World Environment Day 2013: Greening the Blue!

Greening the Blue: World Environment Day 2013

The World Environment Day (WED) is observed every year on June 5. It is the occasion when the United Nations creates a worldwide awareness of preserving the environment. It is the day for global action and resolution towards keeping the environment cleaner, greener and healthier.

The theme for this year’s World Environment Day celebrations is Think.Eat.Save. Think.Eat.Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce your foodprint. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. This is equivalent to the same amount produced in the whole of sub-Saharan Africa. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily from hunger. 

Given this enormous imbalance in lifestyles and the resultant devastating effects on the environment, this year’s theme – Think.Eat.Save – encourages you to become more aware of the environmental impact of the food choices you make and empowers you to make informed decisions.  

World Environment Day - 5 June

This year’s campaign rallies you to take action from your home and then witness the power of collective decisions you and others have made to reduce food waste, save money, minimise the environmental impact of food production and force food production processes to become more efficient.

If food is wasted, it means that all the resources and inputs used in the production of all the food are also lost. For example, it takes about 1,000 litres of water to produce 1 litre of milk and about 16,000 litres goes into a cow’s food to make a hamburger. The resulting greenhouse gas emissions from the cows themselves, and throughout the food supply chain, all end up in vain when we waste food.

Making informed decision therefore means, for example, that you purposefully select foods that have less of an environmental impact, such as organic foods that do not use chemicals in the production process. Choosing to buy locally can also mean that foods are not flown halfway across the world and therefore limit emissions.     

World Environment Day has received tremendous support from the public, non-profit organizations and governments around the world. Various awareness campaigns - beach clean-ups, concerts, exhibits, film festivals, community events and much more - are organized to spread the message, which is to improve the quality of life of all living beings on this planet without harming nature. All the activities of World Environment Day are carried out to spread eco-awareness and increase green footprint. 

Source UNEP website: http://www.unep.org/wed/