As the world marks the World Environment Day, we reflect on the fact
that we have a stewardship duty towards the earth and other beings on
the planet. Unfortunately our actions have been largely predatory and
with a general tendency to ignore our own well-being.
Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF) dedicates 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. 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.
Director, Health of Mother Earth Foundation (HOMEF), Nnimmo Bassey,
stated that “humans must wake up from the futile dream that the earth
can be recklessly exploited without dire consequences. 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.”
As we celebrate the World Environment day, we urge everyone to be
eco-defenders, secure the environment and by this secure our well-being
and that of future generations. Let us care for the Earth as it is our
Mother, not our enemy
