Postcard from Bishkek

Raise your voice, not the sea level: This might seem strange slogan for a small landlocked mountainous country, in the center of the world’s largest continent – about as far as it is possible to be from the sea … but it is the official slogan for this year’s World Environment Day.

On the other hand, World Environment Day is the United Nations’ principal vehicle for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the environment … and environmental awareness is an important issue in Kyrgyzstan.

The day was inaugurated in 1973 and has been celebrated every year since then with events organized and coordinated by the United Nations Environmental Programme which had been established the previous year. Each year a different city is chosen to play host to a variety of activities based on a special theme and slogan.   Some of the earlier themes and slogans might seem more general and appropriate to Kyrgyzstan:

Year: Theme
1974 Only one Earth
1975 Human Settlements
1976 Water: Vital Resource for Life
1977 Ozone Layer Environmental Concern; Lands Loss and Soil Degradation
1978 Development Without Destruction
1979 Only One Future for Our Children – Development Without Destruction
1980 A New Challenge for the New Decade: Development Without Destruction
1981 Ground Water; Toxic Chemicals in Human Food Chains
1982 Ten Years After Stockholm (Renewal of Environmental Concerns)
1983 Managing and Disposing Hazardous Waste: Acid Rain and Energy
1984 Desertification
1985 Youth: Population and the Environment
1986 A Tree for Peace
1987 Environment and Shelter: More Than A Roof
1988 When People Put the Environment First, Development Will Last
1989 Global Warming; Global Warning
1990 Children and the Environment
1991 Climate Change. Need for Global Partnership
1992 Only One Earth, Care and Share
1993 Poverty and the Environment – Breaking the Vicious Circle
1994 One Earth One Family
1995 We the Peoples: United for the Global Environment
1996 Our Earth, Our Habitat, Our Home
1997 For Life on Earth
1998 For Life on Earth – Save Our Seas
1999 Our Earth – Our Future – Just Save It!
2000 The Environment Millennium – Time to Act
2001 Connect with the World Wide Web of Life
2002 Give Earth a Chance
2003 Water – Two Billion People are Dying for It!
2004 Wanted! Seas and Oceans – Dead or Alive?
2005 Green Cities – Plan for the Planet!
2006 Deserts and Desertification – Don’t Desert Drylands!
2007 Melting Ice – a Hot Topic?
2008 Kick The Habit – Towards A Low Carbon Economy
2009 Your Planet Needs You – UNite to Combat Climate Change
2010 Many Species. One Planet. One Future
2011 Forests: Nature at your Service
2012 Green Economy: Does it include you?
2013 Think.Eat.Save. Reduce Your Foodprint

 

As it happens, there seems to be a number of “slogans” associated with the World Environment Day.  It’s also billed as “The Global Day for Action for the Environment: Every Year. Everywhere. Everyone.”, emphasizing the fact that it has grown to become it has grown to be “a broad, global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated by stakeholders in over 100 countries”.

Water resources, Biodiversity and Global Warming are also common, broad based themes, whereas others seem to concentrate on more specific topics: one year the chosen theme may focus on Deserts and Desertification, another on melting ice whether glaciers or the polar ice caps, and another on poverty and the economic pressures on our care for the environment.

This year’s theme was chosen to coincide with the United Nations designation of 2014 as the Year of Small Islands and Developing States (SIDS) … and the host for the main events is Barbados – one of those SIDS – along with countries like Kiribati, the Maldives, the Marshall Islands and Tuvalu – all of whom are facing considerable a threat to their very existence if the sea levels rise … as they are projected to do.

It’s estimated by the end of the century, sea levels will have risen some 59 cm and although that not may not sound much – it will make some of those SIDS basically uninhabitable.

In fact, it would be a mistake to cast off and ignore the theme as irrelevant to Kyrgyzstan … it’s not just the SIDS that are under threat … changes in sea level will have considerable effects on our coastlines … where many great cities are located, great swathes of the world’s population, much of the world’s productive agricultural land and industrial centers … The world will be a different totally different place … and projections suggest that all life on earth will face considerable stress and strains trying to come to terms with the resulting changes … even small, mountainous states in the center of the globes largest continent  about as far as it is possible to be from the sea … .

As an aside: I remember the construction of the Thames Barrier in the early 1980′s, designed to protect London and the communities of the Thames Valley floodplain from exceptionally high tides and tidal surges and prevent the effects of disastrous floods – such as those experienced in 1953 … the year of my birth.

It was projected that it would be used very, very rarely … with an expected working life of about a hundred years but over the years it has been employed with growing frequency and there is now concern that it is becoming obsolete and in need of replacement.

In a way, if I can mix my metaphors, these SIDS are not just island nations … they are the “tip of the iceberg” a signal warning to the rest of the world of what is at stake if we do not take steps to prevent the drastic effects of global warming.

I quite liked the approach taken by the UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in his message at the launch of the 2014 International Year of Small Islands and Developing States when he used the island motif to describe the planet, saying: ”Planet Earth is our shared island, let us join forces to protect it.”

I found that reminiscent of the slogan that was emblazoned everywhere here in Kyrgyzstan back when I first came here: Kyrgyzstan Nash Obsheye Dom … Kyrgyzstan, Our Common Home.

Although SIDS and sea levels may be the main focus for activities to commemorate this year’s World Environment Day, whether it one of the clean-up campaigns, (in the Ala Archa National Park, along the shores of Son Kul or Issyk Kul – or just one of the regular Subbotnicks which are so common here … a “walk-to-work” campaign, a “plastic purge” whether directed against plastic carrier bags or plastic bottles, art exhibitions, tree-planting drives, concerts, dance recitals, “switching off the lights”, switching to low energy devices, recycling drives, social media campaigns and/or different contests — “every action counts” … indeed each individual action not only servers to raise the voice in raising awareness and offering support for the environment … but taken together they create a “global chorus”.

Hence the slogan.

 

 

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