Amazing photos reveal the state of world environment

The United Nations Environment Programme established World Environment Day in 1972 and every year for the past 40 years, countries around the world have dedicated June 5 to environmental causes.

The theme for World Environment Day 2012 is "Green Economy: Does it include you?" With the shaky state of not only the United States economy but also the world economy, this year's theme couldn't be more appropriate.

Let's take a look at some beautiful photos that reveal the state of the world environment.

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A toucan rests on a branch in the Braullio Carrillo National Park, 50km east of San Jose, Costa Rica.

According to a recent poll, Costa Ricans would agree to pay higher taxes if it is used for actions to promote the environment, according to local media. Costa Rica, with more than 30 per cent of its territories held in national parks, celebrated World Environment Day.

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Ram Singh, left, and his relatives, dressed in traditional saffron-coloured clothes, walk on a garbage-strewn beach against the backdrop of monsoon clouds in Mumbai.

According to the United Nations Environment Programme website, World Environment Day is celebrated annually on June 5 to raise global awareness and motivate action for environmental protection.

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Boats are docked at the polluted Amatitlan Lake, 30km south of Guatemala City.

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A dead tortoise is seen near the shores of Nicaragua's Lake Xolotlan, also known as Lake Managua, which has an area of about 1000 sq km and has been receiving raw sewage from Managua's one million residents since 1920.

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The Rio Sucio or 'Dirty River', where one branch is coloured yellow/brown by the minerals it carries from the Irazu Volcano, is seen mixing with the clear waters filtered by the tropical rainforest in the Braullio Carrillo National Park, 50km east of San Jose, Colombia.

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A man swims in the polluted waters of a pond next to his buffalo on the outskirts of Jammu.

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Ragpickers collect recyclables as they are silhouetted against the setting sun at a dump yard in New Delhi.

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A man collects plastic bottles at a dump site in Garabito, 113km from San Jose, on June 1, 2012. According to the Association Terranostra, Costa Rica produces 4,500 metric tonnes of garbage every day that ends up on beaches and in the ocean.

More than 500 volunteers participated in the cleaning operation at 25 sites around the country as part of commemorative events for the United Nations' World Environment Day, which was marked on June 5.

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A boy plays with a rubber tube inside a pond on a hot summer day in New Delhi.

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Cuban farmhand Bienvenido Castillo, nicknamed Lilly, carries a wooden stake while doing chores on his neighbour's dairy farm in Aranguito near Havana, Cuba.

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Boys swim in a polluted open creek to beat the summer heat in Manila.

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A man wearing a mask walks along the Bund along the Huangpu River on a hazy day in Shanghai. The US consulate in Shanghai began posting hourly air quality readings for the city this week, with data showing "very unhealthy" conditions on Tuesday afternoon.

The consulate's classification reflects US pollution standards, but operates on a different scale than the Shanghai Environmental Protection Bureau, which called conditions "slightly polluted".

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The remains of virgin Amazon rainforest are seen after it was cleared for its wood along the PA 150 highway near Moju, Para State.

The PA 150 is the main route used for the transportation of illegal charcoal to smelters producing pig iron, one of the main components of steel, in the city of Maraba.

A recent Greenpeace investigation reported that the demand for pig iron for industries, such as the US auto industry, is a major contributor to the destruction of the Amazon forest.

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A boatman rows his small boat in the interior of Dal Lake in Srinagar.

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A wedding couple and their photographers walk past the burning Pulau Bukom offshore petroleum complex of Royal Dutch Shell in Singapore.

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A woman discards waste into a canal in the slum area of Cite de Dieu, just outside Port-au-Prince.

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Belarussian rescuers walk at a used pesticides burial site in a forest near the village of Savichi, some 160km southwest of Minsk.

About 950 tonnes of pesticides, including DDT, were extracted from the ground, loaded in plastic barrels and prepared for transportation for utilisation in Germany, according to participants.

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An aerial view during a media tour by oil company Royal Dutch Shell shows an illegal oil refining site with the runoff from crude oil covering the banks along the Imo river, 30km west of Nigeria's oil hub city of Port Harcourt.

Illegal refineries along the Imo river, first discovered in 2009, were cleared in a joint security operation with the government in 2010 but has resurfaced in January 2011, according to a Shell media release during the tour.

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A child stands on foam from a polluted river at the Marunda flood canal in Jakarta.

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Masses of seaweed is cleared away along the French coastline at Saint Michel-en-Greve, Northern Brittany.

The mysterious death of 36 wild boars on France's northwestern coast baffled authorities on Tuesday after tests suggested large amounts of rotting seaweed strewn across beaches may not be to blame.

Environmentalists had said that toxic, foul-smelling hydrogen sulfide gas emitted by the rotting seaweed had poisoned the animals in the Cotes d'Armor region of Brittany.

Ecologists say that nitrates pollution in rivers from fertilisers used in intensive farming has boosted the growth of algae along France's coastline.