{"id":5850,"date":"2015-06-05T18:49:20","date_gmt":"2015-06-05T18:49:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/?p=5850"},"modified":"2018-04-22T12:09:28","modified_gmt":"2018-04-22T16:09:28","slug":"un-invites-worlds-seven-billion-people-to-become-agents-of-change-on-world-environment-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/blog\/2015\/06\/un-invites-worlds-seven-billion-people-to-become-agents-of-change-on-world-environment-day\/","title":{"rendered":"UN invites world\u2019s seven billion people to become agents of change on World Environment Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

With many of the earth\u2019s ecosystems nearing \u201ccritical tipping points,\u201d the United Nations invited each of the seven billion people on the planet to mark this year\u2019s World Environment Day<\/a> by making one change towards a more responsible consumption of resources \u2013 \u201cbe it refusing to buy single-use plastic bags or riding a bike to work.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHumanity continues to consume far more natural resources than the planet can sustainably provide,\u201d Secretary-General<\/a> Ban Ki-moon said in this year\u2019s message<\/a> for the Day, observed annually on 5 June. \u201cIt is time for us to change.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe goal of sustainable development is to increase the quality of life for all people without increasing environmental degradation and without compromising the resource needs of future generations,\u201d he noted. \u201cWe can do this by shifting our consumption patterns towards goods that use less energy, water and other resources and by wasting less food.\u201d<\/p>\n

World Environment Day is the opportunity for everyone to realize the responsibility to care for the Earth and to become agents of change.<\/p>\n

The theme of this year\u2019s Day \u2013 \u201cSeven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care,\u201d \u2013 emphasizes the personal responsibility each person bears for enabling inclusive and sustainable economic development while stabilizing and reducing the rate of resource use.<\/p>\n

Achim Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP<\/a>), invited \u201ceveryone to imagine what the world would be like if each of the seven billion people made one change towards a more responsible consumption of resources.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like you to hold on to that vision and strive to make it reality \u2013 be it refusing to buy single-use plastic bags or riding a bike to work,\u201d Mr. Steiner said in his message<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Noting \u201cit is easy to underestimate the power of individual action,\u201d Mr. Steiner said \u201cour daily decisions as consumers, multiplied by billions, have a colossal impact on the environment \u2013 some of them contribute to the further depletion of natural resources, others help to protect fragile ecosystems.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must ask ourselves what the consequences of this pace of consumption and trajectory of population growth \u2013 forecasted to reach nine billion by 2050 \u2013 will be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnder current trends, global extraction of resources is set to reach 140 billion tonnes by 2050, compared to around 7 billion tonnes in 1900,\u201d said Mr. Steiner. \u201cThis will probably exceed the availability and accessibility of resources, as well as the carrying capacity of the planet to absorb the impacts of their extraction and use.\u201d<\/p>\n

World Environment Day \u201cis the opportunity for everyone to realize the responsibility to care for the Earth and to become agents of change,\u201d Mr. Steiner said.<\/p>\n

Italy is the host of this year’s celebrations of the Day which are taking place at Expo Milano 2015, which runs from 1 May to 31 October and is expected to include over 140 countries plus a significant number of international organizations.<\/p>\n

via UN News Centre<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The United Nations invited each of the seven billion people on the planet to mark this year\u2019s World Environment Day on 5 June, stressing the need of sustainable consumption worldwide.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":95,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[22,20,23,4],"tags":[169,345,340,348],"class_list":["post-5850","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sustainable-consumption-and-production","category-climate-change","category-life-on-land","category-news","tag-development","tag-environment","tag-expo-milan","tag-sustainable-consumption"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5850","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/95"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5850"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5850\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5850"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5850"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.un.org\/sustainabledevelopment\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5850"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}