June 5th 2019 is World Environment Day. This is a UN-Environment led initiative which was established in 1972 and first celebrated in 1974. The day is used to shine a spotlight on the fragile environment around us, and increase awareness of all the havoc we’re wreaking on it. But the day should be one of positivity, showing appreciation for the environment which supports us and working to protect it. To tackle any problem we must first acknowledge there is one. And yes, we’re slowly reaching enlightenment on this matter (isn’t it interesting that this day, and therefore concern about our environment dates back 45 years!!), so now let’s do something about it!
China is the host for World Environment Day this year, with the main events taking place in Hangzhou. Combined with the fact that the theme is Air Pollution, China playing host is truly fitting for a few reasons:
- Beijing has just reached the milestone of 20 years of Air Pollution Control, which has seen some incredible outcomes: from 2013-2017 they saw fine particulate levels drop by 35%!;
- you may recall from our renewables article, China leads the way globally in both the capacity and production of renewable energies. They are setting a cracking pace on environmental progress, so the rest of the world should absolutely sit up and pay attention…and follow their lead.
- the country owns over half the world’s electric vehicles and 99% of the world’s electric buses
Here’s some air pollution facts to make you gasp: 92% of people worldwide do not breathe clean air; air pollution costs the global economy $5 Trillion each year in welfare; and approximately 7 million people worldwide die prematurely from an air pollution related issue.
Air pollution comes from a range of sources. There are 5 main human sources. Some are obvious, like transport, industry and agriculture. But the two other sources are less obvious: household and waste. Here’s some more unnerving facts: 3.8 million of the 7 million premature deaths mentioned above are caused by indoor air pollution; this is hardly surprising when you consider that around 3 billion people worldwide continue to use solid fuels and open fires for cooking, heating and lighting; an estimated 40% of waste is burned – this is a practice for both agricultural and municipal waste which takes place in 166 of 193 countries; methane is a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide – its impact is 34 times greater over a 100 year period.
The UN provides some positive messages around each of these problem areas, to highlight that there are things being done to start addressing them. But we can all do things on an individual level to bolster the governmental actions (some governments) are putting in place. For example, we can eat less meat, and farmers could optimize feed digestibility which would both lead to a reduction in methane from livestock; and we can drive less, using trains or cycling instead.
The UN wouldn’t be a respectable authority on this subject if they themselves weren’t cognizant of their own environmental impact or introduced policies and procedures for tackling this. So each year they release a report. The 2018 Greening the Blue Report showed that in 2017 the 66 UN entities, made up of 255,742 personnel, released a grand total of 1.86 million tons of CO2e into the atmosphere. This sounds like a lot, and it is. But lets break that down: the average per capita emissions were 7.26 tons of CO2e. Compare this with the average American emitting over 16 tons of CO2, and this is surprisingly low. Especially when you consider the majority of those emissions come from missions, requiring huge amounts of large aircraft and ships, to get help to people involved in disasters.
So with those numbers in mind, and tomorrow being World Environment Day, let’s all make a pledge to be better. We CAN do better for our environment, we CAN produce less air pollution and we CAN be more sustainable. Get outside and enjoy the glorious beginnings of summer, look around and appreciate all that is the natural environment. Maybe go one step further and make a bigger positive impact – plant a tree! Follow #BeatAirPollution or #WorldEnvironmentDay for local updates and events to help you participate.
