“Only One Earth” is the theme of this year’s World Environment Day. Internationally, the Day was celebrated on the fifth of June for the 49th time calling practical actions to save the one and only earth from the continued environmental and climate damages. To save the world from experiencing harsh damages, the UNEP Executive Director said that “it’s now or never.”
World Environment Day was started to be celebrated every year following the 1972 UN conference on the human environment in Stockholm. Since then, June 5 was selected to mark as world environment day once in a year with different activities mainly in planting trees, organizing different cleaning activities and mainly sticking on awareness creation that promote environmental actions globally.
Sweden was a country selected to host this year’s World Environment Day with a slogan “Only One Earth.” This makes the day special as the world is commemorating the 50 years anniversary of the Conference which was held in Stockholm.
To commemorate that day and to accelerate multilateral diplomacy in environmental protection, the Golden Jubilee of the 1972 Stockholm Environment Conference is commemorated with a slogan “Stockholm +50” and celebration of the world day was hosted in Sweden with focus on “living sustainably in harmony with nature.”
In her message on the occasion of the 49th World Environment Day, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Executive Director Inger Andersen stated that the world is experiencing devastating damages that affects the current and future generations. “Today, action is more important than ever and we are running against the clock,” Andersen stated, adding: “We are looking at the present and future of heat waves, drought, floods, wildfires, pandemics, dirty air and plastic ridden oceans.”
For her, these natural disasters affecting the health of the environment are affecting everyone on this planet. “It is on all of us” and it needs everyone’s joint action to save the world to save ourselves, she added. To save the one and only earth, the Executive Director recommended that politicians must act for intergenerational wins in protecting the earth, financial institutions to boost their financing of the environment and businesses to account for nature.
Protecting the earth from devastating damages, a movement that began in 1972 is now at a critical juncture today, she noted adding the time is now to take necessary action. “The world needs to stand up to protect the air, land and water on which we all depend”, she underlined.
Meanwhile Ethiopia celebrated the day with different activities in the capital and in different parts of the country. At national level, the day was celebrated both in Addis Ababa and Jigjiga, the capital of Somali Regional State with panel discussions, cleaning and other activities. In connection with it, the Ethiopian Environment Protection Authority together with stakeholders organized exhibitions.
Director General of Ethiopian Environment Protection Authority (EPA), Getahun Garedew (PhD), stated that Ethiopia is celebrating World Environment Day for the 29th time with awareness raising and action-oriented activities that promote environmental protection.
For him, earth has everything for all living things, but due to unwise use of the natural resources and less care for the environment, the earth is suffering a lot which is dangerous for all living things, as all living things are dependent on earth. “We have only one earth. We all are dependent on this single planet. But, the earth is losing its natural gifts due to human beings and the solution is in the hands of human beings.”
According to the Director General, the earth is facing three serious threats that affect the health of the earth and the living things within it. Climate change, biodiversity loss and pollution are the three threats that the earth is facing due to lack of caring for the safety of the earth by human beings, Getahun stated.
“All the three threats are threats to all human beings. All the three threats are threats for every country across the world. These threats are equally threats for Ethiopia. These threats are threats for both the developing and developed world,” the director underlined. “Though the rate varies from individual to individual or from country to country, everyone is contributing its share either negatively or positively in affecting the earth,” he added.
Almost all threats that affect the health and safety of the earth are due to the activities of human beings and the solution to save the earth and to minimize the threats for its survival are in the hands of all human beings. Every one, every country has responsibilities to save this single planet, which is the home of all living creatures by investing in adaptation and mitigation actions of climate change to strengthen the resilience of the earth and to save the earth from further damages.
According to Getahun, to protect our planet, the earth, everyone should minimize wastes or develop the culture of reuse, minimize our contribution to the climate change by handling pollution and limit our activities that threaten the balance of nature in our day-to-day life. In this regard, he advised that planting trees and refrain from cutting trees is the best medicine to protect the earth from natural disasters.
In her message for the 2022 earth day, United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Liaison Office to African Union, UNECA and Representative to Ethiopia, Margaret M. Oduk (PhD) on her part stated that the world needs collective action timely to protect the earth from the challenges facing today. “We have only a single earth and the survival of the earth is dependent on its natural resources within it” she underlined adding the survival of the earth is badly affected from time to time by the day-to-day activities of human beings.
Hence, for her everyone should understand the current challenges that the earth is facing and should refrain from unsustainable consumption. All human beings should adjust their activities to live in harmony with nature sustainably. According to Margaret, our today’s activities related to the earth and nature have the power to decide even on the destiny of the future generations.
“Protecting and developing natural resources should be a priority to live in harmony with nature and to protect the earth from the devastating disasters facing today,” Margaret noted. “We have no choice other than caring for the irreplaceable planet, the earth and its natural resources for the continuity of generations and the living things within the earth.”
Praising Ethiopia’s Green Legacy Initiative national campaign that is ongoing to plant over 20 billion trees within four years launched in 2019, Margaret calls to continue this mass plantation and to expand it to other countries as forest coverage is the best medicine for the survival of the earth in addition to other actions.
For her, Ethiopia and developing countries are facing climate change driven challenges like flood and drought. The current drought that hit Ethiopia and its neighbors; mainly Kenya and Somalia is due to climate change and the solution is tackling climate change by caring for nature. Hence, everyone as a citizen and as an individual should actively participate in protecting nature so as to defend the impacts
BY DARGIE KAHSAY
The Ethiopian Herald 12 June 2022
