’Environmental issues need to be treated on par with political ones’

The Congress president said that "environmental destruction has reached a critical point today and there might be "no turning back" if the people failed to make amends today

'Environmental issues need to be treated on par with political ones'

Pic courtesy/Twitter/Rahul Gandhi

New Delhi: Congress president Rahul Gandhi stressed the need for treating environmental issues on par with political ones on Wednesday while stating that environmental destruction has reached a critical point today. Taking to social media platform - Facebook - to share his concerns on the World Environment Day, Gandhi stated, "Till we make environmental issues, political issues, they won't get the importance they deserve. This World Environment Day, let's get together and commit to doing just that."

Massive degradation of our environment has directly impacted & destroyed the lives of millions of Indians. Yet environmental issues don’t get the importance they deserve, because they aren’t seen as political issues.

This #WorldEnvironmentDay let us resolve to change that. pic.twitter.com/ZmHwNhgkHQ
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 5, 2019

The Congress president said that "environmental destruction has reached a critical point today and there might be "no turning back" if the people failed to make amends today. "Mankind's insatiable lust for power and wealth has speeded up the pace of environmental destruction, like never before in the history of our planet. We're at a tipping point, from which if we don't reverse the environmental degradation we are causing, there may be no turning back," he said.

"There is now enough scientific evidence to show that much of the degradation we have caused, particularly in the last hundred years or so, is irreversible. Global warming isn't a myth. It's a reality," he further wrote. He said that Indians across the country are struggling today and hit out at the government for not taking adequate action. "India's polluted cities, where citizens struggle to breathe, are not a myth. They too are a reality... Millions of Indias are suffering and even dying as a direct consequence of environmental degradation and the unwillingness of our Government to address these issues on a war footing," said Gandhi.

A platform for action World Environment Day is the United Nations day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action to protect our environment. Since it began in 1974, the event has grown to become a global platform for public outreach that is widely celebrated in over 100 countries. The theme Each World Environment Day is organized around a theme that draws attention to a particularly pressing environmental concern. The theme for 2019 is “Air pollution”.