World Environment Day has been marked every year on 5th June, since 1974. This global day of awareness seeks to engage governments, businesses, celebrities and individuals to come together to promote awareness and education around a specific environmental issue.
This year the theme is bio-diversity. Recent global events such as bushfires, floods and the almighty Covid-19 pandemic have shown us the fragility of natural and manmade systems within the webs of life that we all exist within. Nature is sending us a message, we must now act upon it.
Bio-diversity is a term used to describe all life forms on this planet, this includes 8 million plant and animal species, but also our sources of food, water, air, and everything else that gives us the ability to live. Bio-diversity can be described as a complex and intricate web, when this is disturbed or damaged through human impacts, the results cause devastating disasters such as fires, droughts, floods and climate change. We must all work together to protect our bio-diversity by reducing our own environmental impact and demanding that our leaders and governments do the same.
If World Environment Day is new to you please visit the campaigns website, it is full of resources and educational materials. There is a wealth of books and documentaries out there too which cover bio-diversity and the natural world, too many to recommend here but let me know if you want some suggestions.
I hope that this post inspires you to learn more about bio-diversity and the work of the World Environment Day Campaign. Get involved in whatever way you can, chat to your family and friends about what you have learnt, perhaps even find out if there is a local wildlife group you could join or support. Together we can all help each other to protect the natural world and our place within it.
