World Environment Day: Many Species, One Planet, One Future — How Each One of Us Makes a Real Difference
In one month, June 5th will mark this year’s World Environment Day, sponsored by the United Nations Environment Programme.
Many Species. One Planet. One Future.
A poignant message in the midst of the disappointment over the conference in Copenhagen, continuing battles for the safety of species such as whales and gorillas, and environmental catastrophes such as the 5,000 barrels worth of oil leaking out of the sea floor in the Gulf of Mexico every day since an oil rig explosion in late April.
For Earth Day, I wrote Earth Day 2010 - What Can You Do To Save The World? which listed 7 individual things you could do to make a big difference. I talked about the environmental impact of industrial animal agriculture, bottled water, consumption, green transportation, and energy conservation. What I didn’t do, though, was give you the numbers. We know that we only have one planet and one future — but these numbers are going to determine that future:
- If you drink coffee out of a styrofoam cup every day at work, you will throw away 240+ styrofoam cups in 1 year.
- The average American eats 84.9 lbs of chicken, 63.5 lbs of beef, 48.2 lbs of pork, 17.5 lbs of turkey, and 1 lbs of lamb in the course of 1 year — numbers which are only increasing.
- As much as 2,500 gallons of water goes into producing 1 lbs of beef, while it only takes 14 gallons of water to produce an orange or 3 gallons to produce a tomato.
- It is estimated that 60 million water bottles are thrown away every day. Or 22 billion water bottles in 1 year.
- 1 species becomes extinct approximately every 20 minutes.
The numbers add up. Whether they’re good or bad is up to us.
Maybe you’re not ready to do something as dramatic as going vegan or selling your car — but here’s another number for you. If everyone in the United States made just one meal vegetarian each week, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than half a million cars off of the road.
Maybe I’ve convinced you that you can make a real difference as an individual — eat less meat, use a coffee cup, walk and bike more, buy less stuff. You understand the numbers… but what now?
Well, I’ve convinced you, haven’t I? What if I convince 5 people? What if you convince 5 more people? That’s all it takes for a revolution and for us to change the numbers. Our home is an incredibly amazing and diverse place, and our future can be bright. It’s within our grasp as long as we each make the effort.
We reached this point though individual action. We can turn things around through individual action. It doesn’t matter what you do this World Environment Day — only that you do something positive and you don’t just do it once a year. To quote Jack Johnson: “An individual action, multiplied by millions, creates global change.”
So check out what’s going on in your neighborhood for WED 2010 — and if there isn’t anything, find 5 friends and make something happen. And make it happen again every week. Act locally, and you will impact globally.
You can make a difference for the many species on this one planet, for the one future we have.
For more information on WED 2010, the UNEP, and this year’s incredibly diverse host country, Rwanda, check out the World Environment Day 2010 website.
