to movie trailers, you can find links to YouTube videos about this year’s theme.
Click on this link to register your activity and be counted.