Govind Singh Rajwar
GUEST COLUMN
The first United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was held in Stockholm in 1972 designated as 1972 Stockholm Conference, which concluded in the Stockholm Declaration on the Human Environment. This declaration included the establishment of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and designated World Environment Day (WED) to be celebrated on June 5 every year. The World Environment Day has become a platform to raise awareness on the problems facing our environment which include difference kinds of pollution, sea-level increase, illegal wildlife trade, sustainable consumption, and food security, and others. The World Environment Day 2022 was celebrated with repeating theme Only One Earth, which marks 50 years of the WED celebrations. This year’s celebration was aimed at highlighting the need to livesustainably in harmony with nature by bringing transformative changes – through policies and our choices – towards cleaner, greener lifestyles.
The UNEP provides leadership and encourages partnership in environmental care by inspiring, informing and enabling nations and peoples to improve their quality of life without compromising that of future generations. The WED is celebrated worldwide though one country hosts this day where it is celebrated officially. This year the Government of Sweden, with support from the Government of Kenya, hosted WED as an international meeting in Stockholm on June 2 and 3. The meeting addressed transformative changes to policies and choices to enable cleaner, greener and sustainable living in harmony with nature, and advocated an urgent need for actions towards a healthy planet and prosperity of all, achieving a sustainable and inclusive recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The theme ‘Only One Earth’ advocates for transformative environmental change on a global scale paving the way for united actions on climate, nature and pollution to encourage the global community to live sustainably.
It is estimated that there are about eight million species of plants and animals living on earth today, including humans. These species live together in co-existence in ecosystems- a geographic area in which a diversity of plants, animals, and other organisms coexist together. Ecosystems can be as large as a desert or as small as a pond, and contain living things and non-living things, like air, rocks, soil and humidity. A slight change in the temperature of an ecosystem will have far-reaching consequences on plants, animals and other organisms, which grow and live there in co-existence. Often, distant ecosystems are related to each other in unexpected ways. For example, each year the Amazon rainforest is fertilised from phosphorous contained in around 22,000 tonnes of dust carried by the wind from the Sahara desert thousands of miles away.For thousands of years, humankind has coexisted with ecosystems, but with increase in its populations, the humankind has started to encroach on, and in some cases overtake or replace ecosystems causing a change in delicate balance among the components of their rich biodiversity, thereby vital ecosystem services to humanity have been reduced to a great extent.Plastic products, especially single-use plastic, and thus due to their much usage we have become addicted to these products. Plastic products cause severe environmental, economic, health and social impacts. The production of plastic products was little during 1950s to 1970s and hence the plastic waste was easy to manage. According to estimates, one million plastic bottles are purchased around the world every minute, and up to five trillion plastic bags are used worldwide every year. About half of all plastic products belong to single use category as these are used just once and then thrown away. All plastic products including microplastics are now scattered almost everywhere in our natural environment. Microplastic particles have been reported from aquatic ecosystems including in the tissues of marine fauna. Due to the occurrence of microplastic particles in the ocean, a new term ‘plastisphere’ has been given to a new marine microbial habitat.
The earth is heating at an alarming rate due to various kinds of pollution such as large-scale emission of greenhouse gases (GHGs) by burning of fossil fuels, use of petroleum products in automobiles and emission of chlorofluorocarbons by refrigeration and other sources. A rise in temperature by 40 degrees Celsius above average in Antarctica and by 30 degrees Celsius above average in North Pole has been reported at the end of first quarter of this year. The rising temperature on the earth is causing melting of glaciers and snow reserves across the earth. Is the earth proceeding towards becoming a fireball? The rising temperature on the earth has altered the life and biogeochemical cycles.According to a legendary belief, is it the beginning of Kali Yuga, whereby everything would finish and a new cycle of earth would emerge!How it is essential for humankind to replace the grasslands or forests for more agricultural land or settlements?
The earth has its own carrying capacity, which is the maximum quantity of resources it can hold with an optimum supply for maintaining the existence of various ecosystems on earth. The over-exploitation of resources causes various imbalances and hazards in nature, thereby affecting co-existence of animals and plants on the earth. Such coexistence on the earth has been portrayed in a short documentary “A Life on Our Planet” by environmentalist David Attenborough. He has narrated this relationship in his documentary as “the human race encroaching upon and appropriating the space meant for animals, birds, reptiles, insects and other species”, and has also explained how some of animal species are getting dangerously close to human habitats to reclaim what was always theirs. Global warming is anticipated to result in submerging of coastal areas including cities and towns, changes in forests and agriculture, shifting of vegetation zones upwards the latitudes and altitudes, thereby affecting biodiversity of any region, changes in weather patterns such as monsoonal cycles, water cycle and rainwater patterns. These predictions include heavy rainfall in many regions such as in the Himalaya, increased landslides and floods, drought and drying up of water sources/streams and flooding, among few. The natives and the ecosystems of snow regions, mountains valleys and coastal regions would be the first victims of earth’s warming.
UNEP’s report ‘Making Peace with Nature’ issued earlier this year, states that transforming social and economic systems means improving our relationship with nature, understanding its value and putting that value at the heart of decision making. UNEP executive director Inger Andersen said, “In 2022, we hope to see a world turning the corner on the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic. But we do so with the knowledge that we continue to face the triple planetary crisis of climate change, nature loss, and pollution.” She added, “Sweden’s announcement – and a World Environment Day theme that puts nature and people at the centre of environmental work – reminds us of the roots of the critical work of protecting our environment and keeps vital impetus to global efforts to build back better and greener.” A UN official said that the world is in a climate emergency or “a code red for humanity”. The concentration of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the atmosphere is causing hazards across the world and threatening lives, economies, health and food. It seems that the world is far from securing a global temperature rise to below 2°C as agreed upon by participating countries in Paris Convention, but some countries are emitting more GHG, some the same and others are emitting less.
(A fellow of Linnean Society of London, the author is a former professor of botany who has also researched the ecology of the Himalaya & other mountain ranges. Views expressed are personal.)
