Good Morning to all those present here. I?m here to speak bout yet another burning issue that has the potential to change the world. So bear with me.

I?m not Ban Ki Moon, I?m just a student, so I don?t have the immense power  to make international decisions, but being an asset to the country we, the public, can make sure that we take small steps that will in turn help reducing the global problems, because we don?t start running as soon as we?re born. We learn to stand, then we learn to walk, and then we run. Here, learning to stand means identifying the problems, learning to walk means to make small measures that will help in the bigger cause and running means to take the measures to start the solution globally. We?ve already identified the problems, now instead of taking it globally we start locally, slowly finding the solution to the problems within ourselves.

Let us take the example of a recent event that took place which served as a small solution to a worldwide problem, The Earth Hour initiative. People may think, ?How would going an hour without electricity solve the global problem of energy scarcity?? But it does, it makes all the difference, the whole Downtown Dubai went without using electricity for a whole hour. That is a sign that a small action can make all the difference to a global problem, that there is still hope for the earth.

Waste disposal is yet another problem that is faced by the world. Many countries are facing the problem that they don?t have any more land for waste disposal. The area taken up by landfills are an astounding 10,000 square miles! But this problem is being solved locally, the organization Bee?ah which is the Middle east?s leading and award-winning fully integrated environment and waste Management Company. It has done such a magnificent job and its various projects have made a huge difference in reducing the waste disposal problem. Bee?ah aims to make Sharjah a landfill free emirate by 2015 and for that they started grouping materials into bundles for sending into factories for recycling. Also, there is sorting of wastes at both the domestic, school and industrial levels.

Most of the people are not able to spend a part of their time for the environment. There is a huge notion that the responsibility of saving the planet is a responsibility of a few environmental organizations and the government. That notion has to change. We must realize that saving the environment is a part and parcel of our lives. We have to pass many layers to get people to realize the importance of saving the environment, but once they are on board, then it is a huge achievement.

Then comes the water crisis, this is yet another increasing problem in the recent times, many countries don?t get enough amount of water fit for drinking, some don?t get water for irrigation, and the others suffer without water for any use. This is one of the most critical problems of the world as water is something that is used mutually by all people of the world. But the Dubai and Sharjah electricity and water authority have found a way to reduce the amount of water used for industrial as well as domestic use. They have taken up the method of using wastewater that has been used in the home, excluding the water used in washing machines, toilet and from the kitchen sink. This is called Grey Water Treatment.

The ozone problem is also very important. There is about a 4% decrease in the total volume of the total ozone layer every decade. Chlorofluorocarbons are the main reason for this, these are used in every day appliances making it impossible to not to use it. But there are many local solutions for this, some of them are using eco friendly appliances which do not use CFCs? and planting more and more trees. Global warming is maybe one environmental problem that every one knows about. Global warming is the increase in the temperature of the atmosphere and oceans. It is increasing due to the increase in the CO2 amount in the atmosphere. We can fight this locally by using CFLs in place of the normal light bulbs we use, we can also try to reduce the use of hot water, we can by recycling and reusing the paper and plastic products. 

We have taken many initiatives as part of our Eco-Club we organized a can collection drive and participated in the EEG clean up campaign. We also encouraged the students to use eco friendly bins made out of recycled material from which the paper deposited would be recycled. We organized a earth hour awareness in Sharjah Mega Mall in 2012 and 2013, we made clothes made of fibers which is made of recycled plastic materials. We also conducted a Best of out of Waste competition in which students competed to make useful items out of recyclable materials.

You don't have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. A decision made in an international level need not be successful in all parts of the world, but when we deal these problems locally the chances of it turning out to be the ideal solution to it are very high. No contribution is small, every action taken by us to help the environment has its own value, because an ideal world for living is everyone?s right.

Thank You.