20-year-old wins World Environment Day blog competition – read online

Earlier this week the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) announced that it has chosen a winner for its World Environment Day (WED) blogging competition, 20-year-old Florida native Ximena Pruge.

Bloggers from around the world were encouraged by UNEP to write an inspirational or compelling blog post on the subject o this year's theme for World Environment Day - Forests - Nature at Your Service. The winning entrant is to go to India, host of this year's World Environment Day (WED), to cover events there.

The competition, which closed on May 10, was open to anyone and entries were accepted in any one of the UN's official languages. Ximena Pruge's entry was selected by the judges on May 25, giving the young blogger, who works with non-profit organization Giving The Green Light a chance to travel to India.

Below is a fragment of Ximena Pruge's winning entry, the full text can be read online at - http://unep.org/wed/news/blogwinner.asp

"A few days ago I read about World Environment Day (which is sort of like Earth Day, just taken a little more seriously than just leaf-shaped cookies in the cafeteria) and this year's theme i[s] Forests: Nature At Your Service. It's June 5, which is actually the same day Elvis swung his hips to his release of "Hound Dog" making it a perfectly appropriate day for world-altering events, right? It's also in India, which means I'm also just drooling at the thought of being able to attend.

The theme focuses on deforestation and the domino-effect of consequences that occur. Every year, 13 million hectares of forests are destroyed. For those unfamiliar with how big a hectare is, 13 million is the size of Portugal. WE'RE CUTTING DOWN PORTUGAL-EQUIVALENT EVERY YEAR. WHAT?!"

World Environment Day, held on June 5 every year, is used by the UN as a means of raising environmental awareness among individuals and political organizations around the world.

More information about World Environment Day including how to get involved can be found here http://unep.org/wed/

More information about American charity Giving The Green Light - which provides solar-powered flashlights to families in rural India - can be found at http://givingthegreenlight.tumblr.com/