With the campaign slogan “Only One Earth”
By Dalila Hicheri,
Engineer in rural engineering, water and forests
Land Department
Sahara and Sahel Observatory
Like every year, the Sahara and Sahel Observatory (OSS) joins the international community, to celebrate the World Environment Day, on June 5. This Day represents since 1973, the most important platform for raising the awareness of the international consciousness on environmental protection.
The 2022 edition of this "Only One Earth" Day has come with the same principle as that of the United Nations Conference on the Environment in Stockholm in 1972, 50 years earlier! The Stockholm Conference, referred to as the first international meeting on the environment stood behind the designation and formalization of the World Environment Day.
This year, the city of Stockholm – Sweden, hosts once again the World Enviornment Day. A new energy and a renewed momentum will therefore be given to this principle to remind us that the Earth is our one and only home and that we must take care of it, to leave a better world and a more decent living environment to current and future generations, so that they live in harmony with nature.
50 years later, do we even know the world we live in? The protection of the environment has never been that pressing! Its continuous and disastrous degradation is causing huge damage and is rapidly evolving. Today, experts talk about a triple worldwide crisis: Earth, Climate and Biodiversity.
Besides, reports say that we are using the equivalent of 1.6 Earths to keep up with our fast-paced world. The gap between what we should spend to adapt and what we actually spend is widening, so much so that the estimated costs of adaptation could reach hundreds of billions of dollars per year by 2050.
Additionally, the climate crisis is causing a huge amount of damage and extreme weather events that kill or relocate hundreds of thousands of people and result in trillions of dollars of economic losses.
Another alarming figure is that ecosystem degradation is affecting the health of nearly 40% of the world's population. In addition, almost one third of the world's agricultural land is degraded and about 87% of terrestrial wetlands have already disappeared.
Aware of the environmental emergency that puts the existence of the populations at risk, and led by a common but differentiated responsibility, the OSS is ready to provide all support necessary for the African countries to place the environment on top of their concerns, make extra efforts and initiate a massive change to protect our endangered planet.
Indeed, the OSS is committed to consolidating its support with a view to identifying immediate actions to be implemented and to include more concrete initiatives and programs that can have a transformative impact on the well-being of our Mother Earth!
