Just a week or two ago, we celebrated World Environment Day. Now, you’ve probably heard about “Earth Day”, but not as many of us have heard of “World Environment Day”. Why is that so?
While both days have a similar objective, to help raise awareness for us all to help protect the environment, The are in fact a little different: “Earth Day” is celebrated worldwide on April 22nd every year, and focuses on saving the environments through various eco-friendly efforts. On the other hand, World Environment Day is an annual celebration organized by the United Nations Environment Programme. World Environment Day focuses on one aspect of the environment each year, and is held annually on June 5th, in different host countries.
Last year in Angola (southern Africa), World Environment Day helped to combat illegal wildlife hunting, which has significant impacts on wildlife. In this case there was a focus on reducing ivory and rhino horn trading in Africa. The theme for 2017 was “Connecting People to Nature”, and the celebration was hosted by Canada.
To connect people to nature puts a meaning in our interactions with, and dependence on the natural environment.
Here at Natura Pacific, we were lucky enough to co-host an Earth and Environmental Day Networking Event on Friday June 9th, at the Natura Pacific Warehouse in Burleigh. The event was coordinated by Silkwood School and the Australian Association for Environmental Education (AAEE) and provided interactive community workshops during the day and a busy networking event in the evening. It was a wonderful event and we would like to extend our thanks to Silkwood School, AAEE, Griffith University CoastEd, Botanical Bazaar, Julia (from Farewell my Manicure), Kate Leopold (of Leopold’s Treat) and all the other enthusiastic participants the came along to share this with us. We hope everyone got as much out of it as we did!
Some fun facts about World Environment Day:
- World Environment Day was created in remembrance of the first day of the iconic United Nations Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972 (5th – 16th June 1972), and the first celebration took place on the 5th of June two years later.
- In 1974, World Environment Day was celebrated for the first time with the slogan “Only One Earth.”
- Our country Australia also hosted this event 17 years ago (in 2000), with Adelaide as the primary site for the celebration. The theme for that year was “The Environment Millennium – Time to Act”.
Find out more about this year’s World Environment Day at http://worldenvironmentday.global/en/about/connecting-people-nature and http://www.wed.org.au/ .
IMAGE CREDITS:
www.pixabay.com
Kalindi Brennan
REFERENCES:
Collins, C. A. ISSA Proceedings 2002–World Environment Day 2000: Arguing For Environmental Action.
World Environment Day 5 June. (2017). United Nations.org. Retrieved 25 May 2017, from http://www.un.org/en/events/environmentday/
World Environment Day: driving five decades of environmental action | World Environment Day. (2017). Worldenvironmentday.global. Retrieved 26 May 2017, from http://worldenvironmentday.global/en/about/world-environment-day-driving-five-decades-environmental-action
