The World Environment Day (WED) is a day set aside by the United Nations with the aim of raising awareness worldwide as well as to mobilize individuals to preserve and care for our planet. The celebration is a yearly campaign that takes place on the 5th of June every year. This year, the World Environment Day with the theme ONLY ONE EARTH was celebrated by Triple Green Environmental Development Foundation (TGED Foundation) in collaboration with National Environmental Standards and Regulations Enforcement Agency (NESREA) Ekiti State Office and Institute of Oil, Gas, Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development (OGEES Institute) Afe Babalola University, Ado Ekiti. The program was held at the College of Health Sciences and Technology event hall.
The event had in attendance Professor Damilola Olawuyi SAN, the DVC Academics Afe Babalola University, the Director of OGEES Institute Mrs Roslyn Subai, Oluwaseyi Ebenezer, the team lead of Triple Green Environmental Development Foundation TGED Foundation), Dr Mrs Comfort Olubumi, the MD of Waste Masters Integrated Services, Professor Mike Olubayo Oluduro a Professor of Law from Adekunle Ajasin University Ondo State , Elizabeta Oderinde, the Vice Chancellor of Afe Babalola University Ekiti State, Mrs Torini Abosede, State Coordinator NESREA Ekiti State, Dr Oluwaseyi Akpor Faculty of Nursing Sciences ABUAD, Dr Sikiru Olowoyo, the Executive Director of Green Global Environmental Network, members of the Civil Society, the media and Students.

The event started with a Welcome Address by Mrs Toromi Abosede who thanked the people present at the symposium for their collective efforts in fighting climate change and reminded them of their duties to the planet earth. She also urged the general public to come together and heal our wounded planet. Elisabetha Olarinde, the Vice Chancellor of Afe Babalola University Ado Ekiti, ABUAD in her goodwill message gave a brief history of ABUAD and thanked all the organizers of the symposium for a well organized event. She reminded everyone present at the event that World Environment Day is a day to remind ourselves of our duty to mother earth. She further stated that man has to pay more attention to their needs and has forgotten the impact it could cause in the environment, she further advised the public to give more attention to the environment so as to avoid future generations from paying for our negligence.
Professor Damilola Olawuyi also threw more light on what the celebration is all about ,he stated various environmental problems like climate change, soil degradation, poaching desertification and a rise in health challenges which were caused by man’s activities such as poor wastes management, deforestation, poaching illegal mining and how collective efforts are made to help combat this problems, he concluded his remarks by thanking everyone for coming and wished them the best of luck.

