Say Green on WED

(As taken from http://vyganews.com)

5 Jun 2009: It is June 5 again, which means it is that time of the year when the world remembers it is time for some greenness. It is World Environment Day. In short, it is WED.

WED was first launched in 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly, which means we are celebrating its 37th anniversary today. The day's agenda is:

* Give a human face to environmental issues

* Empower people to become active agents of sustainable and equitable development

* Promote an understanding that communities are pivotal to changing attitudes towards environmental issues

* Advocate partnership which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future

Every year UN celebrates this day with a theme, a host city, a slogan and some events. This year's theme and slogan is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'. Mexico is the host city. Countries are planning to observe the day with a number of events and activities.

It is no surprise that climate change has become the focus this year. Even after increasing warnings by word of mouth, emails and websites, sessions and conferences, awareness campaigns and speeches, a good part of the world still chooses to be indifferent to the cause.

A number of youth groups and environmentalists have emerged to spread the message, to alert and seek urgent attention to the cause.

On this day, as activists all over the world keep at their efforts in telling the world 'This is for us, this is for our children', every one of us can stop for a moment and wonder what all the hue and cry is about anyway.

What about Earth?

What would happen to dear Earth that has borne generations for eons? What would happen to the future generations? Before we shrug and say 'Who knows', we can do a little mind game. Imagine we are part of the generation yet to be born. Imagine we are those unfortunate ones who are to suffer the effects of what previous generations had done by turning away from the cries of a pained Earth. Being born into a world that was in the ruins because the people who lived there did not care for it - that is not what we want is it?

The first thing to do is shed off the thought that 'We are safe anyway, we don't need to worry about the future of this planet'. The earth has been a home to us all these years. It is time to give our home some attention. It is time to say 'I care'.

Be it taking cloth bags to shop to avoid using plastic, or switching off lights you don't need, or saving a drop of water everyday, or saving a piece of paper by printing on both sides - let it be small, but when every one of us are alert and at it all the time, it is going to make a great difference.

On this day, on WED, let us try to understand what danger we are in, and what we can do to protect our planet. On this day, each of us can make a silent oath to do our part in making the world a greener place, in making it a safe haven for generations to come.