Transcriber: Rebecca Rakowitz Reviewer: Rhonda Jacobs
Our oceans, the bases of life on earth,
a source of oxygen, opportunity, and endless inspiration.
Or more accurately,
our oceans, the world's largest dumping ground.
The main culprit, being the plastic that is present everywhere in our lives.
From the grocery bags to the food delivery
and the water bottles.
At current growth rates,
by 2050, there'll be 12 billion tons of plastic
laying in our natural environments and landfills,
and more plastic than fish in the ocean.
Can you imagine this?
Close your eyes and try.
The image in your mind is probably not as half as devastating
as the reality is,
not in 2050 but right now, today.
In the one minute that I've began my talk,
one garbage truck, or 15 tons worth of plastic,
would have entered our ocean.
Over a span of one year,
this amounts to 8 million tons making it's way to our waters,
being swept away by ocean currents and staying there.
As a result,
our precious marine life is suffering.
In that same year,
one million sea birds, a hundred thousand sea mammals,
a thousand sea turtles, and countless more million fish will die
because of the plastic in our ocean.
Just a couple of months ago,
a pregnant whale washed up on the beaches of Sardinia right here in Italy.
Her stomach was full of 48 pounds worth of things
like garbage bags, fishing nets,
and even a full packet of liquid detergent.
Things that are present everywhere in our lives.
The plastic pollution problem is real, devastating,
and we must do something about it
if we're going to protect the marine life we know and love.
Whether or not you've seen these pictures on the news or on your social media feeds,
or whether you live near or far from the ocean,
we're all suffering from the impacts of plastic pollution.
These include the toxic chemicals in our water,
and the microplastics
that have worked their way up the food chain and onto our plates.
Not just that,
consider the huge economical consequences.
If the threat to our marine life weren't enough to shock you,
then I'm sure the threat to our economies will.
Only five percent of the value of plastic packaging material
remains in our economy after one very short use.
According to the European Commission's estimates,
the 95% of wasted value
amounts to a 105 billion euros in the EU every year alone.
More than that,
according to a study published in the Marine Pollution Bulletin,
plastic pollution costs our global economies
2.2 trillion euros every year.
No government owns or cares about this plastic
that has traveled far away into our ungoverned ocean territory.
Yet every single person is negatively affected.
This is a prime example of the need for an urgent global response.
We need to realize our shared responsibility,
and work together to tackle the problem.
So when will we draw the line?
When our plastic-laden beaches become less Instagram worthy,
or our fishing nets bring out nothing but old plastic?
The effects of our callous actions can be seen everywhere around us,
and we won't be escaping it with inaction.
Today marks the 27th year of World Oceans Day,
and the fifth time it's had a focus on beating plastic pollution.
Happy World Oceans Day, everybody!
(Applause)
The idea for this day originated at the 1992 Earth Summit,
before The Ocean Project spearheaded the initiative
and brought it to life in 2002.
Since then, it's grown from a handful of events
in a couple of countries
to over a 1500 events in a 140 countries
with a social media reach of several billion.
Along that line,
The Ocean Project established
the World Oceans Day Youth Advisory Council,
which was born out of the vision for World Oceans Day
to develop into a movement - a youth-led movement -
of celebration and action.
I am one of these 24 passionate youth representatives
from 20 countries around the world,
all united by our desire to protect the ocean.
Throughout the year,
we work with the amazing people at The Ocean Project
to shape World Oceans Day
with our unique perspectives, projects, and ideas.
We've realized that plastic pollution
is a problem that needs solutions and a shift in our ways right now.
While it's great to see some governments pledging to ban some plastics
by times like 2021 and 2030,
we're not about to sit back and wait for that change to happen.
But rather, we'll catalyze and create it now.
That's exactly why we've risen to the challenge
of getting our communities to beat plastic pollution together.
My love for the ocean began a few years ago.
I was 14 years old
during a school trip to a coral reef nursery
on the beautiful west coast of Malaysia.
An inspiring marine biologist gave us a passionate speech
about how it's up to me and my peers to save the ocean,
and then showed us around an area where his team were growing coral.
As someone who had been far too scared to go anywhere near a coral reef before,
I was in awe at how diverse, vulnerable, and beautiful
this little nursery habitat was.
It was a microcosm of an untouched reef,
free from the heat stress, pollution, and overfishing,
that is the reality for our ocean today.
After that inspiring experience,
I ran down to the beach for some free time with my friends,
and what greeted us was shocking.
It was heartbreaking to see the coast littered with things like dead coral,
mangled flip flops, styrofoam beads, and plastic bottles.
The difference to the perfect little ecosystem I had just witnessed
couldn't have been larger.
And it was devastating to see the first-hand impacts
of plastic pollution and coral destruction on our environment.
It was the very first time I felt scared
for what the future of our ocean was going to be.
And the first time I realized the urgency for us to step up and protect it.
So I picked up all the plastic that I could
and decided from then on,
I would dedicate all my time to fighting for the ocean.
When I got back to school,
my amazing geography teachers were kind enough to answer
my endless questions and worries about the coral reefs.
