World Environment Day, is celebrated annually on June 5. In 2007, Norway and the Arctic city of Tromsø in northern Norway will be hosting the the main international celebrations.
World Environment Day (WED), celebrated annually on June 5, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and aims to stimulate political debate and action. Norway and the Arctic city of Tromsø in northern Norway, are honored to host the main international celebrations of the World Environmental Day 2007.
Melting Ice – a Hot Topic?
In support of the International Polar Year, the WED theme is the effects that climate change has on polar ecosystems and communities, and the consequences around the world. The day aims to give environmental issues a human face; empower people to become agents of sustainable development; promote an understanding that communities are critical to changing attitudes towards environmental issues; and advocate public-private partnerships, which will ensure all nations and peoples enjoy a safer and more prosperous future.
Background and Purpose
The impacts of melting ice will reach far beyond the Arctic, affecting global climate, sea level, biodiversity, and human social and economic systems.
Science: Ice plays a critical role in shaping our planet's environment. Sea ice, glaciers, ice caps and snow reflect the sun's heat. In contrast, the dark surfaces of the open sea and snow-free ground absorb heat, in turn heating the atmosphere. When the ice disappears, the earth retains more of the sun’s heat. And as the earth warms up, more ice will melt. Through this feedback process, declining ice strengthens global warming creating a vicious circle.
Consequences: The earth's climate is changing. In the Arctic, the measured average temperature has risen twice as fast as in the rest of the world during the past decades. The reduction of sea ice is likely to have devastating consequences for the plants and animals that are adapted to the harsh Arctic environment. Polar bears and ice-dependent seals, as well as the people who depend on these resources already experience the challenges. The Arctic is also affected by the contaminants transported by winds and sea currents from the industrial centres of the world into the far north. The situation of indigenous people of the Arctic has become precarious.
Global impact: Climate change in the Arctic affects people's lives worldwide. Melting ice is not limited to the polar areas, but is also occurring in mountainous areas in many parts of the world.
The global impacts are important:
- Polar ice and glaciers hold large freshwater supplies and is a vital part of the ecosystem. Rising temperatures reduce the ice and snow in mountain chains such as the Himalayas and the Andes. This affects the supply of freshwater from rivers, and affects agriculture, human health, plant and animal life in the areas which depend on this flow of freshwater.
- Melting polar ice sheets contribute to a rise in sea level, which affects communities in low lying coastal areas. As a result, the global community may experience increasing numbers of climate refugees. In the South Pacific, this has already begun to occur in some low-lying islands.
Norway will also use this occasion to mark the start of the International Polar Year 2007-2008, which will have significant impact on the spread of knowledge about the Polar Regions.
The main celebrations of World Environment Day 2007 will be held in the Norwegian city of Tromsø, a city with a living polar history and a center for polar research. The city has the world's northernmost university and the Norwegian Polar Institute, both of which are key players in the international polar research arena.
Royal Norwegian Embassy, Washington D.C