World Environment Day is celebrated annually on 5th June across the globe. It is principally celebrated to raise awareness and action to protect the environment which is only finite in nature and can be destroyed on any given day by excessive, extensive human activities. So, in order to protect it from total devastation, we observe World Environment Day on 5th June in order to take a moment aside to think about what we are doing for our provider nature.
This day is one of the largest events organized by the United Nations in order to generate awareness about the significance of nature and is celebrated to tell people that nature should be hugely respected for its values.
The United Nations in 1972, after several discussions on environment-concerned issues during the first day of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment, presented this day into existence. Two years later in 1974, the United States marked this day and the theme of the world’s first Environment Day was ‘Only One Earth’. In 1987, the idea of rotating the center of these activities came to the minds of the UN authorities so that different countries can get the opportunity to host the event. Since then, various countries are hosting the event in their own respective spaces.
The theme of this year’s World Environment Day is ‘Reimagine. Recreate. Restore.’, as 2021 marks the beginning of Ecosystem Restoration in the decade of the United Nations. Pakistan, in collaboration with the UN Environmental Programme, will be the host of today to underline the significance of ecosystem restoration this year. 143 countries in totality participate on this day annually.
The term ‘Ecosystem Restoration’ means to assist in the replenishing or recovery of the ecosystem which has been degraded by deforestation, pollution, and other human activities. Ecosystem Restoration includes plantation of trees, the greening of the cities cleaning up of rivers, and rewilding gardens with the inclusion of rich biodiversity.
World Environment Day is observed across the world to respect and acknowledge everything that the environment has given to mankind and to take a pledge to protect all of the given.