Angelia Ong of the Philippines won the Miss Earth 2015 title, earning back-to-back victories for the country.
Her predecessor, fellow Filipina Jamie Herrell, passed on the crown at the pageant’s coronation night held on Saturday (Sunday in Manila) in Vienna, Austria.
Also crowned were runners-up Dayanna Grageda of Australia as Miss Earth Air, Brittany Payne of USA as Miss Earth Water and Thiessa Sickert of Brazil as Miss Earth Fire.
Over 80 candidates from around the globe competed at the unique beauty pageant that advocates protection and preservation of Mother Earth.
Ong, a 24-year-old Marketing student at the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde in Manila, practices and promotes two environmental advocacies namely Restoration, Reforestation, and 5R (Rethink, Reuse, Reduce, Recycle, Respect).
She passionately shared both advocacies at the grand finals’ question-and-answer portion where she was asked to make a slogan for Miss Earth for the next 15 years.
Ong answered, “A campaign I call ‘We will because we can.’ This campaign aims to inspire and educate people on how they can contribute in helping the environment in their own little ways and even through social media. Getting the campaigns online is a strategy to get the message out there and create more awareness. Awareness or identifying the problem is the first step in solving the problem. We have to educate people about the threats of climate change because it is only through an educated society can true reform be achieved.”