第24届中国日报社“21世纪•可口可乐杯”全国英语演讲比赛季军袁嘉茵演讲视频
袁嘉茵：厦门大学，第二十四届中国日报社“21世纪•可口可乐杯”全国英语演讲比赛季军。


演讲稿：

                         The “Wondering” Earth

Ladies and gentlemen, good morning. The sphere is enclosed by an enormous icy cabin, shrouded in perpetual darkness. From what could be vaguely identified as the sky dome, there is a giant, terrifying “eye”, indifferently glaring at what remained on the dying planet. That is the Jupiter, and it’s about to declare the extinction of a civilization.
 
This is an image depicted in The Wandering Earth, a movie that grossed $300 million in China during its opening week alone. Audiences were amazed by the thrilling technology and ingenious design, but few have realized that this fictional tale could wind up being very similar to our own fate.
 
Yes, it will take another billions of years [it will take billions more years] for our sun to age and decay, and ‘til then people might come up with a much more feasible solution than wandering with the Earth. Yet long before this could even happen, the Earth might have already been destroyed thousands of times over thanks to the accumulation of our deeds. We cannot trace back to the origin of this vicious cycle, but undoubtedly, we are inseparably linked to it.
 
Our planet is warming with devastating consequences. Now be it optimistic or not, that is an acknowledged fact which is impacting the life and death of numerable species, right here, right now. According to the survey released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, more than 15,000 endangered species are on the brink of dying out. Compared to that of natural elimination, the speed of extinction has rocketed to 1000 times faster. We have come to an epoch which is entitled with a shuddering name: The Mass Extinction.
 
The good news, however, is that oftentimes, after having exhausted every other option, we tend to do what is right, and that is the time when the solidarity of humans falls into place, as what Rousseau had foreseen more than two centuries ago. “Men cannot generate new strength, but only unify and control powers already existing, and the totality of forces can be formed only by the collaboration of a number of persons.”
 
By the end of The Wandering Earth, the only light comes from the plasma beams of countless engines. They are powered by people who are burning out every minute of their own lives, staggering to light up every chance of survival for humanity. They speak different languages; they belong to different ethnicities; they once served different nations and governments; but now, they gather and strive for the common goal: existence.
 
That is a predictable future of us. Humans will ultimately join together as a whole when an external force is powerful enough to destroy our species. But our destiny should never end in this way. Our unity shall never be postponed ‘til the overnight of our doomsday. Our unity shall never be disaster-prone.
 
On the 2018 United Nations Climate Change Conference, there’s a 15-year-old Swedish girl, Greta Thunberg, who called to an action to the global society. “Until you start focusing on what needs to be done instead of what is politically possible, there is no hope. We cannot solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis. We have run out of excuses and we are running out of time.”
 
Let Greta’s words echo here today. Let every nation pay respect and responsibility to the shared destiny of mankind; let substantial collaboration happen and make a difference; let the “Wandering Earth” become the “Wondering Earth”, shining glamorously in the universe.
 
Thank you very much.