The Indian politician and public figure Mahatma Gandhi said that our world is enough to fully satisfy all human needs, but it is too small to saturate human greed. His words most fully convey the attitude of man to the environment, which has developed with the advent of technology and industry in our lives. After people began to realize that the resource of nature is far from eternal and that by our actions we dig a hole for our descendants, the need arose to protect this very environment.
The United Nations decided in its own way to draw people's attention to the problems of natural pollution and the destruction of resources. To this end, the date of June 5 became known as World Environment Day. The date was not chosen by chance. It was on June 5, 1972, that the Stockholm conference dedicated to the problems of protecting natural resources began. At this forum, the basic concept of human development was developed, which the UN is guided to this day.
For the first time, Environmental Protection Day was proclaimed at the 27th session of the UN General Assembly. This happened on December 15, 1972, and the goal was to draw the attention of the world community to the problems of environmental pollution by anthropogenic factors, animal cruelty, the extermination of numerous living species that were on the verge of extinction, and other problems that arose through the fault of man and lead to the destruction of the natural resources of the planet.
The celebration of such an event as
Environmental Protection Day is designed to ensure that everyone on Earth is imbued with the problems of environmental organizations and wants to participate and contribute to activities aimed at improving the environmental situation throughout the world. Therefore, according to UN requirements, on June 5, various rallies, concerts, parades of cyclists and other events of activists of the "green" movement and simply indifferent to the problems
of nature conservation of people and organizations are held around the world.
Each year, for the celebration of such an occasion as Environmental Protection Day, the UN leadership agrees on the theme of these events, which is common for all peoples in the world. This practice has been going on since 1974, when the first theme of the holiday “Only One Earth” was put forward, and events corresponding to this theme were organized. But Environmental Protection Day 2013 is already focused on a less global concept.
The name of the Nature Protection Festival this year sounded like “Think, Eat, Save” and was devoted to such important issues as conscious consumption, which environmentalists and economists strive to turn people's attention to, as well as hunger problems on the planet, which, despite everything our high-tech civilization is still relevant in many countries of the world that are just beginning their development.
In general, such a holiday - Environmental Protection Day - is necessary for our planet now more than ever. After all, if you do not start taking measures to change the global environmental situation, in a few generations our descendants will lose the opportunity to enjoy many embodiments of the beauty of nature on planet Earth.