World Environment Day is celebrated on 5 June each year to increase environmental awareness and action. This year’s focus is on climate change, with the theme, Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy. There will be activities around the world on 5 June to highlight the problem of global warming and climate change, and how we can do our part to reduce carbon emissions. Check out the World Environment Day website for more details and activities.

The message for World Environment Day 2008 by United Nations Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, is shown below:

MESSAGE FOR WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2008

KICK THE CARBON HABIT

Addiction is a terrible thing. It consumes and controls us, makes us deny important truths and blinds us to the consequences of our actions. Our world is in the grip of a dangerous carbon habit.

Coal and oil paved the way for the developed world’s industrial progress. Fast-developing countries are now taking the same path in search of equal living standards. Meanwhile, in the least developed countries, even less sustainable energy sources, such as charcoal, remain the only available option for the poor.

Our dependence on carbon-based energy has caused a significant build-up of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Last year, the Nobel Peace Prize-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change put the final nail in the coffin of global warming sceptics. We know that climate change is happening, and we know that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases that we emit are the cause.

We don’t just burn carbon in the form of fossil fuels. Throughout the tropics, valuable forests are being felled for timber and making paper, for pasture and arable land and, increasingly, for plantations to supply a growing demand for biofuels. This further manifestation of our carbon habit not only releases vast amounts of CO2; it also destroys a valuable resource for absorbing atmospheric carbon, further contributing to climate change.

The environmental, economic and political implications of global warming are profound. Ecosystems — from mountain to ocean, from the Poles to the tropics — are undergoing rapid change. Low-lying cities face inundation, fertile lands are turning to desert, and weather patterns are becoming ever more unpredictable.

The cost will be borne by all. The poor will be hardest hit by weather-related disasters and by soaring price inflation for staple foods, but even the richest nations face the prospect of economic recession and a world in conflict over diminishing resources. Mitigating climate change, eradicating poverty and promoting economic and political stability all demand the same solution: we must kick the carbon habit. This is the theme for World Environment Day 2008. “Kick the Habit: Towards a Low Carbon Economy”, recognizes the damaging extent of our addiction, and it shows the way forward.

Often we need a crisis to wake us to reality. With the climate crisis upon us, businesses and governments are realizing that, far from costing the Earth, addressing global warming can actually save money and invigorate economies. While the estimated costs of climate change are incalculable, the price tag for fighting it may be less than any of us may have thought. Some estimates put the cost at less than one per cent of global gross domestic product — a cheap price indeed for waging a global war.

Even better news is that technologies already exist or are under development to make our consumption of carbon-based fuels cleaner and more efficient and to harness the renewable power of sun, wind and waves. The private sector, in particular, is competing to capitalize on what they recognize as a massive business opportunity.

Around the world, nations, cities, organizations and businesses are looking afresh at green options. At the United Nations, I have instructed that the plan for renovating our New York headquarters should follow strict environmental guidelines. I have also asked the chief executives of all UN programmes, funds and specialized agencies to move swiftly towards carbon neutrality.

Earlier this year, the UN Environment Programme launched a climate neutral network — CN Net — to energize this growing trend. Its inaugural members, which include countries, cities and companies, are pioneers in a movement that I believe will increasingly define environmental, economic and political discourse and decision making over the coming decades.

The message of World Environment Day 2008 is that we are all part of the solution. Whether you are an individual, an organization, a business or a government, there are many steps you can take to reduce your carbon footprint. It is message we all must take to heart.

Source: World Environment Day, UNEP. Image: World Environment Day, UNEP.

Share This

UNEP recently published the comprehensive fourth Global Environment Outlook: environment for development (GEO-4) report which “assesses the current state of the global atmosphere, land, water and biodiversity, describes the changes since 1987, and identifies priorities for action.”

The report concluded that progress has been made in some straightforward problems but persistent problems remain, which could threaten humanity’s survival. The slow pace of progress is also a concern as it “fails to respond to or recognize the magnitude of the challenges facing the people and the environment of the planet”.

In Asia and the Pacific, fast developing growth rates are threatening the region’s health, environment and biodiversity. In Asian cities, increased urbanisation and motor vehicle usage has resulted in the degradation of air quality for more than 1 billion people. The lack of adequate water supply is also a concern with about 655 million people lacking access to clean water. Ecosystems such as mangroves and coral reefs are also at risk. Furthermore, increased consumption has led to the generation of large waste quantities. Read more from the GEO-4 factsheet on Asia and the Pacific.

Some key facts from the report include:

There is now “visible and unequivocal” evidence of the impacts of climate change, and consensus that human activities have been decisive in this change: global average temperatures have risen by about 0.74°C since 1906. A best estimate for this century’s rise is expected to be between a further 1.8°C and 4°C. Some scientists believe a 2°C increase in the global mean temperature above pre-industrial levels is a threshold beyond which the threat of major and irreversible damage becomes more plausible.

More than two million people worldwide are estimated to die prematurely every year from indoor and outdoor air pollution.

Some of the progress achieved in reducing pollution in developed countries has been at the expense of the developing world, where industrial production and its impacts are now being exported.

Unsustainable land use is causing degradation, a threat as serious as climate change and biodiversity loss. It affects up to a third of the world’s people, through pollution, soil erosion, nutrient depletion, water scarcity, salinity, and disruption of biological cycles.

About 60 per cent of the ecosystem services that have been assessed are degraded or used unsustainably; populations of freshwater vertebrates declined on average by nearly 50 per cent from 1987 to 2003, much faster than terrestrial or marine species.

In developing countries some 3 million people die annually from water-borne diseases, most of them under-five-year-olds. An estimated 2.6 billion people lack improved sanitation services.

Consumption has been growing faster than population, but unequally: the total annual income of nearly 1 billion people, the population of the richest countries, is almost 15 times that of the 2.3 billion people in the poorest countries.

There are fewer resources to share: the amount of land per capita is about a quarter of what it was a century ago, and is expected to fall to about one-fifth of the 1900 level by 2050.

The problems look depressing but remember what Arnold Schwarzenegger said before:

I’m an optimist. I don’t look at this as if the world is coming to an end. I see it as a great opportunity to clean up our mess. We’re grownups, we aren’t children, and we can do it.”

Source: UNEP. Image attribution: UNEP.

Share This

This recent press release from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) gives us hope that countries can get together and do something to tackle climate change. The journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.

Montreal/Nairobi, 22 September 2007 - An historic agreement to tackle the twin challenges of protecting the ozone layer and combating climate change has been agreed by governments. Read the rest

Share This