Honourable senators, I rise in the chamber to mark the United Nations' World Environment Day, which takes place today, June 5.

The theme of this year's event is "Connecting People to Nature," which encourages people to go outside, appreciate nature and protect it. In my opinion, this is a crucial part of one's health and well-being.

Nowadays, the growth of our cities is estranging us from nature. Our cities have destroyed ecosystems, reduced biodiversity, and polluted our air and our rivers. Today being World Environment Day, I encourage you to help bring nature back into our communities.

We need to bring nature back to our cities. Nature provides us with essential ecological services that ensure our survival — the flow of fresh, clean air, the pollination of plants by bees, the natural replenishment of soil nutrients. These ecological services are provided to us at no cost. It would be an enormous financial burden to society if our environment becomes degraded, so damaged that nature is unable to provide these essential ecological goods and services to humanity.

It is our duty as senators to legislate for the betterment of our society. We should not be afraid to legislate for the protection of nature and for ecological services that we, for the most part, take for granted. Every Canadian wants a healthy environment and a good quality of life. This is a human right.

Think globally and act locally. We can address climate change and conserve nature by enacting policies and bills. This is thinking globally. Reducing waste and our energy consumption, for example, here at work in the Parliament Buildings, is acting locally. We, as legislators, should introduce initiatives to protect ecological services, reduce consumption, eliminate waste and, above all, bring back nature to cities.

We now have the knowledge and the technology we need to incorporate these elements of nature into our daily lives.

Increasing public parkland attracts birds and animals to urban areas and provides green spaces for people to enjoy. Urban beekeeping is on the rise as citizens are becoming increasingly concerned with the steep decline of honeybee populations. Rooftop and backyard gardens and allotments connect people with the process of producing their own vegetables and fruits. Simple acts, such as planting more trees in urban areas, help filter out air pollution and cool the local area.

Last month, I participated in the Canadian Wildlife Federation BioBlitz where participants search for different species of plants and animals on Parliament Hill. Encouraging citizen science gets people involved in their community and teaches them about the ecology of urban areas.