Why The Environment Should Matter To You

The protection and improvement of the human environment  is a major issue affecting people and economic development throughout the world. In order to galvanise social change on a large scale we need to encourage responsible conduct by individuals, enterprises and communities. So, we had a look at some ways that individuals, organisations, and businesses are attempting to bring about the necessary change to look after our environment!

Sustainable Development Goals

Laid out in 2015, the  2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development  states the UN's resolve “to ensure the lasting protection of the planet and its natural resources”. In particular, Goal  14  focusses on conserving and sustainably using the oceans, seas and marine resources, and Goal  15   aims to 'sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, halt and reverse land degradation, halt biodiversity loss'.

Melissa Sterry , a systems theorist and futurist focussed on the science, technology and thinking that could help build a better world, explains why acknowledging such goals on World Environment Day is so important:

"Never has the imperative to think, thereon to act, ecologically been greater. But to our great advantage, humanity is now endowed with such scientific insights; technological means; willing, able, and ready talent, both at the individual, and the organisational scale, as can potentially meet that imperative. Peoples far and peoples wide, peoples of all manner of capabilities are, and in ever-growing numbers, coming together to 'make the planet great again'."

She continues, "In our hands rests the collective responsibility to not merely undo environmental damage done, but to utilise our potential, and to its fullest, to ensure the continued integrity of Earth’s systems: atmosphere, hydrosphere, cryosphere, geosphere, biosphere, and pedosphere. Whereupon we harness our intellect, and the imagination born thereof, we turn immense challenges into exponential opportunities. For all the many possible worlds in our Universe, we stand upon the foremost significant unto our future - and to that of every living creature on the planet, therein all known life. May we rise to the occasion, today, World Environment Day, and every day”.

Collaborative Diplomacy

Christiana Figueres , who played a key role in solidifying the Paris Agreement in December 2015, is widely credited with reviving the UNFCC as its Executive Secretary and has helped to forge a new brand of collaborative diplomacy.

In a statement  about the Mission 2020 campaign goals established in 2017, she has said: "Everyone has a right to prosper, and if emissions do not begin their rapid decline by 2020, the world's most vulnerable people will suffer even more from the devastating impacts of climate change... What has been missing since Paris is a near-term focal point for action, which is why we have brought together some of the best minds on the subject to collectively demonstrate that the arc of transformation to a fossil-free energy system is possible.

"We have a collective responsibility to raise ambition, scale-up our actions and move forward faster together to safeguard the sustainable development goals and protect the inalienable right to life of our and future generations. Let's not be late."

The Sharing Economy

In their everyday practices, both individuals and businesses large and small can make a real difference to the state of the environment: simply by sharing their consumption of resources.

Social entrepreneur and  keynote speaker ,  Benita Matofska  is an advocate of the Sharing Economy as the Founder of The People Who Share - a global sharing campaign which aims to build a future of people exchanging their goods and services.

Speaking about the environment, Benita comments: "By 2050, it's estimated that we will need to accommodate an additional 2.3 billion people. If we continue to consume resources at the current rate, we'll need at least an additional 2 planets. It's a simple fact that if we destroy the home in which we live, we won't have anywhere to live. The evidence that we are participating in a seismic planetary destruction is everywhere. The need to share and care about our planetary resources is obvious. The question is not why should we care about the environment, but why don't we? World Environment Day is an opportunity for us all to understand the consequences of our choices and take action to ensure that future generations have a planet to live on."

Raising Awareness

Surfers Against Sewage co-founder Chris Hines  uses the medium of surfing to change how we perceive our relationship with our environment. In conversation with Huck , he commented: 'The work I did through the ’90s with SAS quite clearly used surfing as a tool to help drive a massive cleanup of the coastal waters of the UK... what we did was to use surfing in the way it’s used to sell everything from McDonald's to cars and even bottled water. In the same way, we used surfing to sell the message that clean seas are good'.

Another environmental advocate empowering social change is Lewis Pugh , the UN Patron of Oceans. Described as "Speedo diplomacy", Lewis took on the challenge of swimming 5 swims in freezing Antarctic waters, wearing just speedos and a swim hat, to help negotiate the creation of the biggest protected area in the world in the Ross Sea off Antarctica - something which required consensus among 25 countries!

Such inspirational acts prove the power of an individual to bring about change on a global scale. They inspire us all to make the efforts needed to maintain the natural beauty of our world; to ensure that the air we breathe is of a high quality; and to keep the ecosystems, so vital for our survival and resources, alive and thriving.

For further information call us on   or email  info@speakerscorner.co.uk .

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