The United Nations announced that it will begin this global mission aimed at reviving billions of hectares, from forests, farmlands, mountains and deep sea areas.

Under the slogan ‘Reimagine, recreate, restore’, this year’s commemoration of the date was hosted by Pakistan and focused on the recovery of ecosystems with the aim of preventing, halting and reversing man’s damage to nature.

But to achieve such rehabilitation, the planet’s inhabitants would have to repair an area larger than China or the United States, replant trees and rebuild the habitat of animals that are now on the verge of extinction.

According to a UN report, the disappearance of ecosystems deprives the Earth of carbon drains, such as forests and peatlands, at a time when humanity can no longer afford to lose them.

In addition, global greenhouse gas emissions have increased for three consecutive years and the planet is on the brink of potentially catastrophic climate change, the statement warns.

Every three seconds the world loses an area of forest equivalent to a soccer field and in the last century alone, half of the world’s wetlands have been destroyed and drained for agricultural purposes.

Fifty percent of coral reefs have disappeared and up to 90 percent could vanish by 2050, even if global warming is limited to an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to the text.

(Taken from Orbe)

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