The Green War

[Music]

how is it possible

that the most intelligent creature to

ever walk the planet is destroying its

only home

i see myself as the girl next door who’s

just a tad unsure

about the idea of an exhausted art

an exhausted mother with a little me

means big task ahead

but i also see dangerous possibilities

that blind my focus from her beauty and

strength

art which is a home to all of us is

supposed to be beautiful

but our actions have made it ugly

a mother having 10 children with nine of

them mistreat her

can be compared to the number of the

people responsible for the planet’s

destruction

versus the few people struggling to

protect it

and quebec from the same mother are

expected to live happily

but human beings are killing and

poaching

their brothers and sisters from the same

mother

mother earth

millions of species are at a risk of

extinction

and suggests that we are in the middle

of the six months

extinction caused by human activities

scientists are also warning that by 2030

will have the worst impacts of climate

change

and that means you only have nine years

to act right

so that we can prevent the worst impacts

of climate change

and for me conservation is not about the

next generation

it is about my generation first and then

the next generation

because in 2030 i’ll be 30 years old

three years ago i decided to dedicate

all my birthdays

to growing back the trees that my

community had lost

this is when i turned 18. i also decided

to educate them on the importance of

conservation

and so far with the help of my team

we’ve been able to plant

three thousand trees plus

in my community a lot of people are

still using firewood

because they do not understand that we

have alternative sources of fuel

and the few people who understand this

look at these alternative sources of

fail as expensive

and this is leading to mass

deforestation

i’m scared because the jungle i played

in as a child is quickly disappearing

i’m afraid my children may have to walk

miles and miles and mouth

before finding a single tree i remember

swimming in the great mara river and

every time we had too much

rain we could not even cross the river

today as we speak the river is turning

seasonal

people are crossing the river without

necessarily having to use the bridge

this is because small forest which is

the source is in danger

forests are the lungs of the earth

and destroying these forests is like

when you have

lung problems and it affects your entire

body

i’m passionate about environment

conservation especially the advocacy

part in the tree growing parts

i do not have any educational background

on the same and that does not make me

environmentally unconscious

at all because i believe that the only

qualification you need for you

to conserve the environment is the fact

that you live on this planet

i remember in high school we used to

plant trees and participate in a lot of

community projects

and at that time i did not understand

what planting trees was

i was planting trees because anita is a

scout

and scouts are planting trees and i did

not come here to lie to you that

i started planting trees at the age of

three or at the age of four i knew about

climate change meant

after my high school i had too much time

before joining university

and at this moment i realized i wanted

to discover my purpose as early as 17.

i joined a lot of mentorship programs

and after being mentored i realized i

just wanted to be a social change

catalyst in the society social change

activists

but then i came across the sustainable

development goals

at this point i came across zero hunger

not to poverty

and i was confused so which one am i

going for

but then again as i continued reading

about the sustainable development goals

i came across sdg 13 which is climate

action and at this point

i learned about global warming climate

crisis

climate emergency climate action

and as one guy madai puts it

we tend to put the environment last

because we think we need to eradicate

poverty fast

but what we are forgetting is we are not

eradicating poverty in vacuum

we are doing it in an environment so

this is when i realized

this is the path i was going to take

environment conservation

but then again looking at this giant

climate crisis climate change

i realized i was not going to do it

alone

and the secret is leaving no one behind

so i decided to come up with a movement

of young people

who are interested in the same just like

me did not

have any educational background on the

same this is what they put from my

social media platforms

huckle tell me hi anita i see you

planting trees can i join you

and still at that time they just wanted

to plant trees with me

but did not understand why they were

planting trees and so i brought them

together and educated them

on why the environment fast

why the young people and why now

this is war the earth is under attack

and has been struggling to put up a good

fight

but the bad guys are getting smarter

we have different tools when it comes to

environment conservation

walls that deplete resources and cause

irreversible pollution

environmental activism that saw the

likes of my role model when gary mother

tortured and abused

then of course we have green washing by

companies that tend to pretend

to be environmentally conscious

with their products full of recycling

signs yet we still find these products

in the landfills and in the water bodies

meaning they have no plans to take back

their products for recycling

imagine yourself putting on a mask and

this time

not because of covet 19 or other related

diseases

air pollution air pollution kills a lot

of people worldwide

and in 2019 millions of deaths in india

were attributed to air pollution and

this was like

one in five people

in urban cities like nairobi where we

have a lot of emissions from

vehicles and industries we have the

cutting of trees

as well and these trees are being cut to

pave way for

roads they call development the same

trees are cut to pave way for lifeless

billboards people have started to

experience this and people have started

feeling that the air gets worse every

other day

the people that contribute less to

climate change are affected the more

countries have started experiencing this

evidence through floods

droughts changing weather patterns and

rainfall distribution and all this

is a threat to human health

food security there is no water

social and economic development

when we talk about changing weather

patterns

this means the farmer is affected

farmers

no longer know what to farm next

after harvest and when the farmer is

affected it means the food

is the food production is affected when

food production is affected

the food consumer is affected the food

con who’s the food consumer

we are not spared either

few months ago the lakes in the rift

valley started rising

lake bulgoria and lake baringo which are

1.5 1.25 miles apart are about to meet

these lakes are salty water lake and

freshwater lake respectively that means

there will be a lot of contamination and

aquatic life is going to be affected

a lot of people are displaced

there has been destruction of hospitals

schools

churches homes and the people

affected directly are now starting

to be scared they do not know what will

happen to them next

in the case of droughts we’ve seen wild

animals such as elephants and lions

leaving their places

in touch of water and this is causing

human wildlife conflict

what annoys me the most is the fact that

these people living around conservancies

and national parks

are the same people who play a very big

role in conservation

yet they are the first people to feel

the effects of climate change

africa emits less greenhouse gases

but we are the same people with

inadequate resources and capacity to

build resilience as we deal with this

monster

while we have a lot of conferences

talking about how africa is affected

just like we have a lot of conferences

full of old people speaking about how we

young people are affected

then we have the seemingly unseen war

from few people who are trying to change

this few people who are trying to make

the environment cleaner and greener

be it an unknown student somewhere

trying to change their lifestyle

or somebody from a high policy changing

position

we all can do something to tip the

scales

five years ago one leader signed an

agreement

which was meant to keep the temperatures

well below 1.5 degrees

they agreed to to hold the temperature

increase

well below 2 degrees celsius right now

we have we are at 1.2 degrees celsius

which is too much

the planet is getting hotter and hotter

every day too much for me

it’s too much for africa and for sure

too much for the world

in the words of this month to 25 years

ago people could be excused from not

knowing much and doing much about

climate change

but today we have no excuse we need

action now

kusama we need to start applying the

three hours

reuse reduce and recycle and i’m even

thinking we need to start

refusing environmentally and friendly

products and services

with alternatives i still insist

we as your children are starting to feel

your betrayal

our mistakes as your children are your

responsibilities as our parents

the personality of the future generation

depends on your action

what if the people in charge of

environmental policies were really

interested in environment and its

protection

i’m sure we could have entrusted them to

work on the policies

to make the planet better what if every

lawmaker were educated about the

environment

and why we need to protect it they will

make

laws that enable human beings to live

happily as we protect the environment

today and tomorrow

and what if everyone leader acknowledged

that we are in the middle of a crisis

and treat

this as a crisis it is

i could probably have hope that my

future is not

threatened anymore

how is it possible

that the world most intelligent creature

to work this planet it’s destroying its

only home

thank you