‘Clean it, green it, mean it, and Act Now’, was the stern message from Rajiv K Shrivastava, Founder of Act Now Foundation, an Indian NGO, working for environmental awareness, climate action, sustainability and peace globally, in the world’s longest and largest environment online event, #OnlyOneEarthActNow, held on 4-5 June on the occasion of World Environment Day and 50 years of United Nations Environment Programme.
“With current technological capabilities, it is possible for countries to embrace sustainable economies,” Erik Solheim, former Under Secretary General of UN and sixth Executive Director of UNEP, said during the event titled #OnlyOneEarthActNow.
“We need everyone’s effort. Only collaborative effort can change things quickly, we are out of time,” Natalia Alekseeva, Coordinator, UNEP Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, said in message from Stockholm +50.
The foundation gathers together organizations and individuals from the world over to present their climate actions, share their insights, and generate awareness about how we are geared towards restoration of our environment, and for taking care of the planet through interactive events.
Over 125 speakers from 75 countries presented their insights and climate actions which went on for 24 hours, non-stop. Some of the noted speakers were Miss Earth 2021, Destiny Wagner, Miss Earth, 2014, Jamie Herrell, Miss Earth, 2010, Nicole Faria, Padamshree Awardee, eminent dancer, Pratibha Prahlad, 10-year old India’s own Greta Thunberg Licypriya Kangujam, 14-year old Plastic Pickup Girl from The Netherlands, Lilly Plat, disciples of Mahesh Yogi and Vice Chancellor of Caribbean Maharisi University, Raja Luis, daughter of Wangari Mathai and Vice President for World Resource Institute, Wanjira Mathai, Vice Admiral, Pradeep Chauhan (retd), National Geographic Explorer, Dr Niall McCann, Co-Founder, The POP Movement, and son of Nobel peace prize winner Dr Rajendra Pachaury, Dr Ash Pachaury, and 1st woman Director of Zoological Survey of India, Dhriti Banerjee.
Finnish speakers at this event were: Mika Vanhanen – Treebuddy Earth. Pekka Harju-Autti – Treebuddy Earth/Envirate. Senni Alho – Youth Delegate for UNEP MGCY at UNEA 5.2, Tuomo Kauranne -Founder of Arbonaut, Vilma Lehtovaara – Coordinator of North-Carelian Biosphere reserve, Jukka Ilomaki – Counsellor, Embassy of Finland in India. Environment Online ENO’s Chairman of the Board Kaija Saramäki and Environmental education specialist Maire Turunen were represented. Past events have been graced by Tarja Halonen, Former President of Finland, Pekka Haavisto, Finnish Foreign Minister, Sirpa Pietikäinen Member of European Parliament, Ritva Koukku-Ronde, Ambassador of Finland to India.
Director, Dr JK Singh, said that the large involvement of youth was a good sign for the future, while event hosts included, JK Singh, Head of Brookfield International, and Ronnie Antony, Director Act Now and Founder of Nature Education Society of Taiwan, said hope was around the corner.
Rajiv K Shrivastava, President and Founder of Act Now, informed that the NGO was working proactively hand-in-hand with UNEP in the movement called #GenerationRestoration for ecosystem restoration. “For us, sustainable development means environmental, economic, social and cultural well-being for today and tomorrow,” he said.
The event was organized together with Environment Online (ENO), Finland, Treebuddy.Earth, Finland, Plant and Care for Peace (Pacfpeace), Finland, Brookfield International School, Chandigarh, Glamanand, India, Envirate, Finland, Nature Education Society of Taiwan (NEST), Taiwan, The POP Movement, USA and World Sustainable Development Forum (WSDF), USA.
Event page: http://actnow.org.in/
UNEA’s Youth delegate Senno Alho from Aalto University kept a comprehensive presentation about her trip to UNEA 5.2 in Nairobi.
Music and Art plays an important role in the Act Now online events. We heard for example beautiful music from Finland and from India’s ancient flute tunes.