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Lynda Selde
Lynda Selde speaking at a workshop on water at the World Council of Churches Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil, earlier this year.
Photo: D. Sacher/BFW

April UN Update: Earth Day and the Environment

Editor’s Note: April 22 is Earth Day. CWS Education & Advocacy’s Lynda Selde, Associate Director for Analysis and Advocacy, was among some 20 million people who took part in the first Earth Day. On that day 36 years ago, she and other students from her Decatur, AL, high school helped to clean up the banks of the Tennessee River. For Earth Day this year, Selde gives an update on CWS engagement with the UN on environmental issues.

By Lynda Selde, Associate Director for Analysis and Advocacy
CWS Education & Advocacy Program
CWS UN Office

I’m pleased to be writing the first of many monthly Updates from the CWS United Nations Office. I hope our updates will help people better understand the work that CWS is doing at the United Nations and show how this work links to that being done elsewhere within the CWS Education & Advocacy Program and the broader CWS family. This month’s theme is Earth Day and the Environment.

Earth Day

First, a bit about Earth Day. As indicated in the terrific worship resources prepared by my colleague in the Education & Advocacy Program, Lynne West, the first Earth Day was celebrated on April 22, 1970. The idea of establishing Earth Day came primarily from Senator Gaylord Nelson, who was greatly concerned about the poor state of the environment at that time. Air and water pollution and soil contamination were problems that could no longer be ignored, and the time was ripe to organize citizens across the country and around the world to push for meaningful change in environmental standards.

An estimated 20 million individuals took part in that first celebration, and I’m happy to have been one of those who did. And now, 36 years after its founding, Earth Day is going strong, with events planned for communities around the U.S. Many events this year are being focused on the theme of Climate Change. See, for example, the events planned by the Earth Day Network, www.earthday.org. Those of us in New York need only go as far as Grand Central Station to take part in Earth Fair celebrations sponsored by Earth Day New York, www.earthdayny.org/earthday.html.

The United Nations and the Environment

Now you may be wondering how Earth Day links to the United Nations and to the work of the CWS UN Office. Not surprisingly, the environment is an issue of concern to the United Nations, and the subject is handled by agencies, programs, and commissions across the organization. A few examples follow.

  • UN Environmental Programme
    The lead agency within the UN system on this issue is the United Nations Environmental Programme (UNEP). Based in Nairobi, Kenya, this agency employs staff members with expertise in various environment-related areas who provide support for efforts around the world to help protect the environment and diminish the impact of past poor practices. Of course other UN agencies, funds, and programs also work on issues relating to the environment: it’s almost more difficult to identify which UN entities don’t have an impact on the environment than those that do, since sustainable development, agriculture, water and sanitation, and trade issues often are so inextricably linked to the environment that any discussion of the topic would be incomplete without their consideration.

  • World Environment Day – June 5
    While Earth Day is fairly widely celebrated within the United States, much of the promotion of environmental issues within the UN system revolves around the celebration of World Environment Day on June 5. World Environment Day was established by the United Nations General Assembly in 1972 (just two years after Earth Day was first celebrated) to mark the opening of the Stockholm Conference on the Human Environment. Another resolution, adopted by the General Assembly the same day, led to the creation of UNEP.

    A theme is selected each year, providing those wishing to mark World Environment Day with poster contests, special events, or other initiatives a way to bring added visibility to one important environmental theme. The theme in 2006 is Deserts and Desertification. UNEP and others regularly post information and suggestions on how to mark World Environment Day; see, for example, www.unep.org/wed/2006/english/.

  • The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and the Environment
    World leaders gathered in 2000 at the United Nations Millennium Summit agreed to goals and specific indicators by which they hoped to challenge and measure development efforts around the world. Much of the environmental focus in recent years within UNEP and the broader UN system would come within the scope of Millennium Development Goal 7, Ensuring Environmental Sustainability. This MDG in turn has three indicators: the first relates to sustainable development and reversing the loss of environmental resources; the second, to reducing by half the proportion of people without sustainable access to safe drinking water; and the third, to achieving significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum dwellers by 2020. More information on the MDGs is obtainable from the UN website at www.un.org/millenniumgoals/

United Nations Commission on Sustainable Development

One mechanism that examines environmental issues within the United Nations is the Commission on Sustainable Development. Established in 1992 by resolution of the United Nations General Assembly following the extraordinary United Nations Conference on Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, the “CSD” provides an annual forum for member states and groups concerned with the issues being considered to come together for reports on progress made and discussion of critical issues. The Commission meets each spring in New York. The dates in 2006 are May 1-12.

In order to move the work of the Commission more effectively, a plan was developed to consider particular issues for two-year rotating terms, with the first year of the term being a period of review and analysis and the second year to be the policy session. The issues before the Commission this year are Energy for Sustainable Development, Industrial Development, Air Pollution/Atmosphere, and Climate Change.

Church World Service has been active in prior years within the Commission, and will be again this year. Organizations from around the world will attend the conference, and I will be coordinating the group of organizations that have come together to form the “Freshwater Caucus.” While water is not a specific theme of this year’s CSD, the Freshwater Caucus groups will monitor the ways in which the themes being examined impact water. By taking part in this effort, CWS will lift up the concerns of our partners in the global south and of the community of churches and people of faith with whom we work. Watch for more details as this work is underway.

Church World Service and the Environment

In addition to its involvement with the UN Commission on Sustainable Development, Church World Service supports many initiatives and has developed a number of materials relating to the environment.

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