Ever since its conception in 1974, Every year, June 5 is celebrated as World Environment Day.

The theme set for World Environment Day 2024 is “land Restoration desertification and drought resilience, with the slogan, “Our Land, Our future.

World Environment Day is run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).  UNEP, established in 1972, is the voice for the environment within the United Nations system. UNEP acts as a catalyst, advocate, educator and facilitator to promote the wise use and sustainable development of the global environment.

 LEARNING FROM HOME/ WITHOUT CLASSES/ BASICS   

Sustainable development can be defined as development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

Climate change describes a change in the average conditions — such as temperature and rainfall — in a region over a long period of time.

Global warming is the long-term heating of Earth’s climate system observed since the pre-industrial period (between 1850 and 1900) due to human activities, primarily fossil fuel burning, which increases heat-trapping greenhouse gas levels in Earth’s atmosphere.

A carbon footprint corresponds to the whole amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) produced to, directly and indirectly, support a person’s lifestyle and activities. Carbon footprints are usually measured in equivalent tons of CO2, during the period of a year, and they can be associated with an individual, an organization, a product or an event, among others.

An ecosystem is a community of plants and animals interacting with each other in a given area, and also with their non-living environments. The non-living environments include weather, earth, sun, soil, climate and atmosphere. The ecosystem relates to the way that all these different organisms live in close proximity to each other and how they interact with each other.

    Ecosystem restoration means preventing, halting, and reversing this damage – to go from exploiting nature to healing it. Ecosystem restoration means assisting in the recovery of ecosystems that have been degraded or destroyed, as well as conserving the ecosystems that are still intact.

Biological diversity – or biodiversity – is the term given to the variety of life on Earth and the natural patterns it forms. This diversity is often understood in terms of the wide variety of plants, animals and microorganisms. Biodiversity also includes genetic differences within each species – for example, between varieties of crops and breeds of livestock. Chromosomes, genes, and DNA-the building blocks of life-determine the uniqueness of each individual and each species. Yet another aspect of biodiversity is the variety of ecosystems such as those that occur in deserts, forests, wetlands, mountains, lakes, rivers, and agricultural landscapes. In each ecosystem, living creatures, including humans, form a community, interacting with one another and with the air, water, and soil around them. Protecting biodiversity is in our self-interest.