The world commemorated World Environment Day Wednesday. It’s a campaign to raise awareness on various environmental issues that confront the globe today.
Since 1974, when it was first observed, WED has touched on numerous environmental issues—marine and air pollution, overpopulation, global warming, sustainable consumption, small-island population, wildlife crime.
In recent days, more issues have emerged: the fate of small-island nations and others most vulnerable to climate change, new-normal weather patterns, the lasting consequences of single-use plastics, conservation of imperiled species, and the struggle to move away from coal as a "cheap" source of energy and toward renewable ones.
Governments, corporations, non-government organizations, academic institutions and community groups from as many as 143 countries have participated in such events. Here at home, Proclamation No. 237, issued in 1988, declared the month of June as Philippine Environment Month.
Events scheduled by various groups are meant to raise the people's awareness of issues and make them develop habits and take concrete steps toward doing their bit for the environment.
Then again, we don't really have to be reminded by calendar activities about how important it is, first to be aware, and more importantly to take action in one's sphere to achieve specific goals.
For instance, recent news about other countries' trash making their way to the Philippines have made us indignant at both the senseless and insulting act. Indignant social media users made their opinions known, and eventually the government shipped back the containers of waste that had been sitting on a landfill for several years.
Portrayals of the effects of using plastic containers have also stirred awareness and action, even as the consequences have yet to be realized. Who would not take note of one foot of plastics covering the entire Metro Manila, or dead sea animals turning up ashore with plastic in their bellies? Yet these are the consequences of the things we have been used to doing throughout our lifetime.
We have also heard about young people walking out of their classrooms to demand action from their local government to do something about mitigating climate change. Indeed, no matter the global pacts or articulated national policy, everything happens—or doesn't happen—at the local and community levels. It is also at these levels that the stories are more compelling, more real.
In the end, commemorations such as the World Environment Day serve their purpose, but it is up to the people to consume the accurate information that they should act upon. In the end, all boils down to the age-old dilemma of balancing today's needs while leaving some for the future generations, not just of people but earth-dwellers.
It's a global calendar day, certainly. But WED is also a deeply personal reminder to every individual about how in the earth's very long timeline, we are all specks, and we must tread respectfully as we pass.