World Environment Day

Today is World Environment Day, a time to give back to the earth. The holiday was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 on the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began. This tradition started in 1974 in Spokane, Washington. Every year we celebrate in a different country or state with a unique theme. Today’s festival is held in Italy, and the theme name is “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care.”

            There are many people who participate in the tradition. Gisele Bündchen sent out an SOS to the world to take action for World Environment Day 2014 by joining one of their teams to combat climate changes. Their call to action, Message in the Bottle, asks individuals around the world to join one of the celebrities’ teams and make a difference by pledging to take action in support of World Environment Day, which culminates globally on 5 June 2014. The Chicago Botanic Garden set aside a full day for kids and adults to explore conservation and sustainability on World Environment Day.

Here are some things you can do yourself on this day.

1.      Consume less especially energy, water and food.

2.      Ride bicycle instead of driving with which we consume less fuel, which equals less carbon emissions, and you’ll reap the health benefits of a workout.

3.      Remove meat from your meals only one day a week and in the course of a year you’ll cut carbon emissions equivalent to not driving your car for a full month. The production and processing of meat products is resource intense using land, water, food, and even producing greenhouse gases.

4.      Recycle. Plastic water bottles are recyclable, and in our community you can even leave the label and lid on the bottle. But nationwide the recycling rate for plastic bottles is very low. According to the Fast Company, in 2007 the average American used 167 disposable water bottles, but only recycled 38. That’s a lot of waste. Instead of using a disposable product use a refillable water bottle.

5.      Consume energy. As incandescent light bulbs burn out, replace them with newer compact fluorescent lights, or CFLs. These lights are more energy efficient and can reduce your electricity use by 75 percent.

 The information was taken from wikipidia and todaytrendin.com