International Earth Day celebrated in Ashgabat
To celebrate International Earth Day 2022, the British Embassy in Ashgabat organised a screening of Sir David Attenborough's documentary 'A Life on Our Planet'.
To celebrate International Earth Day 2022 on 22 April, the British Embassy in Turkmenistan hosted a screening of Sir David Attenborough’s award-winning Netflix documentary film ‘A Life on Our Planet’ and a Creative Earth art exhibition.
The events were organised with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Culture of Turkmenistan, as part of activities to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between UK and Turkmenistan.
A 'Life on Our Planet' film screening in Ashgabat.
The purpose of the event was to support the key achievements and outcomes of the COP26 international conference on Achieving Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change and was a strong call to all to protect and restore the earth’s natural habitats and ecosystems.
David Attenborough’s latest documentary, ‘A Life on Our Planet’ is a candid first-person account of humanity’s impact on nature and a message of hope for future generations. Sir David highlights the problem the world is facing at an alarming rate as a result of human-induced climate change. The film was created in 2020 by the world-famous British film studio Silverback Films and the global environmental organisation the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
The film reflected the impact of humankind on nature, as well as the history of the evolution of life on the planet in order to draw attention to the loss of nature on earth.
Coincidentally, today the UN named Sir David “Champion of the Earth”. The UN conferred its “most distinguished environment award” for his dedication to telling stories about nature and the climate crisis and advocating for protection.
Creative Earth art competition.
UK Ambassador to Turkmenistan Lucia Wilde said:
As the first generation with a clear understanding of our impact, we must work to restore nature now to protect our planet and ourselves. This film shows the scale of the challenges that we are facing, and the role that everyone here can play in creating the solutions we know we need.
I would like to say a huge thank you to each person here for joining us today. Today we have a crucial opportunity to come together and put nature at the heart of everything we do. Today is a great chance for us to step into a new way of thinking – to encourage our friends, families and wider community to take action and build a better future where we can live in balance with our natural world.
This inspiring event concluded with the children’s Creative Earth climate change art exhibition, where the embassy displayed some of the best work by the truly creative and talented schoolchildren in Turkmenistan depicting their vision of an ecologically friendly and climate neutral life on our planet in the future.
Painting from the Creative Earth art competition.
A painting from the Creative Earth art competition.