Am luat premiul II la Concursul de discursuri în engleză(faza regională) cu discursul de mai jos. După ce am mers prin toate gropile posibile de pe drumurile patriei, am ajuns la Constanţa...Aleluia!!! Deşi am mers cu un microbuz, zgâlţâiturile mi-au amintit de călătoria cu Rata. Ce vremuri....
Apoi am aşteptat ore bune ascultând vorbele unora şi altora, până mi-a venit şi mie rândul. Oboseala, căldura înăbuşitoare din sală nu mai contau când am rostit :
Freeze for a second your surroundings: plants with or without flowers, birds, mammals, insects, all are part of human daily life and all have the same level of organization of the body. They are our world as we know it.But if we go back in time 200 million years ago, we would find a completely different world: no birds and mammals, no flowers, only reptiles, waters full of fish of all sizes and shapes. And now, let’s make a leap of over 200 million years into the future! What will the world look like? Will we step on solid ground or sink into a boundless ocean? Will we admire the same plants as those of today? Will we freeze to death or melt because of the heat? Will we be like people of today or will we be transformed? You must have asked yourself such questions at some point , you must have speculated about the future of our world, of our species.My purpose today is to convince you that there is no need to worry about our planet, that life will find a way….
I will try to build a view of a far, far away future, where man is a recently extinct species and nature has remained victorious. In the silence of the cathedral of a pristine forest a song breaks out. Is it a bird hidden in the bushes, trying to attract attention? A fluttering of wings is followed by a new thrilling song. A witness - if there were one - would have an incredible experience : the emergence of a flying red-billed, yellow- winged and scale- covered creature . Some kind of forest- fish-birds have detached from the branches of a tree to search for a new place to feed. These extraordinary beings are a new demonstration of the success of life. Life goes on. Fish have left the water and will join the new world, a world without humans. They will appear as beings with the ability of flying. It is likely that in the future, long after the extinction of the human race, the fish will become the next class of beings that will dominate with their intelligence life on Earth.
There is no doubt that you will have difficulties believing such predictions, as long as you can’t witness the events of such a distant future. And perhaps…….you don’t really care about a future time so extremely distant. Why don’t we speculate on our nearer, more disturbing future? For the near future, there is a range of extinction scenarios! Take your pick! There are two man-caused extinction scenari os: catastrophic climate change due to irresponsible technological progress and nuclear annihilation due to irresponsible pursuit of power; and there are several natural ones: asteroid impact ( sounds familiar but we seem to be in for a date with an asteroid soon!) , large-scale volcanism and the coming of a new glacial era which will affect the human species and perhaps send us back to the caves. In this harsh climate only a few species of mammals will survive, those capable of living in those very different habitats. These versatile living creatures could be rodents, perhaps descendants of the marmots of today.
All natural scenarios have occurred repeatedly in the geologic past and there is no reason to consider them unlikely in the future. As for the man-caused ones, we know about the cyclic development of civilizations, we know how greedy and selfish we can be. As technology develops, there is a possibility that humans may be deliberately destroyed by theie own actions.
Now that you are scared stiff let me reassure you: this gloomy picture is balanced by the possibility that technological advancement may resolve or prevent potential extinction scenarios. Mankind may, as it has before, stop on the brink of the abyss and redress itself. Except, this time it is not the existence of one civilization that is at stake, but that of mankind itself.
By now, I hope you realized that I was being ironical when I said, at the beginning of my speech, that we don’t need to worry, that life will find a way.I hope you do agree that this is exactly what we must do: worry, worry a lot, wake up and prepare. There is still time to prevent most of the horror scenarios I mentioned before. The right combination of science and global awareness can see us through. The realization that we are one species may be the revelation that brings us all together as saviour of our world!
In the end, this is what I want to leave you with: the realization that we, the next generation, must be the agents of this moral awakening! And all that, unless an unexpected disaster hits Earth today, tomorrow... in which case everything I have said is no more than a story to scare helpless children.
I will try to build a view of a far, far away future, where man is a recently extinct species and nature has remained victorious. In the silence of the cathedral of a pristine forest a song breaks out. Is it a bird hidden in the bushes, trying to attract attention? A fluttering of wings is followed by a new thrilling song. A witness - if there were one - would have an incredible experience : the emergence of a flying red-billed, yellow- winged and scale- covered creature . Some kind of forest- fish-birds have detached from the branches of a tree to search for a new place to feed. These extraordinary beings are a new demonstration of the success of life. Life goes on. Fish have left the water and will join the new world, a world without humans. They will appear as beings with the ability of flying. It is likely that in the future, long after the extinction of the human race, the fish will become the next class of beings that will dominate with their intelligence life on Earth.
There is no doubt that you will have difficulties believing such predictions, as long as you can’t witness the events of such a distant future. And perhaps…….you don’t really care about a future time so extremely distant. Why don’t we speculate on our nearer, more disturbing future? For the near future, there is a range of extinction scenarios! Take your pick! There are two man-caused extinction scenari os: catastrophic climate change due to irresponsible technological progress and nuclear annihilation due to irresponsible pursuit of power; and there are several natural ones: asteroid impact ( sounds familiar but we seem to be in for a date with an asteroid soon!) , large-scale volcanism and the coming of a new glacial era which will affect the human species and perhaps send us back to the caves. In this harsh climate only a few species of mammals will survive, those capable of living in those very different habitats. These versatile living creatures could be rodents, perhaps descendants of the marmots of today.
All natural scenarios have occurred repeatedly in the geologic past and there is no reason to consider them unlikely in the future. As for the man-caused ones, we know about the cyclic development of civilizations, we know how greedy and selfish we can be. As technology develops, there is a possibility that humans may be deliberately destroyed by theie own actions.
Now that you are scared stiff let me reassure you: this gloomy picture is balanced by the possibility that technological advancement may resolve or prevent potential extinction scenarios. Mankind may, as it has before, stop on the brink of the abyss and redress itself. Except, this time it is not the existence of one civilization that is at stake, but that of mankind itself.
By now, I hope you realized that I was being ironical when I said, at the beginning of my speech, that we don’t need to worry, that life will find a way.I hope you do agree that this is exactly what we must do: worry, worry a lot, wake up and prepare. There is still time to prevent most of the horror scenarios I mentioned before. The right combination of science and global awareness can see us through. The realization that we are one species may be the revelation that brings us all together as saviour of our world!
In the end, this is what I want to leave you with: the realization that we, the next generation, must be the agents of this moral awakening! And all that, unless an unexpected disaster hits Earth today, tomorrow... in which case everything I have said is no more than a story to scare helpless children.
