Climate change is the current rapid warming of the Earth's temperature caused by human

activity. If left unchecked, it poses an unprecedented threat to human civilization and the
ecosystems on this planet.

Let me start this talk by asking you a question “Are you satisfied with what we have right
now?” Convenient transportation, a durable building structure, and access to the materials we
need in school. All of the things that we have now, were all bestowed by nature. We cut trees to
make paper but when we commit mistakes, we throw it in the trash without even thinking how
valuable it is. We dump things in the ocean just because we are too occupied to throw it properly.
We even abuse most of our resources in the name of creating new inventions that will only
contribute for a short period of time and just for the sake of entertainment.

Let me ask you again "Are you satisfied with what we have right now?” Climate change
can be triggered by different activities caused by our actions or our desire. It is happening right
now, temperatures are dramatically increasing, and our world is going through several different
changes that are mostly negative. Stronger storms, droughts, as well as more frequent and severe
heat waves becomes more and more frequent. According to some articles, there have also been
significant shifts in the seas and ecosystems, waters are warming up and becoming more acidic,
glaciers are shrinking, and the sea levels are rising.

According to the USGS (2017), because of the increased heat globally, more water is
being evaporated into the atmosphere that fuels stronger storms to develop. Further heat in the
atmosphere and hotter ocean surface temperatures can lead to higher wind speeds in tropical
storms. Not just the tropical region is affected because even those islands located within the
equator line were already experiencing these storms which is not supposedly to happen—since
their region is filled with doldrums which means that they should always have a calm,
monotonous, and windless weather. What does this say to us?

6,340 number of deaths were reported when typhoon Yolanda devastated the area of
Visayas. This catastrophic event is just one of the many effects of climate change in the
Philippines. According to the data published by the Global Climate Risk Index, Philippines is the
second most affected country by climate change in 2018. Our country is highly vulnerable to
these adverse impacts, which causes the frequency and intensity of floods, typhoons, diseases
and the decrease in quality and availability of water.
 On the other hand, there are many practices that have been developed in some countries
that can serve as a basis for us to also make a change and help our country now. In Mexico, they
reduced deforestation since the year of 1990. Something that’s been going as an advocacy but let
us not delimit these events only as an advocacy, but as a necessity as we truly depend on our
environment.

First, we need to start with ourselves. There are many things that we can do like
conserving energy to prevent pollution, recycling things to help the world clean, and join groups
that help fight climate change. If we work together, this contribution can be a huge help to lessen
the climate change.

Second, we should start creating innovations that could mitigate these emerging
problems. As of now, many scientists and engineers are creating innovations to help in climate
change such as Drones that plant trees to easily spread the seeds throughout a certain area,
Plastic-eating enzymes to help decompose plastic which will also save animals and humans in
terms of pollution and health, and genetic modification to fight disruptions by providing genes
that are pest-resistant, drought-resistant, or can withstand saltwater intrusion from rising sea
levels. Sadly, these innovations are not continued because of the lack of funds, which leads us to
the next point which was the support of the government.

In today’s world, with the rise of climate change, the government should focus more on
our environment because of what’s happening in our planet. The scientists and the engineers
need funds to complete their innovations to help and restore the world. With their help, it can aid,
prosper, and protect our planet.

Before I end the talk, I will leave a quote from Bill Gates that says “Climate change is a
terrible problem, and it absolutely needs to be solved. It deserves to be a huge priority.” Thank
you and God bless us all.