World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated every year on 5th June to raise global awareness of the need to take positive environmental action. It is run by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

It was the day that United Nations Conference on the Human Environment began. The United Nations Conference on the Human Environment was from 5–16 June 1972. It was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972. The first World Environment Day was on 1973. World Environment Day is hosted every year by a different city with a different theme and is commemorated with an international exposition in the week of 5 June.

The Theme
Green Economy: Does it include YOU?

The 2012 theme for World Environment Day is Green Economy: Does it include you? Evidently, there are two parts to this theme and the first tackles the subject of the Green Economy. This is where some people shut off their minds because they find the concept of the Green Economy a little too complex to understand.

On the contrary, the Green Economy is really something that is applicable all around you and it is easy to imagine how you fit in it.

What is the Green Economy?

The global financial crisis that began in 2007, and is still resonant today, is considered by many economists as the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. One of the key lessons we can draw from this experience is that running economies the way we’ve always done, doing business as usual, is clearly not an option. The new Green Economy is therefore a proposal for an alternative and far more sustainable way of doing business.

A green economy is described as one that results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing environmental risks and ecological scarcities. In other words, we can think of a green economy as an economic environment that achieves low carbon emissions, resource efficiency and at the same time is socially inclusive.
The Green Economy Initiative

The UNEP-led Green Economy Initiative, launched in late 2008, provides a comprehensive and practical working mechanism, through analysis and policy support for investing in green sectors and in greening environmental unfriendly sectors.

The Green Economy Initiative has three main activities, which are to produce a Green Economy Report and related research materials, which will analyse the macroeconomic, sustainability, and poverty reduction implications of green investment in a range of sectors; to provide advisory services on ways to move towards a green economy in specific countries; and to engage a wide range of research, non-governmental organizations, business and UN partners in implementing the Green Economy Initiative.

By the way, please check the front page of The Hindu dated 5 June 2012. It is amazing. So what are you going to do to make this world green?

Six years after the Al Gore Documentary. :)

Round 1: Renewable Energy vs Non-Renewable Energy

Very nice analysis by David Mackay (speaker).

Coal and Oil Win.

More work needs to be done, for a safer tomorrow. 

Earth Day was born in 1970, into a world torn by political strife and emboldened by free-spirited activism. The times were a-changin', and an unlikely confluence of people and events led to the first Earth Day celebration on April 22, 1970. But the seed of Earth Day was planted many years earlier, when a handful of scientists and conservationists became aware that the phenomenal post-war growth of American industry -- and its attendant air and water pollution -- was destroying much of the natural world.

The Environmental Movement and Earth Day
In 1962, Rachel Carson, a quiet loner from a Pennsylvania farm who became a renowned biologist and nature writer, published Silent Spring, a jeremiad against the spraying of DDT and other pesticides. By blaming their use for the widespread decimation of bird and animal populations, she is credited for giving the environmental movement its robust scientific underpinnings.
Other events in the 1960s galvanized public awareness of environmental destruction. Air pollution in Los Angeles, New York City and other urban areas had reached such dangerously high levels that human health impacts were immediate and undeniable. Population growth, the impetus for Paul Erlich's seminal 1968 bestseller The Population Bomb, was blamed for bulldozing fields and forests to create sprawling suburbs. And in what may be the most famous eco-disaster of the decade, Ohio's Cuyahoga River, which flowed through Cleveland and other industrial cities, caught fire in 1969 from all the hazardous wastes that were regularly dumped into it.

Gaylord Nelson and the First Earth Day
It was during this era that Senator Gaylord Nelson, a conservation-minded Democrat from Wisconsin, first proposed making environmental protection a national priority. Though in 1963 he convinced President Kennedy to go on a national "conservation tour," little came of it politically. That same year, Nelson introduced legislation to ban DDT: not one single member of Congress joined him. Nelson, undeterred, noticed that a number of small organizations had achieved some success in promoting environmental issues locally. Inspired by these events, and by the growing number of antiwar protests and "teach-ins" that had sprung up across the country, Nelson decided in 1969 that a single day devoted to an environmental teach-in might be the perfect way to put pollution, deforestation and other green issues at the top of the nation's political agenda. Speaking at a conference in Seattle in September of 1969, Nelson proposed that in the spring of 1970 there would be a coast-to-coast grassroots demonstration on behalf of environmental concerns -- and in Nelson's words, "The response was electric. It took off like gangbusters."  People across the country had apparently been looking for an outlet to express their growing environmental consciousness. Nelson also took out a full-page ad in The New York Times in January of 1970, announcing that Earth Day would take place on Wednesday, April 22. The date was chosen because of its timing with student class schedules, warmer weather and no competing holidays.

Local Activities for Earth Day
Though Nelson helped to set up an independent organization -- Environmental Teach-In, Inc., led by Denis Hayes, a student activist -- to handle the flood of requests for information, the senator insisted that Earth Day be organized on the local level. This proved to be an inspired idea, as people were far more invested in issues affecting their communities and families.
April 22, 1970, dawned fair and mild, with blue skies throughout most of the country. By most estimates, some 20 million people took to the streets, vastly exceeding even the most optimistic expectations. Republicans, Democrats, school children, college students, labor unions, housewives, doctors, religious leaders, bankers, retirees, farmers and everyone in between participated in thousands of local marches, rallies, parades, protests and other "happenings."

