Speech

Thank you, Sarah, as Sarah was saying we are here to address ensuring a safe and
sustainable environment for the future generations to come .If we do not work out a
way to ensure our planet’s safety, there will be no planet left to save and possibly
human extinction.
What we do now to the environment has a detrimental effect on the generations to
come. We will either leave a depleted environment where life for future generations
will be without any resources or we can change now and begin to use our
environment sustainably. There is a possible of human extinction in the future if we
fail to protect our natural resources. Rapa Nui also called Easter Island, gives us a
good example of what happens if the environment is depleted due to over use. Over
the years, the once prosperous island symbolized by hundreds of historic stone
statues known as Moai, transformed from an economic hub with vast forests to a
desert without any natural resources to sustain life. Its population began to gradually
shrink to a point that human life became extinct in the island. There was a time that
cannibalism, where humans were eating other humans because of hunger took
place. Yet currently, the island is a World Heritage Site due to its unbelievable
statues that still today, the world wonders how such a small population managed to
execute such almost impossible tasks.

As you can see, Easter island was a prosperous and rich in natural resources. But
because the people of Easter island did not take care of their resources and the
environment, their descendants died completely. It therefore important that we learn
a lesson from this episode that we do not repeat the same mistakes. Our
environment is our and our future generations’ source of life.

Some ways we are destroying our environment is by burning fossils fuels

Humans burn fossil fuels every single day, mainly coal and crude oil for electricity
and petrol. Have you ever wondered how much fossil fuels are burnt and how much
polluted/poisonous gases get sent into the atmosphere? At the current rate of coal
consumption, it will take 133 year to deplete all coal reserves in the world. The world
currently burns 8 561 178 tons of coal per year and a kg of burnt coal produces 2,07g of
carbon dioxide, meaning that per day 182kgs of carbon dioxide is being sent out into the
atmosphere. Very dangerous to the natural environment!!!
Now I understand, we use electricity and petrol as everyday essentials, but there are
environmentally friendly and safer ways to generate electricity. We can use solar power by
using solar panels. We can use hydropower electricity, or we could even use coal produced
power EFFECIANTLY and SUSTAINABLY.
By this I mean switching off your geyser when the water is hot (after an hour or so),
switching off the lights when you leave the room, little things like these make a huge impact
on saving the environment.
Deforestation
Deforestation is the purposeful clearing of forested land. Trees are a very important part of
our ecosystem. Trees do not only provide us with oxygen, but also very importantly consume
carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. Can image that there was a time in Rapa Nui Island
that there were only three species of threes left?
We all know how much carbon dioxide is emitted into the atmosphere per day by only coal,
trees consume this co2 and turn it into oxygen. Cutting down forests is like taking away the
safety net to complete destruction. Not only does this disadvantage us, but it also leaves
creatures that live in that habitat homeless and vulnerable. In Rapa Nui island, birds became
extinct because there were no more trees left for them. Eventually, the ecosystem was
destroyed leaving no life at all in the island.
The extinction of the northern white rhino
The UN reported that 4 million plant and animal species were threatened with extinction.
Unfortunately, the northern white rhino has fallen victim to this claim.
The northern white rhinoceros, which survived 55 million years of ice ages, earthquakes,
meteor strikes and was testament to a numerical historical change across the planet could
not survive humans. The great beast is now functionally extinct.

Sudan, the last male northern white rhino died in 2018 and now there are only 2 female
white rhinos left, his daughter Najin and his granddaughter Fatu are the only last ones left.

If we continue on this path of natural destruction of our planet earth we love and call home,
more and more animals will become extinct, nature will stop nurturing us and we will lead
ourselves to our own extinction. Lets changes our ways, before it’s too late otherwise we will
soon become like Rapa Nui.
With that I leave Enhle Mbanjwa to conclude..