World Environment Day 2008

People around the world celebrate World Environment Day on Thursday, so what does World Environment Day actually mean?

Naturally there's a World Environment Day website you can visit for a bunch more information, but I'll try to summarize it on one page.

World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of UNEP. Every year on June 5th the United Nations sets out to grow worldwide awareness of the environment and enhance political attention and action. This year the them is "Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy" and the main international celebrations are being held in New Zealand. New Zealand was one of the first countries to pledge to achieve carbon neutrality, and will also focus on forest management as a tool for reducing greenhouse gases.

The Chicago Botanic Garden will serve as the North American host.

So how did you start your carbon neutral day? After switching off your climate neutral wind up clock and brushing your teeth and having breakfast, consider the following:

-Opting for non-electric toothbrush will avoid nearly 48 g of CO2 emissions;

-Heating bread rolls in a toaster versus an oven for 15 minutes saves nearly 170 g of CO2;

-Switching from regular 60-Watt light bulbs to energy-saving ones will produce four times less greenhouse gas emissions;

-Taking the train rather than the car for a daily office commute of as little as 8 km will save a big 1.7 Kg of CO2;

-Shutting down your computer and flat screen both during lunch break and after working hours will cut CO2 emissions generated by these appliances by one-third; and

-Investing in a water-saving shower head will not only save 10 liters of water per minute, but will also slash CO2 emissions resulting from a three-minute hot shower by half.