Ghana Marks World Environmental Day

Accra, -

The United Nations said today that it is alarmed at the rate of global environmental degradation and urged member states to adopt measures to arrest the situation. In a message to mark World Environment Day which falls today, the organisation said: "it is time we recognized the truth that no amount of money, awards and prizes, research, conferences or global agreements can arrest the inevitability of a deteriorating environment unless we adopt a substantially different manner of thinking and alter our individual behaviour". Under the theme "Life on Earth", the day is meant to examine the state of the environment while focusing attention on the quickening pace of development and its dramatic impact on humanity. The impact includes global warming, depletion of the ozone layer,

decline of biological diversity and loss of soil and forests. Others are contamination of fresh water supplies and the oceans, vanishing fisheries and the flood of toxic substances, all of which are a threat to life. The day also marks the 25th anniversary of the U.N. Environment Programme, the10th anniversary of the Montreal Protocol to preserve the Ozone layer and the fifth anniversary of the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.