Dr. Vivak Manohar Arya, Dr. Vikas Sharma
The year 1972 marked a turning point in the development of international environmental politics, the first major conference on environmental issues convened under the auspices of the United Nations was held from June 5-16 in Stockholm (Sweden), known as the Conference on the Human Environment or the Stockholm Conference. Its goal was to create a basic common outlook on how to address the challenge of preserving and enhancing the environment. World environment day was first time celebrated in 1974 with the particular theme “Only one Earth”. Since 1974, the celebration campaign of the world environment day is hosted in different cities of the world. It is a big annual celebration started by the United Nations General Assembly to unite millions of people from different countries across the globe. World Environment Day which is observed on 5 June every year across the globe is the largest annual event for positive environmental action. Since its first celebration on 5 June 1974, millions of people across the world have taken part in thousands of events to raise awareness and generate political momentum around growing concerns such as the depletion of the ozone layer, pollution, desertification, depletion of natural resources, and global warming.
The Day has developed into a global platform for taking action on urgent environmental issues, driving change in our consumption habits as well as influencing national and international policy. “Beat Plastic Pollution”, the theme for World Environment Day 2018, is a call to action for all of us to come together to combat one of the great environmental challenges of our time. Chosen by this year’s host, India, the theme of World Environment Day 2018 invites us all to consider how we can make changes in our everyday lives to reduce the heavy burden of plastic pollution on our natural places, our wildlife and our own health. While plastic has many valuable uses, we have become over reliant on single-use or disposable plastic with severe environmental consequences. Few of the alarming figures by global plastic pollution are:
Up to 500 trillion plastic bags used every year, 1 million plastic bottles bought every minute, 100,000 marine animals killed by plastics each year. In total 50 per cent of the plastic we use is single use, every year up to 13 million tons of plastic leak into our oceans, where it smothers coral reefs and threatens vulnerable marine wildlife. The plastic that ends up in the oceans can circle the Earth four times in a single year and it can persist for up to 1,000 years before it fully disintegrates. Plastic also makes its way into our water supply – and thus into our bodies. Plastics can also serve as a attraction for other pollutants, including dioxins, metals and pesticides. Nearly one third of the plastic packaging we use escapes collection systems, which means that it ends up clogging our city streets and polluting our natural environment. From longstanding to emerging hazards, environmental factors are a root cause of a significant burden of death, disease and disability globally and particularly in developing countries. They range from poor water quality and access, vector-borne disease and air pollution to toxic chemical exposures, climate change and degraded urban environments. The resulting impacts are estimated to cause over 25% of death and disease globally, reaching nearly 35% in regions such as sub-Saharan Africa. Much of this burden rests upon the shoulders of the poor and vulnerable. India is not the only country facing environmental issues. India’s emergence as a global environmental leader has been affirmed to the world in recent years. India is excited to host the World Environment Day this year on June 5. Indian philosophy and lifestyle has long been rooted in the concept of co-existence with nature. Being a developing nation, India is more vulnerable to the effects of climate change due to its dependence on climate-sensitive sectors like agriculture and forestry. The rapid economic growth experienced by India over the past decade and a half has come with some unwelcome consequences. The rapid industrialization and economic growth has resulted in unhealthy air and water pollution affecting infant mortality rates and life expectancy rates.
To beat plastic pollution, we need to entirely rethink our approach to designing, producing and using plastic products. This World Environment Day, the goal is to inspire the kind of solutions that lead to sustainable behavior change upstream. Plastic pollution is a defining environmental challenge for our time. In the next 10-15 years global plastic production is projected to nearly double. Avoiding the worst of these outcomes demands a complete rethinking of the way we produce, use and manage plastic.
Policymakers and Governments must safeguard precious environmental resources and indeed public health by encouraging sustainable production and consumption through legislation. Governments must lead, enacting strong policies that push for a more circular model of design and production of plastics. Citizens must act as both consumers and informed citizens, demanding sustainable products and embracing sensible consumption habits in their own lives. The existing environmental laws, although cover a wide spectrum of environmental concerns, they seem to be ineffective due to lack of enforcement. Under these conditions, India has to adopt some sustainable actions that need to address the numerous issues facing the country including environmental degradation in order to sustain its prospects for continued economic growth. At last we want to quote Mahatma Gandhi “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed” unquote.
(The authors are from SKUAST-J and are working in the field of Climate Change and NRDMS)
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