Development & Aid, Environment, Tierramerica

World Environment Day

Jun 2 2002 (IPS) - World Environment Day, celebrated every June 5 around the planet, is dedicated this year to an important issue: we must give the Earth a chance. The planet must be allowed some respite from the damaged caused by human activities.

“Our planet is still in need of intensive care,” said United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan in his World Environment Day address.

At the web site of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) on World Environment Day 2002, it is made clear that in spite of the progress made in recent years, many of the human activities that hurt the planet in the 20th century persist today.

“Poverty, pollution, and population growth; rural poverty and rapid urbanization; wasteful consumption habits and growing demands for water, land and energy continue to place intense pressures on the planet's life support systems, threatening our ability to achieve sustainable development,” said Annan.

A recently released UNEP report, Global Environment Outlook, states that within a few years 70 percent of the world's land surface could be seriously damaged by infrastructure projects, resource exploitation and the expansion of… civilization.

The World Environment Day theme – Give the Earth a Chance – is closely linked with the crucial meeting convened for this year in South Africa, the World Summit on Sustainable Development, also known as Rio+10, where it is hoped that the world's governments will agree on measures for confronting the most urgent environmental problems.

World Environment Day has also been tied this year to the commemoration of International Year of Mountains.

The city chosen to host the celebration of World Environment Day 2002 is Shenzhen, China. However, around the world public and private institutions are holding environment-related events, many of which are aimed to raise public awareness about protecting the Earth.

World Environment Day was established by a UN resolution 30 years ago, in 1972. It is a member of a family of more than 50 special days set aside by the international forum as a means to call attention to issues that affect all peoples and nations.