Today is World Earth Day. The
world’s environment keeps on degrading due to acts of humankind, which
is also adversely affecting all its inhabitants. To address these issues
of sustainability, environmentalists gathered in Brazil’s Rio de
Janeiro in 1992. World leaders and others will convene again in Rio to
review what has been achieved, and to discuss how to face future
challenges. ZooLander reports on RIO + 20:
World Earth Day is
celebrated annually with the aim of raising awareness and appreciation
of mother earth, and is celebrated in more than 175 countries. 22nd
April is also going to be renamed as International Mother Earth Day, by
the United Nations, with the aim of highlighting “Earth and its
ecosystems are our home” and
that “it is necessary to promote harmony with nature and the Earth”.
This new description for 22nd April, will apply from 2015 if world
leaders agree, but until then it will be the Earth Day, as it has been
celebrated around the world since 1969.
There are so many Environment Days, so why another special day allocated as Earth Day..?
It
is because we are using the earth’s resources unsustainably and if this
mayhem continues, even humankind that initiated this destruction will
be severely impacted. Most of us are taking the earth’s resources as a
given. But it is not the case and there is a limit to all the resources.
Earth’s human population reached 7 billion and is expected to rise
further. In this context the resources of the earth will not be
sufficient and if not wisely used, will collapse all the life-supporting
systems on the palnet. These which provide us clean air, water and
even the ability to produce enough food for all, will come to an end.
Human
activities even lead to other disasters. The high level of carbon
dioxide and other green house gases already causes global warming that
leads to climate change. As a result there are earthslips, prolonged
droughts and fierce thunderstorms recorded.
What is the solution..?
The earth’s population is on the rise and how can we make it a
non-losing situation..? For a long time the buzzword given as the
solution is ‘Sustainable Development’. Sustainable development is the
use of the earth’s resources to meet human needs while conserving the
environment; the needs can be met not only in the present, but also for
generations to come.
But have we been successful in achieving
‘Sustainable Development’ is the question that will be discussed by
world leaders and their delegates at the upcoming ‘Earth Summit’ planned
to be held in Brazil’s Rio de Janeiro. Named as The United Nations
Conference on Sustainable Development or in the shorter form ‘Rio + 20’,
this year is a milestone summit, as it also commemorates the 20th
anniversary of the original ‘Earth Summit’ held in June 1992 – with the
aim of achieving sustainable development.
The objective of this
conference is to secure renewed commitment to sustainable development
and to meet new and emerging challenges by focusing on different areas.
The delegates will discuss 7 different areas in preparation for Rio+20
covering areas of decent jobs, energy, sustainable cities, food security
and sustainable agriculture, water, oceans and disaster readiness –
which are becoming daily challenges in this era.
So let’s hope there
will be a fruitful outcome from Rio+20 Conference 2012. After all
Venus is too Hot; Mars is too Cold and we can only live only on Earth.
So let’s save Mother Earth..!
Published on 22.04.2012on LakbimaNews
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