Happy World Environment Day!

Celebrate the 49th World Environment Day on June 5th!

It’s often said that we have three homes: our bodies, our families (physical home) and our planet, Mother Earth. This upcoming Saturday, June 5th, we celebrate our third home, Earth, on World Environment Day. The first World Environment Day was celebrated in 1972 and was established by the United Nations General Assembly, as the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Every year, there is typically an international exposition the week before that’s hosted by a different city. This year, Pakistan is the designated host country, with most events being online, and the theme is #GenerationRestoration, the emphasis being on reviving and protecting our ecosystems. There are events everyday listed on their website: https://www.worldenvironmentday.global/latest/official-event-schedule 

Aside from attending the UN’s events, there’s plenty of other ways you can celebrate World Environment Day and here’s a few that Simply Living came up with:

1. Take a walk outdoors (maybe visit a local park) and appreciate the different species there. If you’re able to, see if you can pick up trash you may find. 
   1. If you’re looking for an opportunity to go to the park with others, Simply Living is offering two guided nature walks where you can identify Ohio Broad-leaf trees on June 16th and June 23rd. 
2. Start your own garden! With spring in full bloom, now is a great time to start a garden.
3. Educate others — Call your relatives or friends and talk about environmental issues and what you can do about it. 
4. Try to go a day without creating waste! Figure out different areas in your everyday lifestyle where you can cut out or reduce the waste you produce. 
5. Sign sustainability-related petitions — of course, achieving environmental justice requires systemic action too so look on petition platforms like Change.org, MoveOn, or Action Network for petitions related to the environment that you can sign.
6. Reach out to your local government officials and ask them to take more progressive stances on the climate crisis.
7. Research if there are current environmental issues affecting your community and see if there are ways that you can help!
8. Lastly, if you have the funds donate to environmental organizations or to people that are currently being affected by environmental issues.

Regardless of how you choose to celebrate World Environment Day, I hope you take some time to appreciate all the things that the Earth provides to us and make a commitment to protect the Earth and all the beings on it.

Happy World Environment Day from all of us at Simply Living!