Oluwaseyi Ebenezer, the team lead of Triple Green Environmental Development Foundation (TGED Foundation) added more light to the program, with a brief history of the Foundation. She further listed various problems facing our environment today such as oil spillage, poor waste disposal, poaching deforestation and urged the general public to adopt ways that will help save our planet such as Tree planting, Reuse, Reduce Recycle (3Rs) and many more. She ended her speech by advising the public to be mindful of the kind of activities they carry out in the environment.
Next was a presentation by a student of Tinuola Maximum schools. In her contribution, she stated that the time to act is now and that man is the builder and destroyer of his environment. Human beings’ passion to exploit the various resources that exist on planet earth has led to the poor management of his environment, which is becoming a leading factor behind the increase in climatic problems facing our planet. She finished her presentation by stating that if we must cut down a tree, then, we should have a plan in place to plant two trees. It is therefore up to us to have a rethink on how we act and treat our environment.
KEYNOTE ADDRESS
The keynote address was done by professor Bayo Oluduro, professor of law at Adekunle Ajasin University. In his address, he emphasized on how Nigeria can and must work towards caring for the earth because it is the only liveable planet we have. Everything humans need to survive, and thrive, is provided by the Earth: air, water, soil, minerals, fuels, plants, animals, food, medicine, materials for shelter, and even natural cycles such as climate and nutrients but sadly, our earth is being plagued by different environmental problems such as deforestation, climate change, desertification. He added that in order to get solutions to these problems, we must adopt ways on how to fight climate change. These ways include planting of trees, adopting composting, and proper waste disposal methods among others. He suggested that the government should adopt certain strategies in fighting climate change as follows:
● Making the day-to-day operations of all government agencies carbon neutral by 2030.
● Signing up to finance and implement national policies to meet the Paris Agreement, phasing out fossil fuels and ending fossil fuel subsidies.
● Introducing policies that incentitize renewable energy and promote energy efficiency.
● Investing in renewable energy infrastructure, energy efficiency and clean transport initiatives to lock in sustainability, promoting and supporting climate-smart and sustainable agriculture (CSA).
● Ensuring that all government finances – including pensions, savings and insurance – are kept in portfolios that support sustainable initiatives and do not harm the climate, human health or nature, preservation of natural forest.
● Shifting from our anthropocentric (human-centric) worldview to an ecocentric worldview.
● Promoting high level of public awareness on issues related to climate change in Nigeria.
He ended his address by saying that mankind is on the verge of a breakdown, and thus we must reformulate our relationship with Nature. There is great need for all nations to cooperate in order to protect and conserve the different biodiversity that exists on our planet.
The second Keynote Address was done by Mrs Comfort Olubumi the managing director of waste masters Integrated services , she started by stating that climate change is arguably the biggest threat our world is facing today and its effects are felt in different ways, ranging from drought, extinction of species, wind storms, famine to floods. She noted that over the past years, there has been an increase in temperature and rise in cases of natural disasters like flooding in Ekiti State which has been one of the reasons behind the rise in poverty that is driving people to migrate from communities they strongly depend on for survival. She added that our environment is declining due to man’s negligence and inability to focus on the negative effects of the activities that are being carried out in the environment. She stated how wastes are poorly managed noting that this is one of the reasons behind the increased cases of flood in Ekiti State.
PANEL SESSION
Next was the panel session moderated by Oluwaseyi Ebenezer, the team lead of TGED Foundation. She gave a brief lecture about our environment stating that human beings are the key players in reshaping their environment either positively or negatively, and due to advanced technologies and industrial activities , our environment has become a victim of different problems ranging from pollution to climate related ones. She stated that whatever we do in our environment comes back to us in one way or the other.
Dr Oluwaseyi Akpor of the Faculty of Nursing ABUAD, one of the panelist,in her contribution to the segment added that there is a strong relationship between man and his environment she added that over 90% of all that man needs is found in our terrestrial habitat and also how man can help protect the environment by keeping it healthy so as to avoid health related issues. She ended her speech with a quote which says a healthy environment gives back a healthy populace.
Mrs Toroni Abosede spoke about environmental priorities. She stated that certain environmental priorities must be maintained by ensuring proper engagement of activities that are less harmful to our planet such as reducing the emission of carbon monoxide into our atmosphere.
Professor Adebayo Wole from the department of geography and planning, Ekiti State University in his lecture, Environmental Stewardship urged everyone present to adopt proper waste disposal methods. He also enlightened people in the different communities to adopt planting of trees , for trees will help trap, absorb CO2, cool and moisten our air, create oxygen, act as filtering systems to clean our air and soil and stabilize the ground against erosion.
Next was a lecture by Dr Sikiru Olowoyo of Green Global Environmental Network titled protecting cultural heritage through collaboration. On his part he stated that there will be no solution without a problem. He further added that if we fail to reduce the earth temperature by 1.50 degrees , then the earth will one day fail to exist . He further advised the public to engage in environmentally friendly activities, like planting trees and keeping our environment healthy. He reiterated that if we fail to take action against climate change, climate change will one day take action against us.

Next was the questions and answers session, and thereafter, the panelists were given the opportunity to ask questions and make comments. One of the participants, Corper Nwachukwu Ezenwa, asked if wastes can be used for the good of the ever growing population and how can our resources sustain our huge population. This question was answered by professor Adevayo who said that birth control is the best method to help fight over population and that man should learn to adopt recycling for this will help create more jobs and keep our environment healthy. The next question was asked by corper Salami Fayemi,who asked for ways on how to convince the people who have little or no idea about the environment on how to treat our environment with caution and ways to help fight climate change. Dr Sikiru answered by saying that projects are being organized by the federal government to help fight climate change and to keep our environment healthy.
The program came to a close with a closing remark by Mr Gbenga, the Chief Geologist of NESREA, Ekiti State Office, who thanked everyone for coming and wished them a more fruitful result in all their efforts to help make our planet a better place for all.