World Environment Day 2022: ‘The Earth has enough resources for our needs, but not for our greed’, famously said Mahatma Gandhi in one of his speeches.

True, the environment is our natural surroundings which include plant, animal, and non-living objects across the land, water bodies, and skies that support life on this planet. They all are for our needs but not for our greed.

Since the late 18th century, the beginning of the Industrial Revolution era, human actions have caused widespread environmental damage, such as global warming, pollution of air, water, and land, and biodiversity loss.

Hence every year 5 June is celebrated as World Environment Day, touted as one of the biggest environmental events across the globe. The event is led by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which inspires efforts and positive changes to the environment and highlights the dangers to our natural world, and urges people to protect it.

It creates awareness about degrading environmental conditions and encourages people globally to take positive environmental actions, to help create a better future. On this day, events are organized around the theme set by the UNEP to promote community involvement for the cause.

The theme for this year is ‘Only One Earth’, which was also the theme of the first environment, celebrated in  1974. Five decades later, it still stands true as the Earth is still our only home, and humanity must safeguard its finite resources. The World Environment Day 2022 global campaign uses the theme #OnlyOneEarth to call for transformative changes to policies and choices to enable cleaner, greener, and sustainable living in harmony with nature.

The idea of World Environment Day was coined at the 1972 UN Conference of the Human Environment in Stockholm. It was born out of the understanding that we need to stand up to protect the air, land, and water, on which we all depend. Since 1974, World Environment Day has been celebrated annually, and it has become an important platform for promoting progress on the environmental dimensions of the Sustainable Development Goals.

Each year over 150 countries participate across the globe. NGOs, Communities, and Big Corporations join hands and gather to celebrate this mega event. Different country organizes World Environment Day every year where celebrations and meetings take place. This year, Sweden will be hosting the meeting and celebration which is named “Stockholm+50: a healthy planet for the prosperity of all – our responsibility, our opportunity” for this year.

The future of humanity is endangered by humanity itself. Now that this is known, action is necessary to right now. This is the age of Anthropocene. Humankind is the most important element of existence. People must understand this and endeavor to create a better world habitat for a safe and dignified existence for one and all. All nations must cooperate to protect and conserve biodiversity. It is time for Nature. There should be peaceful coexistence between Man and Nature. This is the message of World Environment Day 2022.