Today is World Environment Day. This would have made a great Bloggers Unite event but I only learned about it today having had a chance to catch up with my online non-day job reading.
Nancy Roberts from Care2 Environment & Wildlife tells us what it is about by writing on How Do We Value Birds, Bees and Trees: World Environment Day Calls for Action!
As if saving the beauty of earth's plants and creatures weren't enough of a reason, a new U.N. report quantifies the economic case for restoring the world's damaged ecosystems. Wetlands treat wastewater; crops depend on the pollination of bees; tropical forests remove greenhouse gases from the atmosphere--each ecosystem service contributes a vital and uncounted contribution to our wellbeing and that of future generations, yet every year the press of human activity is destroying the very systems upon which life on earth depends. UN Environmental Program (UNEP)'s Dead Planet, Living Planet showcases 30 initiatives that are transforming the lives of communities while restoring ecosystems around the world.
Sam Davidson of Cool People Care suggests that we think about taking some time this weekend, and think about the phrase, "Many species, one planet, one future" and how we treat the planet and our collective future on it. He also suggests finding a local event, reading about the celebration or taking a step whether small or a big, that helps to save the world. It is definitely a cool thing to do.
Not so much the reason for the concern which according to the NYTimes.com/Green Blog post is that a global loss in biodiversity threatens human beings.
In its latest Global Biodiversity Outlook, the UN Convention on Biological Diversity said that global biodiversity is disappearing at a rate higher than previously believed -- representing a threat to millions of people. Some 25% of widely used medicines are still made from plant or animal resources, and the disappearance of one element in an ecosystem can have an enormous impact on animals on which people depend. Scientists have seen declines in all measures of biodiversity: genes, species and ecosystems.
This demonstrates clearly the interrelationship between the Millennium Development Goals especially in this case between Millennium Development Goal No. 1. End Hunger and 7. Environmental Sustainability but it can also impact other Millennium Development Goals like 6. Combat HIV/AIDS and other diseases seeking to address global health because more than 60 per cent of the world's people depend directly on plants for their medicines.
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