World Environment Day-5^th June is the biggest, most popular and globally celebrated day for positive environmental action. It is the biggest global call and mobilisation for action towards environment protection. This year WED 2017 theme was 'Connecting People to Nature'. What a theme!

There are various ways in which one can contribute to WED celebration. It is a day for everyone, everywhere. Any step-small or big, taken towards protecting and safeguarding the environment, is worthy of an applause and can make a sizeable difference. As I always say that such actions may be small at an individual level but if all of us do them, collectively they have a bigger positive impact.

Personally, I did a lot of small things to make it meaningful and memorable day for not only me but also for those who were involved with me. I am glad to share them with you all here on this amazing forum.

Survey

I started with conducting a short survey (of 8  questions) -just to collect opinion and analyse as to how many people in my university as well as around my community in Birmingham know about WED.  Below were the questions in the survey:

1.       Are you aware of World Environment Day(WED)?

2.       When is it celebrated every year?

3.       What is this year's WED theme?

4.       Where did you read or hear about 'World Environment Day'?

5.       Are you planning to celebrate 'World Environment Day' this'year? If yes, how?

6.       Would you like to join me in celebrating WED 2017? If yes, pl put your contact number here.

7.       Do you personally follow 3Rs (Reduce, Reuse and Recycle)? If you recycle or reuse your old/discarded items, please answer 'yes' to this question. OR-If you are conscious about minimising your waste, please answer 'yes' to this question.

8.       Do you think you are doing enough to protect the environment?

 

I could get 243 people to answer this survey.

Below is the analysis:

79% of respondents knew about 'World Environment Day'.

35% of respondents knew about WED 2017 theme.

People heard about WED on local Radio channels, read about it on posters and banners in supermarkets, Tescos, on buses, around the city etc

73% of respondents said they follow 3Rs.

 

Group Cycling

Cycling is the best way to exercise, reduce carbon emission and enjoy nature's beauty, especially in this weather when it is not cold here in the UK. It is the cheapest mode of transport and you don't need to rely on bus or train timings etc. I wanted to promote cycling and inspire people to commute to the university using cycles (especially that we have dedicated cycle stands all around our university and special bike passage on the roads). I spoke to my friends and also to those who had responded that they want to join me in WED event and we all agreed to commute by a cycle that day to commemorate WED 2017. I can't tell you all how much fun it was. We all started at 8.30 AM from a common point and cycled in a group. We were 42 of us. I wish we had taken some pics to share here.

No meat day

Earlier this year I was elected the Secretary General of our University United Nations Society and I am also the Student Representative. So as Secretary General of UoB UN Society and as a student rep, I sent a mailer to all UN Soc members, also to all Toastmaster club members and my classmates wishing them 'Happy World Environment Day' and requesting them to have a meatless day on WED. I further explained in my mail that meat has more of an impact on the environment than any other food we eat. That's because livestock requires so much more food, water, land, and energy than plants to raise and transport. Factory farming, to a great extent, is responsible for climate change and biodiversity loss, the poor treatment of 70m land animals worldwide, as well as the increase in heart disease, cancer and obesity. If people were to cut back by just 10% meat that would be a huge win in terms of all these issues.  I made them aware of the new term 'Reducetarian' which means committing to eating LESS meat. Vegetarians and Vegans commit to NOT eating meat at all while Reducetarians reduce their meat consumption.

I was happy to receive replies from many confirming that they will do so.

Toastmaster session Exclusively on/for WED 2017 

We have a Toastmaster club in our university and we have weekly meetings where members deliver prepared speeches, talk on table topics, evaluate others' speeches etc. For that week, I had proposed to the club to hold the meeting on the WED evening so that we could talk about the environment and dedicate the day to WED. All the members agreed and we had an interesting session on the evening of WED. We all spoke about our various experiences of getting close to nature, we shared what is everyone's idea of Nature's beauty and how we all can get connected to nature and how we can help to protect the environment. We had fun. By the way, I also explained them the concept of  'Virtual water' (which I learnt from Tunza through Monday's environment story). Many of the club members confirmed that they were observing 'No Meat Day' as requested in my email.

Poem: My tribute to Mother Earth

As I usually do on important days, on 5^th June/WED too,  I wrote a poem which is nothing great, might sound kiddish but just a way to dedicate my thoughts and words to 'Mother Earth' on this special day.  I am sharing the image of my poem here.

 

WED Poster Making Competition (Online)

I also participated in  'Online World Environment Day Poster Making Competition'.  One had to submit either the handmade poster or digital poster but it should not be copied from somewhere. I submitted 2 entries which I am sharing in pictures. I am not good at art and drawing so I was glad when I was notified that I won and my poster was in the top 3 posters in my category.

High Commendation-Role Model of the year

This year I got a gift on World Environment Day. Yes, I was pleasantly surprised to know that I was highly commended as Role Model of the year in our University's annual award night. I never expected this. It seems it was through nomination, multi-level screening and ultimately judges' decision. This year, total 25 students were nominated. I knew that I was nominated as I received an email that I was nominated. I also received email  10 days before the award night that after screenings, I was in the shortlist (5 were shortlisted), still I did not expect and I did not attend the award night. I was congratulated by my friends and I saw my name on twitter and I seriously repented of not being there at the award night. Although I was not present at the award night yet this achievement made my day.

 

Small step to save the Earth is in our hands

Let's all protect earth not just on WED but every day. A small step to protect the Earth is in our hands. Keep up your green efforts and if you are not doing so, reflect on your daily actions and think how you can bring sustainability to your lifestyle and how can you protect the environment through your actions. Before taking any action, just ask yourself 3 questions:

Q 1. Is it necessary?

Q2. What will be it's impact on the environment?

Q3. Is there a better, more eco-friendlier alternative?

 

#WorldEnvironmentDay

#WithNature 

#ConnectingPeopletoNature

 

Yes, I am with nature, Are you?