When you are little, it's not hard to believe you can change the world. I remember my enthusiasm when, at the age of 12, I addressed the delegates at the Rio Earth Summit.I spoke for six minutes and received a standing ovation. Some of the delegates even cried. I thought that maybe I had reached some of them, that my speech might actually spur action. Now, a decade from Rio, after I've sat through many more conferences, I'm not sure what has been accomplished. My confidence in the people in power and in the power of an individual's voice to reach them has been deeply shaken.

When I was little, the world was simple. But as a young adult, I'm learning that as we have to make choices—education, career, lifestyle—life gets more and more complicated. We are beginning to feel pressure to produce and be successful. We are learning a shortsighted way of looking at the future, focusing on four-year government terms and quarterly business reports. We are taught that economic growth is progress, but we aren't taught how to pursue a happy, healthy or sustainable way of living. And we are learning that what we wanted for our future when we were 12 was idealistic and naive.

Today I'm no longer a child, but I'm worried about what kind of environment my children will grow up in. What we must really be about is responsibility—not only government responsibility but personal responsibility. We are not cleaning up our own mess. We are not facing up to the price of our lifestyles. In Canada we know we are wiping out the salmon of the West Coast, just as we wiped out cod from the East Coast, but we continue overfishing. We keep driving our SUVs in the city, even though we are starting to feel the effects of climate change—a direct result of burning too much fossil fuel.

Real environmental change depends on us. We can't wait for our leaders. We have to focus on what our own responsibilities are and how we can make the change happen.

Before graduating from college I worked with the Yale Student Environmental Coalition to draft a pledge for young people to sign. Called "the Recognition of Responsibility", the pledge is a commitment from our generation to be accountable and a challenge to our elders to help us achieve this goal and to lead by example. It includes a list of ways to live more sustainably—simple but fundamental things like reducing household garbage, consuming less, not relying on cars so much, eating locally grown food, carrying a reusable cup and, most important, getting out into nature.

As Gandhi said many years ago, "We must become the change we want to see." I know change is possible, because I am changing, still figuring out what I think. I am still deciding how to live my life. The challenges are great, but if we accept individual responsibility and make sustainable choice we will rise to the challenge and we will become part of the positive tide of change.

The rapid pace of technology and population growth is placing unrelenting pressure on the world’s natural resources. Many of our natural systems have been pushed to the breaking point.

The build-up of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases from the burning of fossil fuel is changing the planet’s natural systems, upon which all life depends. Overfishing and pollution have ravaged the oceans, leaving commercial fisheries at the point of collapse. On land, areas that have not been inalterably changed by human civilization are under increasing stress from activities ranging from logging and mining to agriculture and development.

 

第二篇：英语演讲稿 环境保护

Dear headmasters,teachers,classmates and friends:

I’m very proud that I have chosen to speak to you all today, I’m a bit nervous as I’ve never made a speech before to so many people ,so please forgive me if it shows.

As we all know,the environmemt around us is getting worse and worse .In some places we can’t see fish swimming in the river or trees on the hills. Some people even have no clean water to drink. So I think we must do something to protect the environment. .But what can we do? How to protect our environmemt? For example, we can go to school on foot or by bike . we can use shopping basskets not plastic bags .when we go shopping and we can use both sides of the paper when we write .In a word ,if everyone pays more attention to our environment ,there will be less pollution and our life will be better.

“There is only one earth”,I hope everyone will protect our environment well. Thanks!

亲爱的校长、老师、同学和朋友:

今天，我很自豪的是,我已经选择与你说话，我有一点紧张, 我从来没有在这么多人面前讲话，就请原谅我是否会表现出来的。

我们都知道,我们周围的环境越来越糟了,在某些地方,我们不能看到鱼在河里游泳或树木在小山。一些人甚至没有干净的水喝。所以我认为我们必须做些什么来保护环境。,但是我们

能做些什么呢?如何保护环境吗?比如,我们可以上学步行或者骑自行车。当我们去买东西时，我们可以用购物袋, 当我们写东西时，这张纸两面都可以用。总之,如果每个人都非常重视对我们的环境、污染就越少,我们的生活将会是比较好的。

“只有一个地球”,希望每个人都能保护我们的环境。谢谢!

The earth scale change of climate has brought a new kind of natural disaster and the developed and complicated city system is holding a latent risk of expanding the damage artificially. Also people has been spoiling the health since the immense quantity of chemicals have been produced and already used in pursuit of convenience and various toxic substances have been produced unintentionally and accumulated in environment. Therefore, We need some countermeasures from the viewpoint to prevent the city

environment form disaster and to manage environmental risks. So we will develop and improve a new risk management system and a disaster

prevention system to preserve and create the city environment where people feel easy and sound in their life.

地球规模气候的变化带来了一种新型的自然灾害和发达和复杂的城市体系,手里拿着一个潜在风险扩大伤害人工。同时,人们已经弄坏了健康的化学品的数量巨大以来,已经产生了使用方便、追求生产各种有毒物品堆积,无心环境。因此,我们需要一些解决这些问题的观点来防止城市环境形成灾难和管理环境风险。我们将开发和改进的新的风险的管理制度和防灾系统维护并创造城市环境,让大家感到轻松,声音,在他们的生活。

Some people believe that economic development should never be at the cost of the environment. They think the present serious environmental problems are largely caused by rapid?economic development. For example, land resources are shrinking because of the industrial development and the expansion of cities. Deserts are spreading because of over grazing, poor fanning, tree cutting, and strip mining. Our air and water supplies are being polluted by poisonous gassesand waste products. It is important, therefore, that we should take another look at the way in which our industries and cities are developing. However, other people think it unnecessary to consider environmental problems now and our first priority should always be given to economic development. They believe that environmental problems are

inevitable and unavoidable in the process of economic development. They are only the by products of economic development, which can be dealt with later when we have the time and money.

I think the second idea is completelywrong. Our ultimate aim in economic

development is to provide a comfortable and happy life for our people. What is the point of economic development if we achieve it at the cost of our

environment? There has been much evidence to prove that a balance between the two helps more rapid and continuous development.

有些人认为经济发展不应该在环境为代价。他们认为目前的严重的环境问题在很大程度上是造成快速?经济发展。例如,土地资源正在收缩因为产业发展和扩展的城市。沙漠是传播因为过度放牧,可怜的耕作、树切割、、剥去挖掘。我们的空气和水的供应是被污染有毒废物。它是很重要的,因此,我们应该再看我们的工业和城市发展。

然而,另一些人认为没有必要去考虑环境问题了,我们的第一要务应该给经济发展。他们认为,环境问题是必然的,不可避免的出现在中国经济发展过程中。他们只的经济发展的产品都可以办理后当我们有时间和金钱。我认为第二次的想法是completelywrong。我们的最终目标在经济发展是提供一个舒适和快乐为了我们的生活的人。有什么意义,如果我们实现经济发展为代价的环境?已经有很多证据来证明这两方面的平衡帮助更多的持续快速发