The speech I made

This is the speech I made yesterday. When I was on stage, I didn’t really follow what I have written as I need to follow the reaction of the crowd. Hence, I have edited it to fit into a blog environment:-


I don’t know about you but when guys come together, typically, we always have a particular code to refer to a particular type of girls. One code which me and my mates once used was “environmental friendly”. It basically refers to girls who dress in very little material. Ya’ know, less material, less harmful to the environment. Or so we thought.

Then there as this time we decided to disclose our ‘code’ to a girl and after telling her and laughing about it she looked at us as though we were a bunch of morons. Do you know why? She enlightened us that using more fabrics doesn’t result in more trees being chopped down or damage the environment in anyway. So for years, we have been using and laughing at something that doesn’t make sense. Quite stupid isn’t it? A girl has to correct us guys on the kind of code we used to categorise them.

I think a lot of us carry the same mentality. We may be doing something we thought will save the environment but in fact, it doesn’t. Or we do one thing that benefits the environment but behind the scene, we do a host of other things that damage the environment.

You bring your own paper bag when you go marketing but then you buy plastic containers and styrofoam cups for your parties, maybe because they are cheaper. You put your air-cond to a timer so that it will switch off by itself after you fall asleep but then you leave your computer to download stuff. What stuff? I don’t want to know.

It’s human nature really. We are only willing to go to the extent that it will not affect our pocket, our needs, our lifestyle. When it costs money, when it creates a hassle, we most probably will not do it. And that is our very own version of ‘Inconvenient Truth’. By the way, many of you have watched the movie right?

Please bear in mind that watching the movie does not amount to any effort in being environmental friendly. Some people have this mentality… what’s your contribution to the environment? Oh… I watched the “Inconvenient Truth!”

I watched another movie called ‘The 11th hour’ before preparing this speech and there was one point in that film that hit me. There was this professor, forgotten what was his name, he said ‘global warming’ is not a problem… ‘pollution’ is not a problem… ‘climate change related disaster’ is not a problem… these are only symptoms to the real problem. And the real problem here is ‘us’. Our mentality, our attitude. That is the problem.

Have you heard of this saying… it’s very famous amongst the Chinese. It says… if a problem can be solved with money, it’s not a problem. And consciously or unconsciously, we are all adopting this motto in our daily lives, including this going green effort.

It’s very hot… I will make enough money to buy an air-cond.
The air is not fresh… I will make enough money to buy a house in nice gated community where the air is fresher.
It’s too far from my work place… I will make more money to buy a big comfortable car.
The house is flood prone… I will make money to buy a place is more secured place.
The earth has already started its journey towards a condition whereby one day, humans will not be able to survive in it. Be it too warm or the air is too toxic. Soon, there will be green spots on earth where humans can only survive in these specific areas. And these areas, will eventually only be available for the rich and powerful.

Knowing this, what am I going to do now? What are you doing to do now? What is ‘Going green’ means to us now? Are we all going to work for more money in order to be the first in the line? Or are you going to make a conscious… a continuously conscious effort to save the environment… to go green?

Besides ‘The inconvenient truth’ and ‘the 11th hour’, I have also watched quite a number of other environmental related documentaries. As you know, they always interview scientist, environmentalist, anti-pollution activist and the lot and do you notice one thing? Do you? I don’t know about you but I observed that 95% of all these people who are very passionate about saving the planet, 95% of them… they very quite old. Maybe 50s and above.

What does that tell you?

To me, it shows that the ‘older’ generation cares about us. They may or may not be around to face the full repercussions of the wrath that the environment is going to cast upon us but they still care. What about us? What are you going to do?

After all that I’ve said, what does going green means to me? It simply means that I will do it, even if it’s going to hurt my pocket, I will do it, even if it’s going to affect my lifestyle, and I will do it, even if it’s going to compromise on my other needs.

To close, I just want to quote what my pastor used to say… in fact, he quoted it from somewhere else but I couldn’t remember the name. Anyway… he said by preaching his sermon, he will not change the world, but the people who listen, will. And today, I don’t think I have done enough to change the world, but after you’ve listened to my ramblings, you will.

Thank you.