The environment is a natural thing where people live and do a lot of activities for their welfare and benefit. World Environment Day is celebrated every year on 5 June to make the people aware of the environment and to protect it from different environmental challenges that the world is facing today. In 1974, the first World environment day was celebrated on 5 June to raise the knowledge about environmental issues and its solutions.

World Environment Day 2020 theme: Biodiversity

This year’s theme for world environment day 2020 is Biodiversity– a concern that is both urgent and existential.  Everything from the food we eat, to air we breathe, comes from nature. Despite all the benefits that our nature gives us, we still destroy it. 

Importance of Biodiversity

Biodiversity is an urgent matter of concern. Recent events, such as bushfires in Brazil, locust infestations across East Africa, and a global disease COVID-19 pandemic demonstrate the interdependence of humans and other life forms. Biodiversity is commonly referred to as the diversity of life on earth. The loss to biodiversity affects every aspect of human needs like health, food, clean air, water, soil, and wildlife. Human intervention in the environment can change, or remove elements of this life web and affects the entire life system which produces negative results. Human actions, such as deforestation, intensified agriculture, invasion of wildlife habitats has a severe impact on biodiversity. Thus, it’s a time for nature to protect and conserve otherwise it will deplete and harm us all along.

Healthy biodiversity offers many natural services:

• Food and medicinal plants
• Protection of water resources
• Pollution breakdown
• Water resources and soils formation

The emergence of COVID-19 has emphasizes the fact that, when we destroy biodiversity, we destroy the system that supports human life. This time is a  global call #for nature.

Also Read International day for Biodiversity 2020.

This year Colombia is hosting the world environment day in partnership with Germany. Colombia is rich in having diverse orchid species, birds, plants, butterflies, and freshwater fish. Colombia holds 10% of the planet’s biodiversity and is also a part of the Amazon rainforest.

So, on this world environment day let’s take a pledge to protect our environment.

Also Read International Forests Day 2020: Forest and Biodiversity

INFORMATION SOURCE: https://www.un.org/en/observances/environment-day

INFORMATION SOURCE: https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/