Victor EzejaAs the world marks the World Environment Day (today June 5), Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), a non governmental organisation campaigning for sustainable environment, has called on people across all divides to reflect on the fact that humans have a stewardship duty towards the earth and other beings on the planet.
HOMEF said human actions have, however, been largely predatory and with a general tendency to ignore their own well-being, which has grave implications.
In a statement signed by Kome Odhomor, Media/ Communication, Lead HOMEF, the group said it dedicated this year’s World Environment Day to the grassroots and the peoples whose lives and livelihoods have been gravely impacted by neo-colonial forces and extractives’ forces that mindlessly exploit and harm nature.
He said, “These are communities who tackle the impacts of the multidimensional climate crisis facing disaster in their unsupported vulnerable state.”
The theme of 2022 World Environment Day “Only One Earth”, highlights the need to create “transformative changes in our policies and choices to live sustainably in harmony with nature with the full understanding that the planet is our only home and that her resources are finite,” Odhomor.
Director of HOMEF, Nnimmo Bassey stated that “humans must wake up from the futile dream that the earth can be recklessly exploited without dire consequences.”
He added that, “This year’s World Environment Day theme reminds us of the need to understand that the generous gifts of Nature must be handled with gratitude and care.”
He regrets that at a time when we should check the exploitation of natural ecosystems, and wasteful consumption, the world is rather investing in militarization, warfare and destruction.
“It is a good time to adopt Ecocide as an international crime as a means of ensuring accountability for heinous ecological crimes, including those that have intergenerational implications. We are living witnesses of the crimes committed in mining and oil fields as well as those committed in conflict zones. We must protect our biodiversity, reject species eroding genetic modifications of all sorts and support harmonious relationships
with Nature,” Bassey stated.
As the world celebrates Environment Day, the group said stressed the need for everyone to be eco-defenders, secure the environment so as to secure our common well-being and that of future generations. “Let us care for the Earth as it is our Mother, not our enemy.
“We all have a role in saving the environment. See something, Say Something,” the advocated.
Victor Ezeja is a passionate journalist with six years of experience writing on economy, politics and energy. He holds a Masters degree in Mass Communication.
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