Their eagerness to help
and the belief they had in my ability to make a difference
helped get my ocean advocacy journey off to an exciting start.
From urging friends to go strawless and bag-free,
to gradually ridding my whole town of unsustainable single-use plastic,
and for making an educational booklet for local schools,
to speaking in a room full of primary school kids
dressed in a Dora costume,
the past few years have been pretty interesting.
And the Dora costume made it slightly embarrassing.
But hey, whatever it takes to get the message across, right?
I learned a few crucial things about plastic along the way,
including the fact that plastic is not the enemy
as much as our single-use mindset is.
Plastic has unparalleled weight, versatility, and affordability.
While alternatives like stainless steel bottles, glass jars, and tote bags
seem like an obvious solution to the problem,
they often necessitate more water to produce
and more fuel to transport due to their weight.
To truly solve plastic pollution
will be to completely change our relationship and habits
with single-use plastic.
By refusing unnecessary single-use plastic,
we send a clear message to producers with our demands
and will spur change down the supply chain as well.
Together, we are a movement that can not be ignored.
This year for World Oceans Day,
the Youth Advisory Council has been busy planning a range of events
and creating resources to best raise awareness
in communities and classrooms across the world.
We're trying to involve youth in the solution
by getting them to take action.
We are but a few council members fighting for our ocean
within an entire generation of unstoppable youth
desperate to build a viable tomorrow.
Our desire for a safe, livable future
definitely does not stop at plastic-free seas.
I'm sure most of you will agree with me
that this is a very tumultuous time for our world.
You might think I'm talking about Brexit or Trump,
as the headlines seem to suggest,
but I'm talking about the climate and biodiversity crisis
that threatens our survival.
As we continue living our day-to-day lives,
1 million species are at risk of extinction,
which will directly impact our food security, water security,
social stability, and health.
The latest report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change
warned that we have until 2030
to keep global warming below a maximum of 1.5 degrees
to keep the effects from being too extreme.
Meanwhile, the temperatures and emissions are still on an uptrend,
and according to the Climate Action Tracker,
a mere seven out of 179 countries that ratified the Paris Agreement
are on track to meet their two degree warming limits.
The temperature rise of two degrees will obliterate 99% of our coral reefs
and cause sea levels to rise up to 50 cm,
which would radically harm the lives of millions living on coastlines,
as well as our marine ecosystems.
More extreme weather and accelerated ocean acidification will follow,
contributing to 37% of our population experiencing severe heat waves
once every five years,
crop yields dropping 7%,
and global fishery catches declining by 3 million tons.
It is hard to even imagine what a horror our world would be like.
But we are well on our way to making it a reality.
At the rate we're going,
catastrophic climate change is guaranteed,
and our future looks frighteningly uncertain.
This fate will not change unless we immediately reinvent our system
and change our ways.
All our lives, we've been told to follow the traditional route:
focus on school and leave it to the adults
until we're old enough to earn our seat at the table.
But the youth of today have demonstrated, time and time again
with their sheer resilience and power that we are no longer okay with that.
Take the recent youth climate strikes as an example.
I am also a member of the UK Student Climate Network.
UKSCN are an amazing group of students behind the UK Youth Strikes for Climate.
Within a matter of two months, they were able to mobilize a movement
of 50,000 students, which was part of a worldwide movement
of well over 1.5 million youth.
They did this all while juggling exams, homework,
and everything else us teenagers have to worry about.
It is sad that it has come down to this
in order for politicians to wake up and take some action,
but also inspiring to know that if we keep at it,
we will bring about the change that we need.
Us youths may not have lived as long as the people in power,
but we will suffer with the consequences, and we deserve to be heard.
Here in Italy, on the 15th of March 2019, there were over 200,000 students striking,
and several thousand here in Vincenza alone.
You must understand why the youth are so fed up with this inaction.
To us, without any political agenda in mind, the solution seems simple.
We need to stop greenhouse emissions in their tracks,
and implement something like a Green New Deal
that will prioritize renewable solutions, people, and our planet.
Yet there is little being done while horrible climate injustices
continue to plague our most vulnerable communities.
This problem is bigger than just saving the planet and saving our animals.
It is also to do with our very survival.
And we refuse to sit back while it's tossed about like child's play.
To keep our beautiful world alive,
for the sake of my generation and the many to follow,
as we chant during our strikes,
"What we need is system change, not climate change."
These climate strikes may have made noise and sparked some action,
and our plastic campaigns may have begun to make some waves
against plastic pollution, but this is just the beginning.
It is now or never for our future, and you best bet that we won't back down
until we're sure of a safer, just, and sustainable world ahead.
In fact, it shouldn't be just us youth fighting for the change.
We all call this planet home.
We will all face these problems.
And the responsibility to solve them, falls on every one of us.
Every single person has an impact
on the future of our climate, ocean, and livelihood.
So what are we going to do about it?
Whether you start by refusing plastic bags,
decarbonizing your commute to work, or cutting meat out of your Monday,
there is no initial action too big or too small,
and there's definitely no better day to start than today,
on World Oceans Day.
Together we can.
Together we will.
And I'm so excited to see the future we will shape together.
Thank you.
(Applause)