Rwanda was chosen this year’s global host for WED, where over 30,000 people took part in the celebrations in the Volcanoes National Park. Schoolchildren and villagers across Rwanda will receive solar power and more than $85,000 will go to gorilla conservation as part of the lasting legacy of World Environment Day 2010.
As this year is International Year of Biodiversity (IYB), this was very much the focus of WED too. The IYB aims to raise awareness about the importance of biodiversity, communicate the human costs of its ongoing loss and get people involved in efforts to conserve and use our natural resources in a sustainable manner, for our own sake and that of generations to come. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) suggested an ‘Easily Green Your Daily Routine’, which was posted on their website as actions to adopt so that we can do our bit to protect the planet, as a WED commitment, especially in this international year of biodiversity. I know the WED day is passed, but I thought the actions suggested by UNEP are actions we should all be adopting anyway and any day, hence this blog.
As stated by UNEP, going green is not as difficult as we might think. One thing they suggested we should all get into the habit of doing is to turn off the tap while shaving or brushing your teeth to save water and the energy used to heat that water. This is not the first time I came across this suggestion/tip, which made me wonder ‘do people actually leave the tap running while brushing their teeth?' Why? There are altogether 30 top tips to incorporate into our lives to live a more green lifestyle. These include obvious things like insulating your water heater and switching off appliances when you leave the house to save energy, but also more radical measures, such as avoiding driving altogether and going vegan once a week. And one for my daughter 'when you are feeling at your laziest, don’t throw clean clothes in the hamper to avoid hanging them up! Unnecessary washing wastes energy.
Another, more general suggestion, which requires a bit of effort, but might be fun and fulfilling, is to plant a tree and help achieve UNEP’s Billion Tree Campaign target of planting seven billion trees – one for every person on the planet – by the end of this year. Three billion are planted so far. Since June is the month when trees can be planted on every continent in the world, now seems to be the time to start!
I searched the CABI database using the terms environment and biodiversity which returned over 6600 records.
Image credit: unep.org
Comments