Basseterre, St. Kitts, April 22, 2020 (SKNIS): As St. Kitts and Nevis joined the rest of the world in celebrating Earth Day on April 22. Director of Agriculture, Melvin James encouraged citizens and residents to play an active role in protecting the environment and join the global call to climate action.
“St. Kitts Agriculture is truly in its infantile stage. Hopefully, we understand that we are ripe for agriculture development and when we do so, let us think about the concept that is called climate-smart agriculture which involves things like mixed farming and protected agriculture to name a few,” said Mr. James during the National Emergency Operations Center (NEOC) COVID-19 Daily Briefing for April 22. “If we do not play our part to protect the environment then life will not be as we know it today and there is no guarantee that the human species will be able to survive it. Let us be minded of Earth Day, its meaning and its relevance to our own survival.”
Reflecting on theme for this years’ observance “Climate Action” Mr. James described it as timely and important, especially to the agriculture sector.
“Agriculture has a critically important role to play in dealing with the large climate changes currently faced, the severity of which is likely to increase in the future. Furthermore, both the Paris Agreement and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) stresses the importance of safeguarding food security and ending hunger in the face of climate change,” he said. “The role of Agriculture is not only critical in mitigating but also in adapting to climate change.
Earth Day is observed on April 22 each year. Today, Wednesday, April 22, 2020, marks fifty (50) years since the event has been in existence.
According to earthday.org, Earth Day was a unified response to an environment in crisis – oil spills, smog, rivers so polluted they caught fire. On April 22, 1970, 20 million Americans –10% of the U.S. population at the time – took to the streets, college campuses and hundreds of cities to protest environmental ignorance and demand a new way forward for our planet. The first Earth Day is credited with launching the modern environmental movement and is now recognized as the planet’s largest civic event.
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