Elija Gayen and Chandan Bandyopadhyay write about "শ্লোগান দিতে গিয়ে আমি চিনতে শিখি" ~~ on the World Environment Day : Theme Slogans
5th Editorial Ambrosia – 5th June, 2025
Environment
Day: Theme Slogans
শ্লোগান দিতে গিয়ে আমি চিনতে শিখি / নতুন মানুষজন- শ্লোগান /শ্লোগান দিতে গিয়ে আমি বুঝতে শিখি / কে ভাই, কে দুশমন- শ্লোগান। [কথাঃ পার্থ বন্দোপাধ্যায় সুর ও কন্ঠঃ প্রতুল মুখোপাধ্যায়]
The official theme / slogan for World Environment Day 2025 is “Beat Plastic Pollution.” The campaign aims to raise global awareness about the harmful impacts of plastic waste on ecosystems, wildlife, and human health.
At the United Nations Conference on the Human Environment held
in Stockholm of Sweden on June 5, 1972, the United Nations identified June 5 as
“World Environment Day” and in October of the same year, this proposal was
adopted at the 27th General Assembly of the United Nations. The
establishment of World Environment Day reflects the awareness and standpoint of
the various countries in the world on environmental issues and expresses the
yearning and pursuit of mankind for a better environment. Slogans have a long
history. They not only affect people’s daily language, but also influence
people's consciousness and behaviour. Slogans are said to be the strongest
voices of the time and represent an important communication phenomenon.
Therefore, a study on slogans is of great significance. Since the 1970s, the
environmental problem has become the focus of the world, and the environmental
protection slogans have played an important role not only in stimulating
people's awareness of the environment but also in enhancing political attention
and public action. The authors in this editorial first briefly introduce the
definitions, structures and functions of slogans and then point out the
similarities and differences between the World Environment Day theme in order
to help people understand the meaning of environmental protection slogans, thus
awakening people to the protection of the environment and promoting the
communication among countries.
With the further growth of population, there has been an
enormous increase in the demand for food and in the wood consumption for fuel
and building. To make matters worse, the global industrialization,
urbanization, modernization as well as China’s economic reform have put greater
pressure on public facilities and natural resources. For example, about a third
of natural world has been destroyed by human activities in the last 30 years,
and the rate of loss is accelerating; devastating natural disasters like
earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons are very common now. Among the relevant
academic publications and literature are “Research on Slogans in the View of
Public Evaluation” (Nie, 2008), “Preliminary Discussion on Standardized
Management of Governments’ Propaganda Slogans” (Liu, 2009). As for researches
on posters and slogans launched globally, few research results are introduced
into China. A few of papers were completed based on the research results from
abroad, such as “Comparisons of Use Characteristics, Structural Features and
Functions of Posters and Slogans between the Soviet Union and Early in Russian
Federation” (Zhao, 1996), “The DPRK under Posters and Slogans” (Li, 2003).
Slogans by Urdang & Robbins (1984) and A Century of Posters by Alston W
Purvis and Le Coultre (2002) are two representative works of the original
English works imported.
Slogan came from battlefields in ancient Scotland and Ireland,
where the officials in Gaelic army used some simple but powerful words, phrases
or sentences to gather up their soldiers and encourage them to fight bravely.
Later these words and battle cries are called “slogans”. According to Longman
Dictionary of Contemporary English (Zhou, 2004), slogan is a short phrase
expressing a political or advertising message.
Slogans, in whatever form or structure, may help provide certain
information, spread the policies and principles of a city or a country or even
help promote the development of public services.
The World Environment Day theme slogan in 2007 “Melting Ice—A
Hot Topic” gives a note that the ice is melting and now it is beginning to draw
much attention from people. At the same time, slogans can also help people
establish and maintain their relationship in a society.
As a special branch of language, slogans tend to be concise and
short. That’s because people may have no time to stop to read them or may have
difficulty interpreting them. Namely, slogans are usually effective with their
short sentences or elliptical sentences, which are not necessarily accompanied
by a longer informative text or made up of a subject, a verb and an object,
just as Leech noted, “slogans have been very successful due to the use of
structure”(Zhao, 2005). For example, in the World Environment Day theme slogan was
“Only One Earth” in 1974.
The earth is the only home to human beings. But the environment
is becoming worse and worse. For example, of all the species that have ever
lived on the planet, 98% have died out and the world’s forest cover has
decreased by 13% between 1960 and 2000 from 37 million square km to 32 million square
km. So the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) and all the governments of
the world are making their efforts to change this through a series of
activities. “Modern slogan is not only to awaken people, but also to help
organize them. It is always the principle of people's action (Zhu, 1984).” It
is clear that the World Environment Day theme slogans have goals---- mobilization,
warning and advocacy. Mobilization means that environmental protection slogans
are to mobilize people and their resources in the drive for environmental
protection. For example, the theme slogan for the year 1988's World Environment
Day is “When People Put the Environment First, Development Will Last”; for
1995, “We, the Peoples, United for the Global Environment”; for 1997, “For Life
on Earth”; for 1998, “For Life on Earth— Save Our Seas”; for 1999, “Our Earth—
Our Future— Just Save It!”; for 2000, “2000 the Environment Millennium—Time to
Act”; for 2004, “Wanted! Seas and Oceans— Dead or Alive”.
