Derionne Edmeade, Environment Education Officer, stated that the theme for this year underscores the importance of clean air.
“The theme is encouraging persons around the world even here in St. Kitts and Nevis to do what we can to conserve, preserve and protect our environment as it relates to chemicals or anything that ends up into our atmosphere as pollutants because the thing is everything that we do, whether it’s the simple perfume you spray on your clothes, the car that you drive to take you to work, everything results in some form of pollutant ending up into the environment,” he said.
The entire month of June is usually filled with activities to celebrate the day, which is on June 05. However, due to a number of factors, many of the activities have been slated for July, said Mr. Edmeade. He noted that, nevertheless, next week there will be a number of activities within the schools.
Mr. Edmeade stated that Ozzy Ozone, which is a character created as part of the United Nations Environment Programme, will be used to promote awareness about air pollution and the ozone layer.
“We want to teach that to the students, show them ways in which they can start changing their behavior,” he said. “One of the things you would realize is that it is difficult to change the behavior in older ones, but if you can change the young ones, we can see how we can start changing their views as they move forward.”
Mr. Edmeade stated that other school visitations will be done in July. He said that the department will have a week of activities that is geared towards raising awareness not only about air pollution, but other environmental issues that need to be raised especially in St. Kitts and Nevis.
World Environment Day is celebrated on June 5 annually around the world. World Environment Day is the United Nations day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. Since it began in 1974, the event has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries.
