That is the motto of this year, which has been designated since the United Nations General Assembly for this World Environment Day celebrated today: “Seven billion dreams. One planet Consume in moderation. ”
Since 1972, it is intended on June 5 of each year, sensitize public opinion with the inescapable need to preserve and improve the environment, our world, our planet, our present and the future of our humanity.
Seven billion dreams
Specifically on October 31, 2011 we reached seven billion inhabitants, according to UN estimates. In this organization they have been worried about the growth rate of the world population for decades.
By 2050, estimates bring the figure to 9.6 billion people. The doubts remain the same, how can you feed a world population that does not stop growing on a planet with limitations like ours?
Single planet
Many of the planet's ecosystems are at a critical point, the resources are more than obvious that they are limited, that the planet cannot produce everything and for everyone or maybe yes.
FAO data indicates that already today food is being produced for 9,000 million people but it is clear that in spite of that 800 million people suffer from chronic malnutrition in the world, something we are doing very badly.
Consume in moderation
We continue to consume many more natural resources than the planet can provide us sustainably.
We have to achieve through sustainable and unsustainable development like the one we have today, that increases the quality of life of people without aggravating the degradation of the planet and above all without compromising the resources and possibilities of future generations.
We have to change
Perhaps the best engine of change to achieve this is our own children.
Perhaps they are the ones who learn and force us to consume less, consume products that require less energy, less water and other resources, which force us to waste less food that pollutes less in its production, in its transport and that does not generate waste that takes Decades to be recycled.
We may realize in time how our way of life is hurting our own health and obviously that of our children.
We may be aware in time that we can change and go back to natural environments to know what we must protect among all.
We may know that they teach our children to be small activists who participate in protectionist initiatives, who learn by doing and not just reading in books or listening to us adults.
Perhaps sooner rather than later we learn to move in another way through our city and make it more livable and not only for adults but also for children, which implies air pollution, global warming and greenhouse effect.
We may learn to demand that alternative, clean, non-polluting energies will help us not to stop the world, to allow us and our children to continue growing and living in an environment that we have not turned into a desert or even worse.
Our ecological impact is being devastating but we forget that we are doing it on the planet that our children have lent us and we are destroying it without regard or remorse.
Photos | iStockphoto
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