World Environment Day & World Oceans Day: How Are You Celebrating?

In the next week, two major conservation days are happening: World Environment Day, and World Oceans Day.

Both of these are sponsored by the UN, making them global events that encourage sustainability and education about the world around us, and the impact that humans are having on it.

Here at LaBante, we’re here to give you all of the details, so you can get involved in your own way, and learn how to celebrate while campaigning for a better world.

World Environment Day 2019

World Environment Day is celebrated on the 5^th of June each year. Its aim is to raise awareness for a wide range of environmental issues, and it has a different theme every year, as well as a different host country. In 2019, the theme is Air Pollution and the host country is China.

World Environment Day is a brainchild of the United Nations General Assembly, which is why it is a day of worldwide participation. The very first Environment Day was in 1974, with the theme of ‘One Earth’ and it has grown and grown ever since to what we know today.

Celebrities get involved in raising awareness alongside businesses, NGOs and governments to encourage action on dealing with the major issues our environment faces such as climate change, wildlife protection, overpopulation and plastic pollution.

What Happens on World Environment Day?

People celebrate WED in all different types of ways. From cleaning up beaches, to planting trees, anything goes as long as it shows care and consideration for the world in which we live.

This year, people are being asked to take a picture of themselves wearing a mask and post it onto social media, in support of the many people in our world who aren’t breathing clean air.

Other things that people are doing to celebrate WED are:

• Using public transport, cycling or walking
• Reducing their consumption of meat and dairy
• Composting and recycling
• Turning off lights and electronics when not in use

The Facts About Air Pollution

You may not think that air pollution is that bad as many recent environmental protection campaigns have been concentrating more on the problem of plastic, however it is an area of major concern.

Did you know that approximately 7 million people worldwide die prematurely each year from air pollution? Around 4 million of these deaths happen in the Asia-Pacific region, which is why China is playing host to WED this year, as it is a country that is greatly affected by this issue.

If renewable energy sources can be encouraged and money put into researching green technology, this air pollution can be reversed, saving millions of lives around the world and helping to solve global warming at the same time.

Renewable energy and green technologies can improve air quality in cities and regions across the world.

What Causes Air Pollution?

92% of people worldwide do not breathe clean air.

Not all causes of air pollution are man-made, with dust storms and volcanoes being major contributors. However, we can’t deny that humans have a massive impact on the quality of our air. Here are just a few ways that we cause this.

Agriculture

Agriculture has a big impact on air pollution.

Livestock produce huge quantities of both methane and ammonia, which have a terrible impact on our environment and contributes greatly to global warming.

Another way in which agriculture causes air pollution is the burning of agricultural waste.

One of the best ways to combat this is to reduce the amount of meat we eat and try to support vegan products. Here at LaBante, all of our products are 100% vegan, because we don’t think that any animal has to die for fashion. Not only this, but it is so much better for the environment, and new alternatives to leather are being invented all of the time.

Household

The burning of fossil fuels, particularly in the developing world, to light and heat homes has a large impact on air pollution.

3 billion people still use this type of fuel around the world. Not only is modern technology safer to use, it will also reduce illnesses caused by breathing in smoke.

Industry

Power-plants, diesel generators, and other industrial processes that use chemicals, continue to pollute our air all over the world.

While renewable sources are used, more can still be done to encourage governments to move towards cleaner, more efficient energy.

Transport

Our cars, planes, and other methods of transport all effect our air quality. This is particularly true of diesel emissions.

Investing in better public transport, and cleaner cars, is a must if we are to keep these emissions to a minimum. Cleaner fuels alongside technology can reduce vehicle emissions by 90%

Waste

Across the globe, an estimated 40% of waste is burned out in the open. This releases a whole host of harmful toxins and gases into our atmosphere, which we then breathe in.

Improving how we manage the waste that we produce is the only solution.

Composting for biofuel is one way of improving this, producing an alternative energy source at the same time. Recycling is also to be encouraged. The linings of our handbags are made from recycled plastic bottles, which are first turned into pellets, and then into material.

We also have a zero-waste packaging policy, so you won’t be putting anything in a landfill when you buy one of our products.

World Oceans Day

World Oceans Day takes place every year on the 8^th of June.

It was originally brought about in 1992 at the Earth Summit in Rio, to bring our oceans into the foreground of environmental policy. Ever since 2010, effort has stepped up to promote World Oceans Day with many NGOs and leading organisations coming onboard to celebrate and campaign to protect our oceans and the wildlife that lives in them.

The original concept was for World Ocean Day, singular, as our ocean is a global one. However in 2009, ‘World Oceans Day’ became officially recognised by the UN,  so the name was changed, as this endorsement helped to bring our oceans to the attention of people and governments around the world.

What Happens on World Oceans Day?

There are a lot of special events that are organised to celebrate World Oceans Day, including special events at aquariums and zoos, beach clean ups, photographic contests, and sustainable seafood events.

The World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council has been heavily involved in efforts to save the ocean since 2016.

World Oceans Day is a day to think about everything the ocean provides for us, and to consider environmental sustainability and conservation.

The ocean iso important because it:

• Is a source of many medicines.
• Provides us with the majority of our oxygen.
• Regulates the climate.
• Is a major food source in many countries.
• Is a beautiful and diverse part of our world.

Gender and the Oceans

This year, the United Nations brought two big topics together: gender and the Oceans. This is the theme of the 2019 World Oceans Day and is seeks to explore the gender dimension of our relationship with the ocean. This might sound strange at first, but it makes sense.

Even in environmental and conservation work, there is very little gender equality, and the same goes for areas such as marine biology, within fisheries, and policy making, etc. Our oceans are also used for human trafficking, which is something that the UN continues to oppose. By using World Oceans Day as a platform, we can bring these issues to the attention of a global audience.

Plastic Pollution

Plastic also has a major impact on our oceans, which is one of the issues that World Oceans Day does its best to raise awareness about. "There will be more plastic than fish in our oceans by 2050 if we continue on the path we are on" reported the World Economic Forum in 2016.

This year, the President of the General Assembly launched ‘Play It Out', a global campaign against plastic pollution. The ‘Attenborough Effect’ has seen the general public’s perception of plastic and our oceans change dramatically in the last year, with people now campaigning against single use plastic in straws, as well as the use of plastic bags for our groceries.

Decades of overuse of these items has led to a global environmental catastrophe, and the worst part of it is, these plastics will take hundreds of years to break down, and so will be impacting marine life for many more years to come.

At LaBante London, one of our main goals is to do as much as we possibly can towards environmental sustainability. That’s why all of our materials come from sustainable sources.

We pay all of our workers a fair wage, because the global environment means caring for each other as well. You can check out our 100% vegan handbags here.

However you're celebrating World Environment Day and World Oceans Day, we hope you have a rewarding and inspiring day.

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