World Environment Day - 5 June 2010 #Sharjah

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World Environment Day - 5 June 2010

The agenda of World Environment Day is to give a human face to environmental issues; empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development; promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.

World Environment Day (WED) 2010 is aimed to be the biggest, most widely celebrated, global day for positive, environmental action.

Commemorated on 5 June since 1972, WED is one of the principal vehicles through which the UN stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and encourages political attention and action.

Through WED, we are able to give a human face to environmental issues and enable people to realize not only their responsibility, but also their power to become agents for change in support of sustainable and equitable development.

WED is also a day for advocating partnerships among all stakeholders or perhaps, even more correctly, among all species living on this one planet and sharing a common future, in line with the theme of MANY SPECIES - ONE PLANET - ONE FUTURE.

There are an estimated 5 million to 100 million species on the planet! Scientist have only managed to identify about 2 million species so far. If you think about it, that means there is a huge amount we still don’t know about our planet or whom we share it with. What we do know though is that humans are among only a handful of species whose population is growing, while most animals and plants are becoming rarer and fewer.

A total of 17,291 species are known to be threatened with extinction – from little-known plants and insects to charismatic birds and mammals. This is just the tip of the iceberg; many species disappear before they are even discovered.

The reason? Human activities. With our present approach to development, we have caused the clearing of much of the original forest, drained half of the world’s wetlands, depleted three quarters of all fish stocks, and emitted enough heat-trapping gases to keep our planet warming for centuries to come. We have put our foot on the accelerator, making species extinctions occur at up to 1000 times the natural rate. Let us consider carefully the actions each of us must take, and then address ourselves to our common task of preserving all life on Earth.

It is about time we took notice and did something to make a difference. Join thousands of people from countries all over the world in celebrating WED this year. There are literally thousands of ways to do something positive for the environment. You could organize a neighborhood clean-up, stop using plastic bags and get your community to do the same, plant a tree or better yet organize a collective tree planting effort, walk to work, start a recycling drive . . . the possibilities are endless.