World Environment Day! Did you miss out??

This event was plastered all over twitter, and all over the UNEP (United Nations Environment Programme) website on the 5^th of June. This day took place on a global scale and therefore was quite a big deal for all of you that have a passion for the environment. Not ringing a bell? Maybe you weren’t aware of this day or maybe you were and you accidentally forgot about it? HAVE NO FEAR BioBunch have you covered!, in this article we will tell you everything you need to know about the outcome of this day.

Firstly what is World Environment Day?

Well technically this event is not limited to a 24-hour time frame and the activities that take place on this day are continued all throughout the year! And then climax on the 5^th of June. It began in 1972 and is now thought to be the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action.

On the 5^th of June UNEP announced that 2013’s theme would be: Think. Eat. Save. Think before you Eat and help Save the environment. Love Food Hate Waste (a company providing information on this day also) (@LFHW_UK) reported that the amount of food wasted per year in England alone was 7.2 million tonnes! And that 4.4 million tonnes of this could have been eaten. This food wastage causes a loss of £12 billion each year. It is worrying to know that this much food a year is wasted in England alone when 20,000 children under the age of 5 die each day from hunger in developing countries. In retaliation to this disparity the campaign Think. Eat. Save. was designed to encourage awareness of the link between food choices and our environment, and allow all of us to make informed decisions on the food that we eat.

It was found that global food production takes up 25% of habitable land, responsible for 70% of freshwater consumption, 80% of deforestation and 30% of greenhouse gases. All in all, food production is one of the main drivers behind loss of biodiversity and land use change. It is clear that the world is on a tipping point in which air pollution and water usage needs to be improved, the levels of production must be balanced and wastage must be reduced.  It would seem that sustainable consumption must be adopted globally. Sustainable consumption is in a nut shell “doing more and better with less” – so decreasing greenhouse gases, reducing the amount of resources used and reducing degradation whilst increasing the quality of life for everyone

We know what your thinking ‘what can I do to make this years theme of Think. Eat. Save. more successful in saving the planet. Well you’ll be happy to know that you can make a huge difference by adopting WWF’s 5 live well principles:

1. I’ll eat more plants.
2. I’ll waste less food (30% of food brought is thrown out)
3. I’ll eat less meat (for you carnivores, try having like a vegetarian day once a week that will really matter)
4. I’ll eat less processed food, remember processed food is a lot more resource intensive in order to produce the high amounts of fat, sugar and salt
5. I’ll eat certified- MSC for fish, RSPCO for palm oil and RSPCA freedom food for meat and eggs.

Below are some of the posters from World Environment Day check it out!!

What are you going to do for the Think. Eat. Save. campaign? Give 1 or 2 of the 5 Livewell principles a go, or if you can do all 5 of them!! Let us know how your getting on, or what your going to do for the 2013 campaign by leaving a comment down below. (Side note: those of you who are fans of Ian Somerhalder he did a Q&A session with UNEP to see it click here. 

For more information on World Environment Day visit any of these websites:
United Nations Environment Program
Love Food Hate Waste  
WWF - Footprint in seven facts

Biobunch
over and out.