“An Initiative for Saving the Present and Future Humanity”

(Reflection Paper)

Once we heard the term “Environmentalist” what comes into our minds? Of course
anyone may answer that they are the one responsible for our environment’s betterment and
beautification. Or some may answer, that environmentalists are the one considered as the
Gods and Goddesses of the environment for they are the ones taking care of every aspects of
it from how to reduce the risks of human activities away from the environment to how all of
us can conserve and preserve the current status of our environment. These maybe the
common answers of most of the people that you may ask right? Well, technically speaking,
these responses are all correct and true. However, these are not always the case for all of the
situation. It is correct that environmentalists are the one responsible for all of the correct
guidelines on how to preserve and conserve our environment but the initiative to take these
guidelines into actions relies on our every people’s hands in this generation. We should not
depend merely on the environmentalists because as what I understand with Ma’am
Dominguez a while ago, they, the environmentalists, are just the instrument for the
betterment of our environment.

I would love to give my commends to Ms. Dominguez for having such a simple and
easy to grasps lecture as usual. What I’ve learned in today’s discussion is enclasped with
what Ms. Dominguez considered as “Environmentalism Starter Pack” mainly called having
a Green Heart, Green Mind, Green Hands, and Green Voice. As to my understanding
about environmentalism, it is the actions, movement and ideology that aims to reduce the
impact of human activities on the earth and its various inhabitants. So in simpler words, it is
the execution of actions to implement a better outcome for our environment for all of us to
live in a harmonious and safe surrounding. Thus the positive impact of it for the future
engagement of the upcoming youths in the future generation. Indeed, environmentalism has
a significant role in promoting equity and justice as communities of color and people living
in poverty face greater environmental challenges and bear higher negative cost
from environmental problems.

First that I’ve learned is all about having a GREEN HEART. Having a concern isn’t
enough to help our environment in terms of preserving its natural beauty and harmony, but
our urge to do something for our environment is what matters the most. So having the heart
to protect and care for our mother nature will really do the magic. With having a heart
comes having a GREEN MIND that will allow all of us to think outside the box. To see and
observe the bigger picture that is in front of us. It is really on our mind set on how to have a
proper solution in a specific struggles and problems that we are currently facing as of the
moment. How on to respond correctly in different circumstances our environment may
warn us. Like the example of Ms. Dominguez, instead of using metal straw why not just
bring our own tumbler and instead of taking-home why not just dine-in right? These are
some of the simplest thing that we can actually do to reduce the carbon-footprints that we
produce. This is one of the hardest thing to do given the fact that we are now currently
living in modern era where innovations, advancements, and drastic changes are happening
in just a span of a minute. But if we look closely and analyze the scenario that we are in,
these changes are just to test how much do we care about our environment. These are the
challenges that we need to face and control in order to save where we live and belong which
is the Planet Earth. Next is having the GREEN HANDS. Together with having the heart and
mind comes along of having the hands to take those plans that we have in our minds into an
action that where we can really say that we take an initiative to make change for the
betterment of the next generation of this world. One of the things that we might do are
Clean-Up Drive, Tree Planting, Coastal Clean-Up and many more. Thus I want to commend
Ms. Dominguez for her statement where she said “If we won’t, who will?”, this statement
really moved and touch my heart because at some certain point of our lives, this statement
will always pops up right? We’ll suddenly have this sudden realization “that’s correct! If I
don’t act now, who will?” of who will lead the changes that may result to a better world we
live in. Then, after taking the plans into actions comes along with having a GREEN VOICE
where one can voice out his or her advocacies in different platforms be it through social
medias or through printed medias. Having a platform where we can directly say and convey
what we want and hope to do and implement will really make some changes even how
small or big it is. What really matters the most is we take initiative to do something good for
our surrounding and environment that will be beneficial for saving the humanity in the long
run. I would like to express that I strongly agree with Ma’am Dominguez when she said
“Hindi porket konti lang yung mga tigapakinig mo, ibig sabihin hindi ka na naririnig ng
ibang tao. Hindi ganon yun. Ang mahalaga ay nakapag iwan ka sa kanila ng mga kataga na
makakapagpaisip sa kanila.” See? Just look at how realistic this statement is. This only
proves that even if we are from different age groups, race, gender, and many more, still if
we have something that will unite and connect us from one another. Our voice will
definitely not be taken for granted. We can be able to reach a large number of audiences that
we might influence to join us on making a new generation that profoundly cares and
appreciate for our habitat, environment, earth, and the human race as a whole be it for the
present and future generations.