World Environment Day began in 1972, and has been celebrated annually to become one of the main vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment, and encourages political attention and action. It is aimed at being the biggest and most widely celebrated global day for positive environmental action.
World Environment Day is a day for people from all walks of life to join in the common goal of a cleaner, greener, and brighter outlook for future generations.
The 2013 theme for World Environment Day celebrations is Think.Eat.Save. - an anti food waste and food loss campaign to reduce your foodprint. The UN Food and Agriculture organization have calculated an annual 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted, equivalent to the amount of food produced in the whole of sub-Saharan African. And yet, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry, while more than 20 000 children under the age of 5 die every day from hunger.
The population of Earth is expected to grow to 9 billion by 2050, and while the planet is struggling to provide us with enough resources to sustain its human population now, an estimated 1/3 of global food production is either wasted or lost.
Think.Eat.Save. rallies you to take action; witness the power of collective decisions you can make to reduce food waste, save money, minimize the environmental impact of food production, and force food production processes to become more efficient.
Think before you eat, and help save the environment - for yourself, your children, and all the generations to come.
Today is also Apple II Day, Hot Air Balloon Day, National Running Day, and National Moonshine Day!
Here are some interesting things that happened on this day in history:
- Isaac Newton was admitted as a student to Trinity College, Cambridge om 1661.
- Over 2000 British troops under Robert Monckton attacked Fort Beauséjour in 1755; the fort fell on June 16.
- Joseph & Jacques Montgolfier made the 1st public balloon flight in 1783.
- Two American brigades were defeated by Lieutenant-Colonel John Harvey at Stoney Creek in 1813. The Americans withdrew to Fort George on the Niagara River.
- The HMS Pickle captured the armed slave ship, Voladora off the coast of Cuba in 1829.
- About 1000 unemployed men boarded freight cars in Vancouver to begin the "On to Ottawa" trek in 1935. The strikers commandeered freight trains and made stops in Calgary, Medicine Hat, Swift Current and Moose Jaw before arriving in Regina June 14.
- Henry Ford initiated a 32-hour work week in 1937.
- Prime Minister Joe Clark, the youngest person to become PM of Canada, was born in High River, Alberta in 1939.
- Nazi, Fascist, and Communist groups were declared illegal in Canada in 1940, and their leaders were jailed.
- Davie Jones & King Bees debuted "I Can't Help Thinking About Me," in 1964; the group later disbanded, but Davie Jones went on to great success as David Bowie.
- The 1st personal computer, Apple II, went on sale in 1977.
- The Center of Disease Control reported a pneumonia affecting homosexuals in 1981; we would come to know it as AIDS.
- Cyndi Lauper's "Time After Time" became #1 on the charts in 1984.
- The 1st Children's Miracle Network Telethon raised $590,000 in 1988.
- The Toronto Blue Jays played their first home game in the new SkyDome in 1989, against the Milwaukee Brewers. The SkyDome was the first stadium with a successful retractable roof.
- The Transportation Safety Board declared that human error caused BC Ferries' Queen of the North to sink on 22 March 2006, killing 2.
Stay tuned for our next, "On This Day in History"!
No comments:
Post a Comment