TODAY IS WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY

WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY 2013
ITS THEME IS “THINK. EAT. SAVE”

www.dnaindia.com - World Environment Day (WED) is celebrated each year on June 5 to spread global awareness among the inhabitants of earth regarding mother nature. Each year this day is celebrated with a theme and this year the theme is THINK.EAT.SAVE. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), every year 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted. At the same time, 1 in every 7 people in the world go to bed hungry and more than 20,000 children under the age of 5 die daily due to hunger. 
This year's theme encourages reduction of food wastage and be more aware of the environmental impact of their food choices, which in turn will help save money and minimise the environmental impact of food production. It is the responsibility of every citizen to help maintain the ecological balance. 

Here are 5 things that you can do as a global citizen: 1) Spread awareness: The major purpose of this year's theme is to start making changes from the household level. 2) Build a small farm or garden: We know it's difficult to find space in a metropolitan city, but if you're blessed with one, make and maintain a small farm or garden. 3) Travel by public transport: Take public transportation on World Environment Day and vow to take it more often than you do. If you're already a public transport user, take a walk. 
4)  Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Renew, Recycle: If you're not already into this habit, it's a good day of the year to start. These 5R's are magic mantras when it comes to environmental conservation and sustainable usage. 5) Publicise: Let people know what you plan to do and do it this World Environment Day.

World Environment Day - which is similar to Earth Day - is celebrated annually on June 5th and was created to inspire people around the globe to become active about the environment and learn more about ways they can help to ensure the future of our planet is safe. Each year the United Nations pick a theme and a host city where environmental topics can be discussed. This year (2013) Mongolia is the global host of WED 2013, and the theme is “Think.Eat.Save.” Many environmentalists, academics and scientists will come together to bring new ideas to the table concerning the environment. They should search for spiritual and moral inspiration about environmentalism in the ancient Vedic culture.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

Long before ecology became the refrain of the global song at Stockholm and Rio, the ancient Indic heritage had already provided a spacious spiritual home for the environmental ethos. In the West, the term ‘ecology’ was coined only in the latter half of the 19th century from the Greek word Oikos, meaning ‘home’. But India has, throughout trackless centuries, provided an ample expanse of friendly space for an open and ongoing discourse of ideas. The Jain, Vedic and Buddhist traditions established the principles of ecological harmony centuries ago - not because the world was perceived as heading for an imminent environmental disaster or destruction, nor because of any immediate utilitarian exigency, but through its quest for spiritual and physical symbiosis, synthesized in a system of ethical awareness and moral responsibility. 

H. E. Dr Laxmi Mall Singhvi :
Former President of the World Congress on Human Rights
“The East is green” - August 1996.
http://www.ourplanet.com/imgversn/82/singhvi.html
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Nature_Worship.htm

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/

MORE ECO-CONSCIOUSNESS AT KUMBH MELA

KUMBH MELA: WORLD'S BIGGEST 

HOLY GATHERING AIMS GREEN

http://blogs.wsj.com - The Kumbh Mela, the largest religious gathering on Earth, began Monday in Allahabad, a city in northern India's Uttar Pradesh state. Between 80 and 100 million Hindus are expected to take part in the 55-day festival, bathing at the confluence of the Ganges and Yamuna, sacred rivers believed to cleanse sin and enable devotees to escape the cycle of death and rebirth. Environmentalists and religious leaders, concerned about the impact of such vast numbers of pilgrims camping on 20 square miles of floodplain, are hoping to appeal to the religious consciences of the visitors and encourage them to become more eco-conscious. 
For the first time at a Kumbh Mela, which takes place every three years, there is a "Green Camp" for pilgrims. The camp is backed by India's newly formed Green Pilgrimage Network, which aims to protect pilgrimage sites and make them more environmentally sustainable.

"We started with the concept that we should make this the green Kumbh Mela," said Chidanand Saraswati, a Hindu swami, or holy man, who is leading the eco-friendly camp - Global Sangam - on the banks of the Ganges. "Hindus have always cared for the environment but people have started to forget because of population growth and lack of resources," said the swami, who is also leader of the Parmarth Niketan an ashram in Rishikesh, Uttarakhand. "But when they see their leaders and their gurus going in the green direction, they will follow," he told The Wall Street Journal's India Real Time.
The camp is using recyclable steel plates and utensils instead of plastic. It also has eco toilets, filtered drinking water instead of plastic bottles and will organize litter picking collections and tree planting along the banks of the sacred river. The local government and the High Court in Allahabad have also banned the use of plastic bags at the festival for the first time.

In order to raise awareness of the plight of the rivers at the Triveni Sangam (three river confluence), Kusum Vyas, founder and president of a U.S.-based environmental group called Living Planet Foundation said: “The rising population, illegal sand mining and dams cause a lot of stress on the environment and the rivers are the biggest casualties.” ... “It’s a lack of awareness, there has never been a campaign from the bottom up to educate people,” Ms. Vyas added. The Mela administration, led by the Commissioner of Allahabad,  has installed 35,000 individual toilets at the site, up from just over 20,000 at Allahabad’s last Kumbh Mela in 2001, when a total of 80 million gathered at the Allahabad confluence, where Hindus believe a mythical river, Saraswati, intersects with the Ganges and Yamuna, explains the author of the article, Joanna Sugden, a freelance journalist.

WHAT DO THE VEDIC TEACHINGS TELL US? 

The Indic environmental ethos declares that all aspects and phenomena of nature belong together and are bound in a physical as well as metaphysical relationship, and views life as a gift of togetherness and of mutual accommodation and assistance in a universe teeming with interdependent constituents. Agenda 21 has to be implemented with this sense of spirituality, morality and universality if religion is to play a significant role in creating and sustaining a momentum for ecological conservation in the hearts and minds of men, women and children. The Indic approach to the environment is even today a part of the living legacy of India. That legacy often seems to be embattled and imperilled all around, and yet it is endowed with an uncanny and time-tested resilience. In that resilience, there is hope and promise for India and the rest of the world.

H. E. Dr Laxmi Mall Singhvi
Former President of the World Congress on Human Rights
“The East is green” - August 1996.
http://www.ourplanet.com/imgversn/82/singhvi.html
http://www.hinduwisdom.info/Nature_Worship.htm

Published by dasavatara das - "Vedic Views on World News"
http://www.vedicviews-worldnews.blogspot.com.ar/