World Environment Day 2016

World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated on June 05, 2016 and is a day that stimulates awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and public action. June 5 was the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began in 1972. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was from 5 until 16 June 1972. It was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. 

This year’s theme for WED – Go Wild for Life – encourages you to celebrate all those species under threat and take action of your own to help safeguard them for future generations. This can be about animals or plants that are threatened within your local area as well as at the national or global level - many local extinctions will eventually add up to a global extinction! Whoever you are, and wherever you live, show zero-tolerance for the illegal trade in wildlife in word and deed, and make a difference.

This year’s World Environment Day celebrations are hosted by Angola, a country seeking to restore its elephant herds, conserve Africa’s biodiversity-rich wildlife, and safeguard the environment as it continues to rebuild after more than a quarter-century of civil war.

Let us take some time today to reflect on two quotes of Mahatma Gandhi: 

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s needs, but not every man’s greed."

 “What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another”.

May we all heed the call to make our world a better place!

Pat Schifini, OSU