World Environment Day 2009 saw the global release of a movie billed by producers as “the greatest green event ever”.
From New York’s Central Park to the Champs de Mars by Paris’ Eiffel Tower,Yann Arthus-Bertrand, the French photographer known for the “Earth From The Air” books and “Seen From The Air” on TV, is releasing the green-awareness movie “Home” in over 100 countries simultaneously.
Shot from the air in a chopper, the environmental documentary will be available across the globe June 5, mostly free of charge, in open-air spaces as well as theatres, TV, DVD. It will be available on the Internet at www.youtube.com/homeproject until 14th June 2009
The European Union’s Environment Commissioner Stavros Dimas called for greater urgency and ambition in international negotiations on a new global climate agreement. He warned that it represents the world’s last chance to prevent climate change from reaching dangerous levels.
Commissioner Dimas made the remarks in a statement to mark World Environment Day, which has climate change as its theme.
Commissioner Dimas’s statement reads as follows:
The new global climate agreement that is due to be finalised at the Copenhagen climate conference in December is the world’s last chance to prevent the dangerous, perhaps even catastrophic, levels of climate change that are projected by scientists to occur as early as 2050 – well within the lifetimes of over a billion young people alive today.
On 5th June 2009, the main celebrationof the United Nations Environment Programme’s (UNEP) annual World Environment Day took place in Mexico.
The country’s President, President Calderon announced far-reaching plans to reduce Mexico’s greenhouse gas emissions and create five new protected environmental areas. He said that Mexico would reduce its emissions of global warming gases by 50 million tonnes annually.
People all around the world organized events.ranging from the massive to the local: from a major tree-planting drive across India organized by Tata Motors to a concert in Ecuador, a recycling drive in Seattle, and an ‘educational picnic’ on real grass in the heart of the gothic old town of Torun in Poland, alongside painting competitions, neighbourhood clean-ups and a multitude of awareness-raising events.
