Editors Note: As part of Green Philippines (Aksyon Kalikasan), I recognize the urgency of the issue of Climate Change and recognize the fact that we should act now. We should also consider all scientific research and data in order to assess proper actions and the present and future situation of our planet. On the speech of Greta Thunberg at the United Nations, it is indeed from the heart but personally, her speech should have been best delivered without the aid of any script and just speak out from her heart. This is perhaps why upon reading comments on some videos uploaded on YouTube you will see negative comments. However, let us look beyond this and into reality, we are facing now. OUR HOUSE IS INDEED ON FIRE! Please support our campaign to DECLARE A CLIMATE EMERGENCY IN THE PHILIPPINES by SIGNING THE PETITION.
David D’Angelo
National Spokesperson
Green Philippines (Aksyon Kalikasan)
My message is that we’ll be watching you.
This is all wrong. I shouldn’t be up here. I should be back in school on the other side of the ocean. Yet, you all come to us young people for hope. How dare you!
You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words and yet I’m one of the lucky ones. People are suffering. People are dying. Entire ecosystems are collapsing. We are in the beginning of a mass extinction and all you can talk about is money and fairytales of eternal economic growth. How dare you!
For more than 30 years, the science has been crystal clear. How dare you continue to look away and come here saying that you’re doing enough when the politics and solutions needed are still nowhere in sight.
You say you hear us and that you understand the urgency, but no matter how sad and angry I am, I do not want to believe that. Because if you really understood the situation and still kept on failing to act then you would be evil and that I refuse to believe.
The popular idea of cutting our emissions in half in 10 years only gives us a 50 percent chance of staying below 1.5 degrees and the risk of setting off irreversible chain reactions beyond human control.
Fifty percent may be acceptable to you, but those numbers do not include tipping points, most feedback loops, additional warming hidden by toxic air pollution or the aspects of equity and climate justice.
