Mika Lopez wins NOVUS Case Competition's Advocacy Award

Ateneo de Manila Senior High School student Mika Lopez (11-Nakaura) emerged as the Advocacy Award winner of the NOVUS Case Competition’s Spoken Word Category. The competition was held at De La Salle University’s Bonifacio Global City campus in Taguig on February 18, 2023.

Here is Mika’s award-winning poem:

PAGKAWASAK

By Mika Lopez

[INTRO]

In 2016, over a thousand fish died in Hampton Bay Long Island, upon comprehensive examination it was concluded that they died due to the OXYGEN levels in the water being too low.

4 years later…

2020 was one of the hottest years ever on record,

2021 sea levels rose at over double its average rate,

Over 66 thousand fires were recorded in 2022,

2023 has only just begun, but is projected to be among the warmest years ever.

[POEM START]

Despite our vows to abate this OMNIPRESENT climate crisis,

The echoes of the hollow promises resound as our inaction persists.

CO2 records have gradually increased since 1950 and haven’t changed,

While we dance a CALLOUS WALTZ with nature, and partake in this

EXACERBATED cruel exchange.

WE set ABLAZE fossil fuels, the REMAINS of ancient life to power our world, while preaching “LESS IS MORE” and “DOING MORE WITH LESS”, but what have we truly accomplished, other than scorching the earth’s MEMORIES and leaving behind a trail of SMOKE and ASHES.

What really hurts me is the fact that WE still have the impertinence and the audacity to call all this DESTRUCTION, PROGRESS.

We CUT down trees to turn into paper and then write “SAVE THE TREES” on it, isn’t that ironic? 

We use that same paper to MAKE BILLS so we can PAY the BILLS, don't you see the irony?

We paint a warped image of NATURE on the CORPSES of TREES and call it ART

While we amplify DESTRUCTION through INDUSTRIALISM’S TROPHIC CASCADE.

You see, most of us always put in our MOUTHS more than we can CHEW,

We are so blinded by our focus on the present that it obscures our perception of the things around us.

Thousands of people lose their homes to floods caused by rising sea levels,

And there’s no such thing as a NATURAL DISASTER so NATURE isn’t the one to blame.

We decimate lush forests, contaminate crystal clear oceans, extinguish wildlife, and excavate mines,

We are so fiercely protective over MATERIAL things that we call OURS,

But isn’t mother earth OURS too? - TAKE care of,

Not just something we EXPLOIT and EXHAUST and TAKE from.

We pay so much attention to things like crypto, rockets, and forget about this CRISIS,

But have we ever thought about how fast the ICE IS melting in the arctic?

What we now call the Amazon DESERT was once called the Amazon RAINFOREST,

Realizing this feels like a million daggers between my bones.

You see man should not be defined by what he or she can destroy,

PAGKAWASAK means DESTRUCTION - [and that] shouldn’t be anyone’s first LANGUAGE.

But the VOICES that ought to reverberate have been muffled amidst the turbulence,

Lost in the predilection of POLITICS and the tormentous recoil of anguish.

But the shroud of mist veiling the MOUNTAINS, taught me that there is beauty in the UNKNOWN,

The fledgling BIRDS, flapping their WINGS on their maiden flight, taught me to take RISKS,

The break of DAWN and the sunset SKY taught me that it is okay to REST,

The DANDELIONS and LILACS taught me how to grow with passion and BEAUTY.

And so although her tears fall in FLOODS, and her voice causes the ground to TREMBLE,

Although her winds howl with ANGER, and her trees groan in AGONY,

MOTHER EARTH showed me love, warmth, and forgiveness,

But this world, this world only taught me how to DESTROY it.

---o0o---

Mika is one of six ASHS students to win an award in the NOVUS Case Competition. 

NOVUS is a case contest for high school students to innovate the future through Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) and the Spoken Word, one which provides participants an opportunity to tackle real and relevant problems, learn from experts in the field, and connect with like-minded peers.