Emirates Environmental Group, Dubai, has organized a Public Speaking Competition among all schools of UAE. The topic of this year was ?Technology owes ecology an apology?

As an active Youth of Tunza, dynamic environmentalist and a member of Eco Committee of my school I was accorded a chance to represent my School for the same. There was a Group of Four of us, We prepared the speech & presentation, rehearsed the same and were ready for the D-Day.

On the day of the competition, all schools delivered the speeches & presentations. It was a wonderful experience to listen to all the speakers and note the viewpoints. The knowledge was mind-blowing.

Individually, we all participate in many environmental activities across the country but when we attend & listen to such events we realize that we are capable to carry out much more diverse activities in order to conserve ecology.

To obtain electricity people started to use hydro energy but this has an adverse effect on aquatic life as well as due to increase in the temperature of water the fish and the eggs are being killed. Paper usage has multiplied many folds. A tree can produce an average of 50- 60 kg of paper. Thousands of trees are being cut to meet the gigantic production. Did u know 75,000 trees are cut to produce one weekly Sunday edition of The New York Times. Forests are therefore rapidly dwindling. Global warming has alarmingly risen. If the rate of global warming is not slowed down, Species can extinct. In effect we are pushing them off the planet. Technology has endangered the species in the habitat in which they live. Friends the world is your hand and its? time to nurture the environment in which you live.

Our action should be to use both sides of paper. Give paper for recycling. We may cut down the use of paper by using E-mail etc. Offices can also go paperless. This will save a lot. Newspapers should also focus more on e- editions. Make it more attractive & announce prizes for active e-paper readers.

Its? your call. You cannot not get through a single day without having an impact on the world around you. What you do, makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. And this is the difference that has prompted many organizations and government authorities to wake up and smell the coffee. We generate our own environment. We get exactly what we deserve. How can we resent a life we've created ourselves? Who's to blame, who's to credit but us? Who can change it, anytime we wish, but us? Technology... is a queer thing. It brings you great gifts with one hand, and it stabs you in the back with the other. Technology owes ecology an apology.