Don't blow it- good planets are hard to find...PaoloCoelho.

In tune with the great author,World Environment Day (WED) is a day that stimulates awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and public action. It is on 5 June. It was the day that United Nations conference on Human & Environment began. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was from 5–16 June 1972 in Stockholm. It was established by the United Nations Assembly in 1972. The first World Environment Day was on 1973. World Environment Day is hosted every year by a different city with a different theme and is commemorated with an international exposition in the week of 5 June. World Environment Day is in summer in the Northern Hemisphere and winter in the Southern Hemisphere. World Environment Day is similar to Earth Day, but with wider concept, covering the issues which are related to human as well other species. Each year different theme is adopted & its lead by different country. Last years theme was "Forests-Nature At Your Service". Forests cover one third of the earth’s land mass, performing vital functions and services around the world which make our planet alive with possibilities. In fact, 1.6 billion people depend on forests for their livelihoods. They play a key role in our battle against climate change, releasing oxygen into the atmosphere while storing carbon dioxide. Thousands of activities were organized worldwide, with beach clean-ups, concerts, exhibits, film festivals, community events and much more. Similarly 2010's theme was "Many Species, One Planet, One Future”, was the theme of 2010 Earth Day. It celebrated the incredible diversity of life on Earth as part of the 2010 International Year of Biodiversity. This year's global host, Rawanda– a country of exceptional biodiversity that has made huge strides on environmental protection – leaded the celebrations with three days of keynote events.

On the back ground let’s see what’s happening at our end? As in any Metro the scene is same here may it been Pune or Mumbai or Chennai. Our country has now clearly been divided in Urban & Rural & no two minds that needs to conserve the environment more! With more & more people tending to live in Cities it’s obvious that the balance of nature too is shifting as we live on Natural resources & with more people living in lesser area the problems are bound to happen. Right now we are consuming all the natural resources right from Water to Fuels like the world is going to end tomorrow only!  Most of the cities are facing problems of Water & Power shortages, Sound pollution & Air pollution are at peak & Green Cover is rapidly decreasing along with the bio-diversity around. Public transport not only within the city but even connecting the cities is also very inadequate. If you don't believe me then go to any railway station or bus station & ask for the ticket of next train or bus connecting to another major city! You don't get it; the reservation charts of railways gets full within the minutes of the booking get opened! We are heavily depending on our own transport leading to use of more fossil fuels i.e. Diesel/Petrol leading to more emission of more carbon dioxide. We are unable to breech the gap between poor & rich & that's giving avenue to more slums. Now many a will say what it has to take with Environment? It’s the disparity which makes a man to forget about the Environment & chase his basic needs which again loads the deteriorating Environment. For e.g. a person living in slum don't have basic infrastructure like drainage, so naturally he choose an adjoining river or open space for the same & the result is known to us. Well, what is Environment Conservation after all? Its nothing but to protect & conserve natural resources right from the air we breathe to the water we drink & to keep the surrounding we live in livable for a common man along with other species from sparrow to smaller trees!
And what we are doing instead? We have forgotten about maintaining biodiversity i.e. that there are other species also on this earth who belongs to be here with us & we run Save Tiger campaigns by sitting in our Living room & via sms's or logging in some web sites to show our support for Save Tiger movement & think we are caring for Environment! We blame on Govt & ever other entity for every wrong thing happening regarding Environment & don't bother even to segregate dry & wet garbage of our own house! Cool, Ignorance is the bliss, is what wise men had said & I found it true when I look at such attitude of people in cities! So, what right we have to even read about WED? I think answers do not lies somewhere else but within.

Instead for waiting for some other agency & provide us better Environment there are so many things which we can do by our own self & then only we can expect assistance from others. Here many a will ask what as an individual I can do on such a huge problem? Exactly there lies the answer as the efforts starts from this very understanding i.e. the search of this question! First of all try to focus on your own daily life & how you can contribute on various aspects? Basic issues are very simple & short in numbers. You need clean & fresh air to breath, clean potable water is a scarce commodity & how you can save it? Garbage is the biggest threat to every town & city & you can think how you can reduce the generation of garbage at your end as well assist in treating/recycling what ever has been generated. Agreed public transport isn't in your control but you can think of going a step forward & ask them for car pool for your work travel or even for jointly sending your kids to school by one of the neighbors car by turns of each one saving on time as well fuel. You can think of trying to utilize rain water in your premise & reduce water wastage in your complex. You can think of using solar water heating system & reduce use of electricity, also think of using less power consuming utensils as well maintain them regularly by proper servicing of the same, so as they run on optimum power. Try to plant a tree by your self & make it survive. Let’s decide that you won’t be honking the horns of your vehicles & wont burn fire crackers along with the banning loud bands in your family celebrations. Try to share with those who have no access to many good things in life such as sponsoring a trip however small it may be a nature trip for a poor boy when you are taking your own kids to a summer trip. This will not make only the poor boy's holiday but will give him exposure to the things which otherwise are difficult to teach by mere words. And we can take lead for making aware our fellow members if living in a society thus not restricting our keenness to save the Environment to our own self!

Last but not least try to support the people who are doing something positive about the Environment by knowing their work & then by associating your self with them in any way. This we can know while buying a product right from home to a small bulb, which may be a bit costly in compare to other bulb but ends up saving your electric bill. And don't wait for somebody else doing this job for you as unless & until you don't consider as it's Your Environment ,you are not entitled to celebrate the WED i.e. World Environment Day in real means!


--
Sanjay Deshpande

Sanjeevani Dev.

Envo-Power Committee, Credai, Pune

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