Madeleine Lee, age 9 Environment Champion Award Speech

Forty-five years ago in America, the first Earth Day was celebrated. And now today we realize we depend on the Earth to live. Everyone has the ability to recycle, reuse, and reduce, able to lighten the load to the landfill. If we do this, we can lower global warming, save animals from food poisoning, reduce trash from the oceans, and having a cleaner and greener community. It is extra important now because the landfill is filling up. But we should always make wise decisions about where our trash goes so we don't run into these kinds of problems. As humans, it's our responsibility to see that the Earth doesn't get thrown away. If we don't, the greenhouse effect would be stronger than ever, causing more extended droughts and floods, making survival tougher for all forms of life. We owe it all to the Big Bang for making Earth perfect. We have the right sized planet and sun, the right distance from the sun, and water. 30 million species live on Earth, using these things to survive. It is very rare to have a perfect planet, so wasting it is a bad idea.

We can go back to how we were-reducing, reusing and recycling. Because we are throwing everything we have away now. The universe is expanding, but sadly Earth can't too. We have too many people. We've reached a population of 6 billion in October 1999. It's possible to turn back and once again have 9 billion people on Earth...and share some space with animals.

Even the simplest things can save animals...save Earth...and save-us:

• Using less electricity reduces air pollution.

• So does driving a car less often. ( this doesn't mean to walk 20 miles to work everyday).

• Fixing a leaky faucet also helps. Remember, 3% of Earths water is freshwater, and in all that, 1% is drinkable.

Global warming is very important. It melts the poles, ruins natures route, like flowers blooming a week earlier, and makes birds go to higher altitudes. It also moves animals, like seeing a robin in the Canadian Arctic. ( this really is happening ).

No matter who you are, if we work together, we can change the world. Thank you for this award.