The only 10-year challenge that should matter

Yeru Ebuen -
yru.weekend@gmail.com -

It’s been a while since I last made a new year’s resolution. It makes me wonder if there’s still anyone out there who does but from among my close friends, this is a tradition they’ve totally moved away from.

If I am to make a new year’s resolution though, there’s one thing that I can guarantee I will be able to do and that is to cut my carbon footprint and by extension, limit my use of environmental contaminants like plastic and lower the amount of food I waste.

I spent almost half of my month-long vacation on a beautiful island where the use of plastic came with hefty fines and discouraging penalty. While the measure was met initially with strong disagreement especially from business owners, the overwhelming majority of the islanders however found the measure necessary to protect the environment for the future generation.

The island name was Siquijor located in Central Philippines. Walking on many of its still pristine white sand beaches, the people of the island are aware that although it is referred to as Isla de Fuego y Magia (or Island of Fire and Magic) no amount of fire or magic can deter or fight the impending threat of climate change and human waste.

Today, going around the island, one is forced to carry eco-bags because stores, whatever it is you buy, will wrap things with paper. So buying fish and other wet items are quite challenging but whenever there’s will, people find ways. Although it’s still in the early months of its implementation, I can, however, already imagine how much the local government effort will have a life-long impact on everyone’s lives.

This new year’s resolution was even made stronger when the #10yearchallenge became a trend on social media.

The trend, briefly described, is posting a photo of yourself in 2009 and 2019. It allows you and the people who see the photo to identify what has changed and while it felt like a total narcissistic move, boosting one’s confidence doesn’t really hurt anyone physically.

While posts like this inundated my social media timeline and are often ignored, a few posts managed to catch my attention.

For instance, one friend posted an alarming photo contrasting the underwater world of Indonesia in 2009 and in 2019. The 2009 photo showed a plastic-free ocean while the 2019 one was filled with plastic trash.

This friend shared that the only #10yearchallenge that should matter the most is the one that is greatly affecting the world we live in.

This “woke” post was soon followed by other environment-conscious accounts that I followed. One posted a photo of a healthy polar bear contrasted with how it looked like in 2019 — thin and dying. Others posted of how in 2009, some animals are still thriving but yet by 2019, many of them were already listed as endangered in status.

So although I am not a ‘new year’s resolution’ kind of person, I decided to make one for this year.

While my effort may not make a lot of impact, my hope is to convince at least one more person to do the same. That makes two people who would hopefully convince some more until the resolution to #SaveTheEnvironment not just become a social media trend, but a reality.