mark’s speech for the world, at the world environment day 2026
“hello everybody, my name is mark lee. it is an honor to be here today. thank you so much for inviting me to world environment day and to Azerbaijan here in Baku. it is a beautiful city. before i sing you guys a song, i would like to tell you a short story.
i visited kenya earlier this year, and at that time, i was going through a very important time in my life. i had to make a very important decision for my career and for my life. and so i had a lot of people giving me advice, asking me questions that i didn’t really know the answer to. i was going through a strange, confusing period of time.
but i was in kenya and so i went on a safari. i saw so many beautiful animals, and i saw a lion. and at that moment, i kind of realized that sometimes its not really important to know the answer to all these questions or to know if you’re perfectly ready for everything, but rather whether you’re willing to take the next step toward real change.
so i made this song in kenya. its called “ready or not” and if i am correct and if we’re all getting the same memo, i do believe that our planet is asking us the same question. not whether we’re ready, but whether we’re willing to raise our voices and take this step. whether we’re willing to care enough to create real change.
i believe our souls all have this longing for a better world and i think thats one of the truest pieces of evidence there is that a better world could exist for everybody.”