On March 6, 2018, the United Nations launched an environmental rights initiative.
This is in an effort to take a stand against ongoing threats, harassment, and murder of environmental defenders. This initiative is asking business communities to keep a clean and healthy environment.
In 2017, approximately four people a week were killed defending their right to a clean environment, according to unenvironment.org.
Check out the United Nation’s Environmental Rights Initiative video here:
According to a Pew Research study, one in five Americans always tries to show concern for the environment.
Although, the world is in an era where caring for the environment is a must.
The Ontario Institute for Cancer Research has released that there is strong evidence that environmental exposures, such as air pollution, affect gene expressions associated with respiratory diseases much more than genetic ancestry.
Air pollution kills more than six million people every year, according to the United Nations Environment webpage.
Air pollution comes from a variety of sources, such as vehicle emissions, wildfires, coal-fired power plants, etc. Supporting cleaner fuels and vehicles is one to fight the growing increase in air pollution.
There are many other ways that people can turn to help the environment and one of the easiest ways is recycling.
In a Pew Research study, 32 percent of U.S. adults say they are bothered, a great deal, by people throwing away things that could be recycled.
In that same study by Pew Research, it was noticed that what actually gets recycled varies by product type.
In 2013, 99 percent of lead-acid batteries, 88.5 percent of cardboard boxes, 67 percent of newspapers, 13.5 percent of plastic bags and 6.2 percent of small appliances were recycled in that year.
According to abc.net.au, a business in Australia is doing its part to reduce waste and benefit others.
FareShare is a kitchen that takes food that people would normally throw out and creates meals for those in need.
Most food that people deem is bad, in many cases isn’t. Although, tons of food each year is thrown out and then transported to landfills where it decomposes and produces methane gas.
FareShare has a goal of changing this. In 2017, FareShare cooked 1,158,569 meals and used 821 tons of food that could have gone to waste, according to fareshare.net.au.
“Violations of environmental rights have a profound impact on a wide variety of human rights, including the rights to life, self-determination, food, water, health, sanitation, housing, cultural, civil and political rights,” UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in the press release.
The Environmental Rights Initiative will engage governments to strengthen institutional capacities to develop and implement policy and legal frameworks that protect environmental rights, according to unenvironemnt.org.
Environmental defenders all over the world are taking a stand because land is life.
Victoria Fowler 