olympics of mankind,
celebration of green nature
good morning, everybody!
let's start with the very simple question: do you know the tree coverage rate of beijing? well, the recent numerical value is 49.9%. it sounds much, but is there simply one tree that was planted by you? if there is, let's say you're really great. but if not believe me you are not alone cuz it's rather difficult for us students to get involved in such activities. well, i think now we all realize that all that we've done for the green is just about claiming or declaring, painting or advertising. however what i'm fully convinced is that someday ten years ago you must have stepped onto the grassland in the early spring and i'm sure that some of you (especially girls) must have unwittingly picked up dandelions by the roadside and gently blew their parachute like seeds into the fragrant breeze. by the time our lives can be counted by decades, what have we done for our mother nature?
before you get lost in speculation, please follow me and try considering some other questions: put up your hands if you have watched the olympic games? (of course you have or else you wouldn't be sitting here) nonetheless how many of you had the experience of sitting in front of the television waiting for the games of the unable people? i think now we can draw the conclusion that we concern the olympic games mostly for entertainment.
have you found out that the linkage between the olympic games and the green environment is that we almost do nothing really helpful to either of them! what now i want to tell you is very realistic i wrote them from the core of my heart so please believe me they are my true feelings.
last summer when i had just finished the high school entrance examination, i came up with the idea of not using air conditioners in that coming summer. then i had an extraordinarily hard time controlling myself and had suffered from having more than one air conditioners in sight yet cannot make use of them. every time i caught sight of them i told myself that i was doing something quite valuable. finally autumn came and to my surprise i had made it! you know how excited i was? i really felt very proud of myself. sounds ridiculous right? however, will all of you here join me to do this next year, will you? i hope so. because i feel deeply upset every time when i see my parents waste a lot of water and i don't know why i'm extremely concerned about the protection of environment and the reservation of natural resources since i was young. my mother was against me on whether to mention her in my speech nevertheless i consider it very common among you and maybe your parents. in the past i didn't dare to ask others to turn off the faucet while not using them because i was afraid of being described as stingy, am i? stinginess is to resources what responsibility is to the society. it's about time we aroused the social awareness of environment protection. doesn't the realization of our green dream and olympic dream both start from that?
because all the beautiful words seem to be so pale and feeble compared with practical actions and i don't like to say sentences like "start right from myself" so let's change it to a more romantic one: the mission of turning the green within our heart and soul into the luxuriantly green scenery out of the window is bound to cross the boundaries between nations, continents and racial groups, from olympia to the great wall and finally fall on our shoulders by the year 2008.
my favorite description of the olympic games is the celebration of mankind. but now i want to propose a small change, which is to be: olympics of mankind, celebration of green nature.
人類奧運，綠色慶典
有誰知道現在北京的森林覆蓋率是多少？最近的數字是49.9%，聽起來很多，可是在千千萬萬的樹木中有沒有一株是你貢獻的呢？沒有的話相信我你并不孤獨。因為我們為綠色做的僅限于喊喊口號， 畫畫板報而已。但是我確定，十年前的某一天，你一定無心地踏入過早春的草坪，天真無暇地在底片上拍下令人至今留戀的風景，我也猜想到你們中的一些人，至少是一部分，一定隨手掐斷過路邊的蒲公英，讓它夢幻般的種子飄散在幽香的風里。在我們的生命已經可以用十年來計算的時候，我們為綠色做過什么？
在大家陷入這個思考之前，請再跟著我想這個問題：看過奧運會的請舉手。大家都看過否則也不會來到這里，可是有多少人曾為觀看殘奧會而守在電視機前？很少，因為我們關注奧運會更多的是為了娛樂。你也許會驚訝地發現綠色與奧運就這樣被連接起來了，是被我們還幾乎什么都沒有做這種方式連接起來的。但是我要告訴大家，其實貢獻自己的一點力量，真的很容易。
去年夏天，我忽然決定不開空調， 無論多熱都不能開，為了看不到的南極的臭氧層和就在心里的自然夢想。于是我開始遭受滿眼都是空調卻不能享受清涼的煎熬。舒適明明唾手可得，但我卻告訴自己，我正在做的事情是非常有價值的。當秋天終于姍姍來遲的時候，我真的感到特別的自豪哎！聽起來有些荒謬有些可笑，可是還是挺不容易的吧！我本想號召大家加入我瘋狂的舉動可是秋天來了天氣涼了，我只有這個小小的心愿希望明年大家會這樣做，會嗎？我希望會，因為每當我看到宿舍的同學甚至家人用水浪費的時候，我都深深感到一種莫名其妙的沮喪，那是一種發自內心的難過.我想這是很普遍變得現象。也許就發生在你和你家人的身上。我曾經不敢告訴陌生人關掉不用的水龍頭，因為害怕被說成小氣多管閑事，是這樣嗎？那天晚上我獨自走在空無一人得樓道，聽到滴滴答答的水聲，像是自然的哭泣。于是我戰戰兢兢地走進黑漆漆的水房，一個個地聽取尋找漏水的管道，向開密碼鎖一樣輕輕地轉動水龍頭直到找到關緊的那一點。我感到發自內心的興奮，像完成一項重要的使命。我們的綠色之夢，奧林匹克之夢不就是這樣開始的嗎？這種對資源的小氣應該成為整個社會的"大氣"。因為所有的豪言壯語在實際行動面前都顯得那么軟弱那么蒼白。就像從我做起的號召聽起來平淡而無力一樣。我們還是換一個更浪漫一些的說法吧：將心中的綠色變成窗外的蔥蘢這樣美麗的使命，注定將在不遠的2008跨越國與國，洲與洲，種族與種族的界限，由奧林匹亞來到中國長城，最終落在你我的肩上。所以從今天開始，我們就要努力。
我最喜歡的一個對奧運的描述是：人類慶典，但是現在我想稍稍把它修改一下，我叫它：人類奧運，綠色慶典。
謝謝大家！
北京十二中 馬知遙
