World Environment Day is celebrated annually on 5 June since 1974 to raise awareness and generate actions on urgent environmental concerns. For this year, this day also formally launches the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030 that calls for actions to reimagine, recreate, and restore in preventing, halting, and reversing the degradation of ecosystems on every continent and in every ocean.
In a World Environment Day poem by Ms Jordan Sanchez, Reimagine, Recreate, Restore, she reminds us that “we are a fraction of a second in earth’s lifetime. Yet she is our only lifeline.”
The global initiative on ecosystem restoration presses for urgent actions as “there has never been a more urgent need to revive damaged ecosystems than now. Ecosystems support all life on Earth. The healthier our ecosystems are, the healthier the planet – and its people.” (UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2021-2030)
To join the global celebration of World Environment Day, Ecojesuit shares this brief prayer and message video:
We celebrate World Environment Day and give thanks for our land and our life, for our food and water, and all life that keeps this planet in balance.
Today, in times of great suffering and loss, we must be a source of humble compassion and accompaniment for all who suffer.
This compassion and this care must extend to all life as we seek to recover our health and our wellbeing as a people.
Only by embracing the depth of our suffering will we have the strength to change our ways and grow nourishing food, share clean water, remake our cities and gardens, and breathe fresh air. We must end all waste and pollution.
Care for creation is the message of hope and of peace that this generation and all generations need.
We must strive for renewed life together so that World Environment Day is every day.
We are able to be filled with gratitude and compassion, service for all.
Have a blessed day.
This story is also available in Spanish.
