Untimely typhoons, very hot summer, extremely wet rainy season, rising seawater levels and irregular pattern of migration among animals are just few of the most obvious proofs of climate change. These have led to the loss of thousands even millions of lives, properties, money and all that goes with it. Worse, it does not stop and it does not discriminate. This is not just my problem or your problem, it is OUR problem and it is our problem NOW.

“On climate change, we often don’t fully appreciate that it is a problem. We think it is a problem waiting to happen.” — Kofi Annan

Climate change is not a problem waiting to happen, the Mindanao Tri-people Youth Center Inc. have seen a lot of it catastrophic effects to think that it is so. The current profit-oriented system accelerates the deterioration of the environment leaving trails of carbon footprints in the air and poison traces on land and water. The stripping of the environment of its vitality, as we have all been witness of, is not without payment. More often than not, those who paid and are still paying dearly are only victims of the circumstances. They are not the ones who neither get maximum profit from coal-fired power plants nor are they the people who get 10,000 per hour just by virtue of owning factories. Most of the ones that are getting washed away by floods and are starved by the drought are people whose carbon contribution only constitutes of the carbon dioxide they breath out, the smoke from the fire they cook their meals in, and the emission from the vehicles they commute with (and this is to be divided among an average of ten people per ride since it is a public utility vehicle; they do not even own individual cars) that is just a grain of sand compared to the carbon emissions (among others) of a single coal-fired power plant or a car factory.

We refuse to be victims of the circumstances. We refuse to be apathetic heirs of the future. We refuse to let world leaders decide on things that will affect us without hearing our voice first. We are the future, and we will help build it in the present. In line with this, the MTPYC Inc. together with the Youth Sector of Iligan City expresses our support and participation in the People’s Climate March on September 21^st 2014 as part of the biggest ever global demonstration for climate action in history with over thousands of rallies, marches, and protests taking place on the same date. The largest will be in New York where upwards of 100,000 people are expected to come together to demand leaders take action in advance of the Ban Ki Moon climate summit that takes place two days later.

There is only one Earth, let us not destroy it!.

Mindanao Tri-People Youth Center (MTPYC) Incorporated.