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Stand Up & Take Action 2008

In 2008, the ‘Art of Living’ and ‘International Association for Human Values’ (AOL and IAHV) have chosen the seventh Millennium Development Goal - ensuring environmental sustainability – as their cause for the Stand Up and Take Action challenge. (Learn more about sustainability.)

The campaign, called ‘Stand Up & Take Action: Mission Green Earth’ will focus on addressing the issue of sustainable environments and encourage action by commitment to a sustainable lifestyle by intelligent management of water, energy and waste in personal, official and public lives. The ‘Mission Green Earth’ international campaign will also be conducting a giant tree plantation drive around the world. The challenge targets 100 million people standing up between October 17, 18 & 19 and 70 million trees planted up to mid-July 2009.

In the UAE, it is even more important that the campaign is carried out in a realistic and efficient manner, especially taking into consideration the region’s particular environmental and climatic conditions and constraints.

Accordingly the objectives of the ‘Stand up & Take Action 2008: Mission Green Earth’ campaign in the UAE are:

1. For at least a million people to Stand Up in support of the Millennium Development Goals and to commit to a sustainable environment through effective management of waste, energy and water.
2. To plant trees that support the local climatic and ecological conditions.

Activities conducted as part of the UAE campaign this year included...

• Stand Up sessions organised all across the UAE.
• Distribution of seeds to interested participants.
• Tree plantations organised by local municipalities, government and corporate organizations and institutions.
• Media awareness campaign, advocating the need to address sustainable living and landscaping.
• School activities on the theme of sustainable environment/landscaping.
• Green Forum on Sustainable Landscaping aimed to foster a debate and generate solutions among decision-makers. It will involve the business community, real-estate companies, government officials as well as environmentalists.
• VIP closing ceremony on October 19th, with prominent dignitaries and media attending during which the final tally of people who stood up in the UAE was officially announced.