ENVIRONMENT: Your Planet Needs You Campaign, World Environment Day 5 June

Your Planet Needs You is a Landcare Australia and Coastcare joint campaign as a call to action, to get Australians motivated and engaged and doing something to help the planet on World Environment Day. So here is what Landcare Australia and Coastcare gathered about Australians:

• WE CARE: Almost all (99%) Australians recognise that it is important that we take action to improve our environment from what it is today (59% extremely important, 28% very important, 12% quite important).
• WE WANT TO HELP: 84% of Australians plan on doing something substantial to help the environment in the next week, 17% say they will volunteer.
• WE DON’T KNOW HOW? Less than 1% of Australians actually volunteer to help the environment.

The aim of the Your Planet Needs You campaign is to make it easy for people to sign up to a volunteer register, tick some boxes to say what skills they can offer (it could be anything really from hosting a BBQ to driving and even walking), and spread the message.

Please promote the Your Planet Needs You campaign through your networks.

World Environment Day 2009, commemorated each year on 5 June, is one of the principal vehicles through which the United Nations stimulates worldwide awareness of the environment and enhances political attention and action. The theme for WED 2009 is 'Your Planet Needs You-UNite to Combat Climate Change'. It reflects the urgency for nations to agree on a new deal at the crucial climate convention meeting in Copenhagen some 180 days later in the year, and the links with overcoming poverty and improved management of forests.