World Environment Day, 2013
By Mr. Jayanta Chakraborty (President)
Huge numbers of responsible people across the globe participated today for the protection of our planet to celebrate World Environment Day. All of them aspire to raise support for a more sustainable future as the devastating effects of Climate Change continue to affect us all. Most of the cyclonic storms experienced in many parts of the globe in recent past are caused by warmer weather over the world’s oceans. And such storms are a brutal reminder of what the future may hold if global warming continues to run riot. Presently the concentration of CO2 in the earth’s atmosphere shot past the 400 parts per million mark for the first time in 4.5 million years and, unless we radically rein in our global carbon emission, that figure is expected to double and might cross 800 mark by the end of this Century.
In order to maintain inter-generational equity, we need to take long term, measurable initiatives to curb emission of green house gases so as to handover a safe planet to our children. According to James Hanfen of NASA “Our parents did not know they were causing a problem for future generations, but we can only pretend that we don’t know because the science is now crystal clear”.
The theme for this year’s World Environment Day Celebration is Think, Eat, Save. Think, Eat, Save is an anti-food waste and food loss campaign that encourages you to reduce our food print. According to the U.N. Food and Agriculture (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. In fact, the global food production occupies 25% of all habitable land and is responsible for 70% of fresh water consumption, 80% of deforestation, and 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. It is the largest single driver of biodiversity loss and land-use change.
Making informed decision therefore means, for example, that you purposefully select foods that have less of an environmental impact, such as foods that do not use unjustified 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.
So think before you eat and help save our environment!
