I am an Earth Warrior - My Climate Story

My climate story is not all about disasters or devastation created by natural climate in our world. It is somehow a very positive and, for me, a very meaningful story. But first let me introduce myself, I am Daniel Agan from the Philippines. I am currently living in Iloilo City, an Ilonggo. I am representing Youth Proyekto Philippines and its mission which is to continuously create innovative and sustainable projects for our Environment and the Humanity.

To start my simple climate story. Let me share one more thing, a phrase actually. “Doing environmental actions are hard and it takes a lot of time, but doing it little by little we could able to protect and preserve our only home, the Earth.” I am not going to explain that but that is actually my climate story.

I actually heard stories about climate change, global warming, the ice is melting, the sea level is increasing, etc. way back 2014 or even before that. I am concerned but I am not that concerned that very moment. First, I don’t know what are those. Why would I be concerned? My only concern those days was how I can promote entrepreneurship to young individuals. I am graduate of Commerce by the way and it is too far from being a climate reality leader, right?

That’s me way back years and until then everything changes when I chose to join Mister Earth Philippines. At first, it was just only to represent Iloilo City. I am not famous. I just want to represent Iloilo City just to let the whole nation know that Iloilo City too is competitive in national pageantry. Yes, I am a product of a pageantry and I am not ashamed of being one. I am even proud because it changed me a lot. We just have to change our perspective about it and it will surely give you a platform where you can really express your self and even expand the horizon of your voice. A platform too where people could see a variety of advocacies participants are believing in and where people could get inspirations and knowledge.

Then, there, I thought I will just walk through the ramp, maintain my composure and radiate confidence to the audiences. My nerve got tensed to know that part of the pageant’s requirements is to have an environmental advocacy. How am I supposed to do it? I kept thinking and the idea that didn’t go away from my mind is “Do it, Daniel! This is for Iloilo City!”. Until, cling! Revising my idea of “making young individuals to become entrepreneurs” into “making young individuals to become environmental leaders”.

I created a proposal for my advocacy just for a compliance and in order to be one of the participants. My advocacy is Youth Environment Support, YES you can! This is all about gathering youth and train them to become Earth Warriors. I just have created a remarkable advocacy, haven’t I? Since I have the idea that making proposals should have an edge and a differentiation, I chose to implement it so I could present a solid advocacy to the panel. Then, there, everything is all about environment.

To gain knowledge about environment, I researched about it via internet and even ask help from the government agencies related to environment to give me resources about it. I also reached out non-governmental organizations, to help me understand more. With all the time I spent, I found myself thinking what I have done. I am already 28 years old at that time and I felt guilty that those years, long years of existence, I have not done anything to help mitigate climate change to protect and preserve our environment, our Earth.

With all the idea that I have, there and then, I pledged myself to do climate and environmental actions and promote it to increase awareness to make people concerned more about our environment. Just like I am before, without the knowledge of what is happening, no one will be concerned. With my advocacy, I created activities where I gather young individuals to educate them about climate and environment and train them to become earth Warriors. I also reached out some climate leaders, environmental advocates and experts to help me implement my activities.

Implementing a project is not easy. It is harder than making proposals. When I outsourced my project, looked for partners and called for sponsors, I encountered a lot of encouragements and rejections. No matter how good proposals are or how great your projects are, you would still face the things you couldn’t imagine you would face. Even during the implementation, only few participated the activities. We are only eight (8) including me. This is for our Environment and why this is happening. There are still people really don’t care or even have the interest to help. But on the other side of my mind, as a positive note, maybe I just have a wrong approach of asking for help and reaching out participants. But no, despite changing the approach, encouragements and rejections are still there. It hurts but I chose to embrace the fact, that maybe encouragements and rejections are always part of the path a great leader should take.

At the finals of Mister Earth Philippines, I brought with me my advocacy and all the experiences. I was so happy to see how amazed the panel is and even encouraged me to continue what I did. Then and there, I promised no matter what happen that I will continue what I’ve started. Encouraged and motivated to do more climate and environmental actions to intensify the awareness.

The final question was “What is the real heart of serving our Mother Nature?” and my answer was “We need someone to give us constant orientation and education about environmental welfare, we need someone who will remind us on how to protect and save our Mother Nature. Mister Earth ambassador is a person who will continue to create environmental advocacies no matter what just to achieve all environmental activities. He is person who does not stop believing that Our Earth is Our Home and he is also a person who will not just listen the talk, talk the talk but ACT THE TALK”

At the end and with all the hardships, I was crowned as one of the elemental kings.