Warning means that environmental protection slogans are to warn
people to fully understand the great danger from environmental pollution,
taking the initiative in protecting the environment. Examples are the theme
slogans “Ozone Layer Environmental Concern; Lands Loss and Soil Degradation;
Firewood” in 1977; “Desertification” in 1984; “Global Warming, Global Warning”
in 1989; “Water— Two Billion People Are Dying for It” in 2003; “Melting Ice— A
Hot Topic” in 2007.
All these slogans warn us that the world is in great hazard
because of sewage disposal, emission of carbon dioxide, global deforestation
and a decline in biodiversity.
Advocacy means that environmental slogans are used to advocate a
new life style which is helpful for the environment and environmental
protection. This new life style is involved in the new way of production and
development as well as in the new conception of living and consumption. For
example, the theme slogans “Green Cities— Plan for the Planet” in 2005, “Kick
the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy” in 2008, and “Biodiversity— Ecosystems
Management and the Green Economy” in 2010 advocate a green life. And the
concept of sustainable development is embodied in the theme slogans of the year
1978 “Development Without Destruction”, 1979 “Only One Future for Our
Children---- Development Without Destruction”, 1980 “A New Challenge for the
New Decade: Development Without Destruction”; 1988 “When People Put the
Environment First, Development Will Last”.
Slogan, as a special form of language, is a reflection of a
society. Firstly, the World Environment Day theme slogan is known, the first
World Environment Day theme slogan was created in 1974. It is “Only One Earth”,
which reminds people to care for the environment and protect the only planet—
the earth. The World Environment Day theme slogans like this reflect not only
the serious environmental problems caused by industrialization, urbanization
and modernization, but also the great achievements in the practice of people’s
making a green world and the sustainable development after their rethinking of
industrial civilization since the 1960s. Secondly, there are some differences
in their means of expression. The World Environment Day theme slogans focus
more on specific. For example, the Environment Day Theme slogan
“Desertification” in 1984 is aimed at desertification; “Global Warming; Global
Warning” in 1989, “Melting Ice— A Hot Topic” in 2007 both at global warming and
“Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy” in 2008 at a low carbon economy.
Whether they are about desertification, global warming or a low carbon economy,
slogans are directed against the serious and specific global environmental
issues.
Thirdly, the World Environment Day theme slogan is consistent
with the rule or the law. That is to say what slogans advocate is what the
human laws require people to do. It is clear that the law is to guide rather
than punish people.
Fourthly, the World Environment Day theme slogans seem to be
imaginative and cohesive. Typical examples are the World Environmental Day
Theme slogan “Youth: Population and the Environment” in 1985, “Children and the
Environment” in 1990, “One Earth, One Family” in 1994, “Give Earth a Chance” in
2002 and “Green Cities— Plan for the Planet” in 2005. In these slogans not only
children are put together with the environment, but the youth and the whole
population are put with the environment, and most important of all, these
slogans can capture the imagination of all the generations.
In addition, the World Environment Day theme slogans tend to be
practical, trying to link the fate of the people, the future of the family life
and their happiness index with the protection of the Earth and the environment,
thus deeply arousing people's strong sense of social responsibility for the
protection of the environment. Typical examples are “Only One Earth, Care and
Share” in 1992; “One Earth, One Family” in 1994; “Our Earth, Our Habitat, Our
Home” in 1996; “Connect with the World Wide Web of Life” in 2001.
As the environmental situation is getting more and more serious,
much more attention has been paid to it. The establishment of World Environment
Day is good evidence. On the World Environment Day each year, there is a theme
slogan to stimulate worldwide awareness of the environmental protection.. For
these two kinds of slogans, there are many similarities in terms of structure
and goals, but there also exist many differences in their birth of time, means
of expression and other aspects.
It is generally believed that only when we, peoples from all the countries, realize the seriousness of the environmental pollution and the goals of environmental protection slogans, can we take more effective actions to protect the environment. Only if we protect the environment day by day, will the world become more and more beautiful, and could our descendants enjoy a pleasant environment and a better life.
Enjoy
Ambrosia Consistently!
Yours’ Environment friendly,
~~Elija Gayen -- Chandan Bandyopadhyay ~~
for
and on behalf of the BoEds
Biman Banerjee Gopa Mukherjee Elija
Gayen
Pritha Biswas Writi Ghosh
Chandan Bandyopadhyay
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