World Climate Day
December 8
December 8th marks World Climate Day, an initiative of several environmental associations in France and Belgium. These December events, held during the first ten days of the month, are a traditional annual event.
World Environment Day has its own anthem. The first World Environment Day was celebrated on June 5, 1973. The UN General Assembly established World Environment Day in 1972.
“We must make 2020 to 2030 a critical decade of real decisions and real action… The urgency of what we need to do cannot be overstated,” said US Special Presidential Envoy for Climate Action John Kerry on Earth Day.
There are no more seasons, my lady… at the initiative of several environmental associations in France and Belgium, we celebrate World Climate Day (or World Climate Action Day) on December 8th.
Not a week goes by without us hearing about global warming and its consequences for the future of the planet. It’s true that the situation we currently face is serious, and the few steps being taken here and there are unable to stop this phenomenon.
However, in climatology, as elsewhere, oversimplification does not really contribute to thinking, and studying the planet over a very long period reveals alternating hot and cold periods, each of which had very important consequences for the survival of many animal species.
What’s changed today is that human agency has increased significantly over the past century, if only due to population growth (we’ve gone from 1 billion people on Earth in 1900 to over 7 billion today). At the rate at which we’re exploiting the earth’s resources, we’ll need at least 3 billion of them to hope to survive for the long term…
We urgently need to realize that the earth does not belong to us and that we have a responsibility to the generations that come after us!