2023’s World Environment Day: Theme, Importance, and Solution
Every year, the United Nations Environment Programme UNEP leads the World Environment Day, which promotes awareness about environmental issues and delicately celebrates the natural world.
It has grown to be the biggest worldwide forum for environmental advocacy since 1974.
The purpose of World Environment Day is to inspire millions of people to care about the environment and to become involved in the efforts to preserve and rehabilitate the planet.
The host nation for World Environment Day 2023 is the West African nation of Côte d’Ivoire, and this year’s subject is “Solution to Plastic Pollution.” The 50th anniversary of World Environment Day occurs this year.
On the first day of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment in 1972, the United Nations General Assembly established World Environment Day. The inaugural WED and the theme “only one earth” were introduced two years later, in 1974.
The subject for this year is “Solution to Plastic Pollution.”
Plastic is taking over the planet. Each year, more than 400,000,000 tonnes of plastic are manufactured, of which less than 10% is recycled. Of this amount, half is intended for single-use applications. It winds up in lakes, rivers, and oceans in an estimated 19 to 23,000,000 tonnes. One of the biggest concerns to the earth today is the presence of plastic logs or landfills in the seas, which have converted into poisonous smoke.
Furthermore, a little-known reality is that our food, water, and even the air today contain small plastic particles with a diameter of up to 5 mm. Each individual on earth is estimated to consume more than 50,000 plastic particles annually, with some even being swallowed. It is not unexpected that plastic is so widely used since it is simple to create, resilient, flexible, and inexpensive to transport.
During the Second World War, it was first mass-produced using fossil fuels. Plastic was used to manufacture everything from domestic goods to medical gadgets as fossil fuel extraction fueled plastic manufacturing. One million plastic bottles are bought globally every minute, and up to 5 trillion billion plastic bags are used annually. Half of all plastic manufactured is intended for single use, meaning it is only ever used once before being discarded.
Compared to any other material, plastic output has increased at the fastest pace since the 1970s. By 2050, worldwide plastic manufacturing will exceed and reach 1100 million tonnes if present trends hold.
Environment Day of this year serves as a reminder that what individuals do to reduce plastic pollution matters. The result of this action is the actions the government and corporations are doing to address plastic pollution. Now is the moment to move more quickly towards a circular economy. The good news is that research and solutions are available to address the issue, and much progress has already been made. What is now most required is a search for public and political pressure to scale up and accelerate up action by governments, businesses, and other stakeholders to resolve this catastrophe.
