Moving Forward With the Youth on Environment: “Towards Low Carbon Communities”

The world is turning slowly into zone of ruination - - - an unfortunate scenario that

emerges from the recurring contrast between nature’s handiwork and man’s careless intrusion.

The grounds for belief are evident: stifling summers that often cause deaths due to heat strokes

with temperature resembling the Saudi desert and a stingy wind that offends like a battle tank

exhaust; tracks of land suffering from soil-cracking draught with the looming El Niño

phenomenon coupled with rainless months; shrinking forests and arable lands leaving birds,

animals, and insects unable to nurture a robust population count; and, the ocean’s dwindling

wealth in marine life. The very idea of a shriveling planet foretells of a dire panorama of

destruction that nears death and doom for all forms of life on Earth. The concept itself defies

common sense and boggles the mind. It’s an outright proof of our planet’s ecological

vulnerability, so in-your-face, so pervasive, yet we continue to be abusive polluters of our own

community. People have always been proficient at creating heaps of trash with impunity. Metro

Manila’s enormous population of litterbugs and a general disregard for the country’s rapidly

vanishing biodiversity is a national cause for shame and concern.

Efforts at reducing carbon emission and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions are not

faddish movements or the moment’s politically correct resolutions. Since when have cleanly

habits become spur-of-the-moment inclinations? Being green is not a fleeting mood or sudden,

good-fellowship fervor. It is, by all means, the most important challenge of the current time.

However we look at it, it’s a near-impossible challenge, like fighting an unwinnable war.
 It’s the truth, a most uncomfortable truth, and it will take a serious, Olympian intent, a

broad-based mechanism, and a great commitment to team and community play. We need that

one cohesive platform whose time is now. Not tomorrow. Not next week, but now.

We know that restricting our disaster plagued planet cannot be achieved by simply

pushing an “On” button. Resurrecting a storybook lost world is a dream. Can we see ourselves in

paradise in our lifetime? The future is racing toward us and it looks bleak. People live by custom

and remembered habits from the “old days”, acquired from immediate family members then

bred into the children by practiced rote learning. For years we got away with it. Under the stress

of industrialization we are committing “passive suicides” through the endless throwaways, traffic

gridlocks that emit poison in the air we breath, sloppiness running amok with overflowing

domestic garbage and manufacturing discards, sewage floating in the rivers and fouled

waterways. Technological innovations can sometimes become difficult to swallow. While they

have indeed made extraordinary impact such as the various life-improving amenities, broadband,

biotech, and consumer electronics, there still remains one major loser from all these, and that is

our environment. There have been serious efforts to combat the imminent degradation of our

planet and the results are beginning to bud. A pervading clean-scrubbed ethnic stigmatize

smoking and vaping, automotive carbon emitting engines, and radiation-guzzling gadgets. We

have to stop the rot where they are. Our children must not grow up “normal” in a ravaged

environment.

In the face of all these, has human character changed? Very unlikely. It is not easy to say

that our tomorrow will be better than our yesterdays but we are quite optimistic about carbon

emission management. We’re not sitting on a disaster. No, not yet.

 You know why? The youth of today _ and that includes you and me, are genuinely stoked

by virtues of nationalism. We recognize the rewards of giving our time and energies for a larger

good. We abhor the effects of indifference, obliviousness, and our elder’s neglect. We have an

honest respect for the harmony of nature. I am exhorting everyone, I am offering a patriotic

challenge. Enlist ourselves in causes larger and all-embracing than our own self-interests such as

this admirable YMCA project. We are young, we are educated, we are the modern firebrands

united by the Internet. Let us in our life be able to smell the perfume of the plants, and the clean,

unpolluted air. Let us see some raising of hands!

Young Men’s Christian Association of Makati, Inc.
7th Division-Wide Academic Olympics

ORATORICAL SPEECH

Submitted by:
Bangkal High School