LAGOS – A head of the United Nations (UN) World Environment Day on Friday, environmentalist have called for the creation of consciousness about ecological problems among the people.
They told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the government and the people should focus more on preserving terrestial and aquatic life.
Mr Taiwo Adewole, Chief Executive Officer, Taiwo Adewole and Associates, an NGO, told NAN that there was need to think of the consequences of the choices people make to avoid affecting the environment negatively.
“It is high time we minimise the available resources we have presently, because if our fore fathers did not use the resources sustainably, we wouldn’t have met any resources we are using today.
“Like fresh air, if we don’t want to be totally consumed by environmental disasters, it is high time we start living a sustainable
lifestyle by increasing the quality of life and reduce human induced hazards,’’ he said.
Ms Sola Alamutu, Coordinator of Beach Samaritans, an NGO, also said there should be more focus on the protection of the natural waters and animals.
Alamutu said people should cultivate the habit of ensuring that the seas and coastlines were free of dirt that could hamper the natural resources in the waters.
“We don’t really care about our resources, especially the air we breath. The beaches are our sources of revenue through tourism, including the air we breath which we also pollute.
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“The lives of the animals in the sea are threatened once the environment is not sustained properly.
“We need to sustain the lives of creatures in the sea to promote our environment,’’ she said.
She urged the media to continuously disseminate information on the importance of sustainability of lives and resources to keep people aware on its implications.
She also called on corporate organisations and individual to be more proactive in protecting and sustaining resources and checkmating lifestyles that negate the environment.
Meanwhile, in a message for the day, Achim Steiner, UN Under-Secretary-General, said that living in an increasingly globalised world, inhabited by 7 billion people, it was easy to underestimate the power of individual action.
Steiner, Executive Director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP), said the annual World Environment Day reminded people across the globe that it was their personal choices that shaped the world around them.
“Our daily decisions as consumers, multiplied by billions, have a colossal impact on the environment — some of them contribute to the further depletion of natural resources, others help to protect fragile ecosystems.
“Every time, the choice is ours.
“I would like to invite everyone to imagine what the world would be like if each of the 7 billion people made one change towards a more responsible consumption of resources.
“I would like you to hold on to that vision and strive to make it reality — be it refusing to buy single-use plastic bags or riding a bike to work,’’ Steiner said.
The theme for this year’s celebrations, “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care’’, emphasises that personal responsibility each one of us bears for enabling inclusive and sustainable economic development while stabilising and reducing the rate of resource use.
Today, unsustainable patterns of consumption and production are one of the major causes of the continued deterioration of the global environment.
There is no doubt that the “great acceleration’’ of the last 50 years has seen a rapid transformation of the human relationship with the natural world.
More so than in any other period in our history, with escalating use of natural resources leading to environmental degradation.
We must ask ourselves what the consequences of this pace of consumption and trajectory of population growth — forecasted to reach nine billion by 2050 will be.
Under current trends, global extraction of resources is set to reach 140 billion tonnes by 2050, compared to around seven billion tonnes in 1900.
This will probably exceed the availability and accessibility of resources, as well as the carrying capacity of the planet to absorb the impacts of their extraction and use.
We simply cannot afford the waste, as resources are diminishing and prices are rising.
But there is still time to transform the challenges of dwindling and finite resources into opportunities that will promote prosperous economies and a healthy planet for generations to come.
The World Environment Day is the opportunity for everyone to realize the responsibility to care for the Earth and to become agents of change. (NAN)
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