In past few years, the awareness about environment protection has significantly risen and many countries are taking concrete steps to save the environment against menace such as global warming, pollution, waste disposal, ozone layer depletion, climate change among others.
The world is celebrating World Environment Day (June 5) today with an aim to make our environment safer and better. This year, the theme for environment day is ‘Beat Air Pollution’. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has chosen air pollution as the theme for this year's World Environment Day that falls on June 5 with China as the host country. Hangzhou, situated in the province of Zhejiang, will host the main event. World Environment Day was hosted by India last year.
The targets and ambition set by the Chinese government required it to achieve significant air quality improvement in five years, comparable to the reduction Europe and the US achieved in decades.
This was considered an impossible mission and at the cost of slowing down economic growth, an expert said. Yet, China successfully achieved all the air targets planned with continuous growth of economy. The particulate matter levels were reduced by over 22 per cent across China, and highly polluted Beijing and surrounding region saw a 40 per cent improvement.
Since 1950, humans have created 8.3 billion metric tons of plastics and most of that synthetic material still exists on our planet. Around seven million people die prematurely every year due to air pollution.
To remedy the situation, the government and a few companies have modelled plans to decrease single-use plastic, and promote recycling of the material. While some companies have shifted to biodegradable materials, others have refill schemes or packaging-less products on offer. However, the general message remains - boycott plastic.
While the governments and companies are making sustained efforts towards combating plastic menace, steps at individual levels are the need of the hour. Because in the end it won't matter whether it was your plastic or mine as the Earth will be the one to suffer, so save it while make-up.
With inputs from Agencies
