‘Recreate. Reimagine. Restore!’ is a powerful call to action, reminding listeners that we must stop plundering and start protecting the planet’s resources. 

Mixing urgency and hope, 19 year old Jordan Sanchez is the pen and voice behind this year’s evocative poem for World Environment Day.  On climate, race and gun control, she leaves listeners with a call to action and the message that things can get better. “I want people to understand the situation we are in is serious but there is always something we can do, we have to remain positive and we have to act,” said Sanchez .

Sanchez would like to see her World Environment Day poem inspire action, so we can leave the world better than we found it. As her poem says: “We are a fraction of a second in earth’s lifetime. Yet she is our only lifeline.”

Sanchez is studying physics at Harvard University. She comes from Puerto Rican, Congolese and Togolese descent and was born and raised in the Bronx, New York City.  She is especially concerned about environmental justice, having seen how people of colour are disproportionately affected by the impact of climate change, often because they live in poorer areas. “We are often the first hit by disaster and the last saved,” she said.  

World Environment Day theme ‘Recreate. Reimagine. Restore!’ ties into the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, a global rallying cry to heal our planet by preventing, halting and reversing the degradation of ecosystems worldwide… in each and every continent … and in each and every ocean. Ecosystems support all life on Earth. It can help to end poverty, combat climate change and prevent a mass extinction. It will only succeed if everyone plays a part.

There has never been a more urgent need to revive damaged ecosystems than NOW. What will you restore?