Environment and its importance
Our surrounding that includes living and non-living things is our environment. Living things are called biotic components and non-living things are called abiotic components of our environment.
Both biotic and abiotic components have effect on our lives. Even a small change in any component may have significant effect on our health. Human activities adds unnecessary materials to the environment that are called pollutants, these pollutants have negative effects on our health. Therefore it is necessary to protect our environment from these pollutants.
Stockholm Conference and WED
In 1968 Sweden suggested the United Nations (UN) to have a conference on environment related issues. UN agreed on it and in 1972 (5-16June 1972) a conference held in Stockholm (Sweden). This conference is known as “Stockholm Conference on Human Environment” or the “Stockholm Conference”
- On December 15, 1972 UNGA adopted a resolution designating June 5 as WED.
- First WED With theme ‘Only one earth’ was celebrated on June 5, 1974 at Spokane (US).
- India hosted the event in 2011, that year theme was ‘Forests: Nature at your Service’ and in 2018, theme was ‘Beat Plastic Pollution’.
Why “World Environment Day” is observed?
- This day mark the First day of ‘Stockholm Conference’ held in 1972.
- This day is to raise awareness about environment related problems and to find their solutions collectively and individually.
- This day is to aware to change our consumption habits for sustainability of environment.
Theme for the year 2023 is “Solutions to Plastic Pollution”
Host Country – “Côte d’Ivoire”