The History of Earth Day Resonates
The first Earth Day was deemed a blazing success. The event was front-page news almost everywhere, and coverage was overwhelmingly positive. The event cemented in people's minds the importance of environmental issues as a community concern and an international political priority. For many participants, Earth Day marked a turning point in their lives, when reckless consumption and unfettered industrial waste suddenly came under harsh scrutiny.

Earth Day has resonated, on a personal and political level, for over 40 years. In months following that first grassroots event, the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Air Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and dozens of other landmark pieces of legislation were passed. To a remarkable degree, Earth Day institutionalized protection for the land, air and water. And when, in 1990, Earth Day went global as an international event, the world embraced it with the same enthusiasm as Americans did in 1970.  For his unceasing devotion to the green movement and other social and environmental causes, Sen. Nelson -- who passed away in 2005 -- was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Only when the last tree has died and the last river been poisoned and the last fish been caught will we realize we cannot eat money.— Cree Indian Proverb
 

         As many as 2000 people participated in the Green marathon organised by the College to promote a greener environment and create an awareness among people about global warming and sustainability. The event was organised by the college for the third consecutive year. This green marathon was flagged off by Mr. Asra Garg, IPS Superintendent of Police, Madurai District at the Race course ground at 7.00 am. He also distributed the prizes to the winners amidst the Chairman Thiru MKS.Sreenivasan, Director Mr. SR. Vijayshrenivas, Secretary, Mr. M.SR. Rajsanthosh and Joint secretary Mr. M.S.Vikram. As part of promoting green energy the college has also produced three ebikes that run on batteries.

This marathon was conducted for the Five categories of participants namely:

1. Men below 30
2. Men above 30
3. Women
4. Physically Challenged – Wheel Chair
5. Skating for boys and girls

The winner of the all these categories were given Rs 1000 for the first prize, Rs 750 for the second prize and Rs 500 for the third prize along with the Certificates.
 

Every day, we use materials from the earth without thinking, for free. But what if we had to pay for their true value: would it make us more careful about what we use and what we waste? Think of Pavan Sukhdev as nature's banker -- assessing the value of the Earth's assets. Eye-opening charts will make you think differently about the cost of air, water, trees ...

Follow the link below.

www.britishcouncil.org/india-projects-climate-international-climate-champions-2011.htm

India's First Air-Conditioned Double-Decker Train Unveiled, during oct-nov 2010.

India will need more of these.

The more humanity acidifies and warms the world's oceans with carbon emissions, the harder we will have to work to save our coral reefs. That’s the blunt message from a major new study by an international scientific team, which finds that ocean acidification and global warming will combine with local impacts like over fishing and nutrient runoff to weaken the world's coral reefs right when they are struggling to survive. It is found that reefs already over fished and affected by land runoff are likely to be more vulnerable to increasing CO2 in the atmosphere caused by the burning of fossil fuels. Warmer conditions cause periodic mass coral deaths by bleaching, while acidifying sea water - due to CO2 dissolving out of the atmosphere - weakens the corals by interfering with their ability to form their skeletons, making them more vulnerable to impact by storms. If the corals are also affected by heavy nutrient runoff from the land - which fertilizes the algae - and over fishing of parrot fishes and others that keep the reefs clear of weed, then corals can struggle to re-establish after a setback. Safeguarding coral reefs in the 21st century will require urgent solutions to the global carbon problem as well as strong management of local disturbances.

Today is World Water Day! World Water Day is an international day to celebrate freshwater and a means of focusing attention on the importance of freshwater. The United Nations General Assembly designated 22 March of each year as the World Day for Water by adopting a resolution. This year theme, Water for cities: responding to the urban challenge, aims to spotlight and encourage governments, organizations, communities, and individuals to actively engage in addressing the challenges of urban water management. The objective of World Water Day 2011 is to focus international attention on the impact of rapid urban population growth, industrialization and uncertainties caused by climate change, conflicts and natural disasters on urban water systems.
 

Rivers in the world are under severe threat despite decades of attention to pollution control and investments in environmental protection.Rivers of the world least at risk are those where human populations are smallest. Rivers in arctic regions and inaccessible areas of the tropics appear to be in the best health. Nearly 80 percent of the world's human population lives in areas where river waters are highly threatened posing a major threat to human water security and resulting in aquatic environments where thousands of species of plants and animals are at risk of extinction.Rivers in different parts of the world are subject to similar types of stresses - agricultural intensification, industrial development, river habitat modification and many other factors.Compounding the problem is that some of the negative influences on rivers arrive in indirect ways. Mercury pollution, for example, is a byproduct of electricity generation at coal-fired power plants. It is emitted into the atmosphere and then is deposited on river surfaces. Fresh water is the world's most essential natural resource, underpinning human life and economic development as well as the existence of countless organisms ranging from microscopic organisms to fish, amphibians, birds and terrestrial animals of all kinds. But burgeoning human populations, damming, irrigation and other agricultural and engineering practices, chemical pollution, and the accidental as well as purposeful global redistribution of plants, fish, and other animal species have had far-reaching effects on rivers and their aquatic inhabitants.