Anything goes!?
“Tsunami” becomes the new clubbable stylish expression. 180,000 died - maybe 250,000 during the last years. When will we stop counting already, because we surley never find out the correct numbers? Another question: When will we start keeping and protecting our Mother Earth - also here in the Philippines?
Anything goes - yes, it seems so: illegal logging, climate changes, melting icebergs, natural disaster while my neighbors go on burning rubber, plastic and other poison garbage. Hey guys, will you still do this if the next disaster has taken away your whole family and your belongings?
A couple of months ago my niece showed me a brochure entitled “Questions and Answers On Your Ecosystem” mentioning and explaining 365 reasons to stand up for Mother Earth and be counted as “Barkada ng Kalikasan”. It’s really a primer on environment care, produced bu the Kinaiyahan Foundation, Inc. and BARog KAlikupan DAbaw, Inc. (BARKADA) for worded by Elisea G. Gozun, that time Secretary of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Quezon City.
I studied this valuable brochure while still having the terrible smell of nurned poison garbage in my nose and while having the latest nature disaster news in my ears. Watching the news doesn’t make me tired, of course NOT! I’m just afraid how long we will be able to continue teaching our following generations how to keep our globe in good health, while stupid environment killers go on in their thoughtlessness and absent-mindedness.
Anything goes - sure! Why should we think about ecosystem and its structures, or solar energy and life on earth and how and why it should or could be protected? The effects of global warming can be seen more and more, but deforestation and profit kill the thoughts and deeds about the value of forests and how to protect them. Fertilizer and its problems are known - but who really cares? Pesticides and its problems are known, but how looks reality? How do we manage soil degradation and its effects on crops? How do we handle major consumers of water, managing water resources and instead overusing groundwater?
Climate change, greenhouse effect, gases that pollute the atmosphere, acid rain, and biodiversity - foreign words for those people, who continue to destroy our globe and provoke new disasters.
Yes, there are solid waste management issues about garbage burning, solutions to garbage, waste separation, segregation, composting or recycling of waste. What should do we tell our political leaders? It’s easy what to tell them, but reality shows difference in acting.
Schools are (or should be) environment-friendly, if…, yes, if… . And, how the local community can contribute to environment care? There are even existing ten earth saver’s commandments for sustainable development, but… .
The above-mentioned brochure even mentioned the Top 30 Environmental Issues in the 21st century. Great, really great. I pray for many followers. Do it, yes, please do it NOW! For our following generations…
i think we should teach lessons on ecosystems and environments during grade school especially on grades 1 and 2. it is during that time when students learn the importance of ecosystem and clean environment.
That’s way too late. The key learning/behavior is imbedded between the ages of 2 to 5. I don’t ask much, and don’t expect much. But I do ask and hope that Filipino parents/teachers/adults teach children to dispose of trash in their proper place. But whenever I see adults throw trash out the windows of their cars, jeepneys, tricycles, windows of their own homes…I do feel hopeless.
When I ask people why they throw trash in the streets, their reply is that the street cleaners will pick them up next morning. Ok, so we shouldn’t brush our teeth today because it will get dirty again tomorrow morning? We shouldn’t eat today when we are hungry because we will get hungry again tomorrow? Hmm, where is the logic?
Hello Klaus,
We should all do our share. Every simple act counts! - http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/simplelang
Hello Klaus, Isn’t it sad. I do hope that the Philippines will take a big leap on this issue. All of pinays I’m closely acquainted here in US (all married to Americans), no one likes to recycle glass bottles, aluminum, plastics and magazines. While me on the other hand I recycle everything. I even try to keep old magazine hoping to include it in packaging to Pinas. Hoping a school can use it or a fellow teachers or anyone will use and read them. I’m sure there are a lot of us who recycle things, environmentally aware and an active individual but as we all know there are more who doesn’t care. I guess this is a matter of how one person views in life or values in life (earth, health etc.). I remember when I was small, we (me, my siblings and cousin) used to collect all this recyclable items and sell them to buy some communal toys. I guess it is in this activity that the seed of environmental awareness was planted. When I was inside the convent, I came across to other nuns who collect the soda tabs for wheel chair. Now, I painstakingly pull them out, collect and give them to either my coworker whose church uses them for charity purposes or a students’ organization that also uses the tabs for charity purposes. My sisters’ family re-uses their grocery bag to wrapped young fruits so it will grow nice and devoid of worms. They also collect the empty bottles, plastics, aluminum (if there’s any) or steel. Usually though it’s just bottles. Since plastic containers are often reused a lot and there’s hardly any cans either aluminum or not. Even back then I was already wishing and hoping to make our own electricity resources. As of now we have only the solar driveway lights, a wood stove and all LED bulbs inside our house. I’m hoping though in the future we will go total off-grid and produce our own electricity
:grin:=D> .
I agree with you all, it’s a matter of educating people and like Jae mentioned, it should be as early as the kid can be taught and learned. I think this also fall under the values of a family or a person.
I wonder if using financial rewards as anchor might spur recycling in the Philippines? Just thinking….
As they say, “follow the money.” Environmental awareness might just take root if it can be proved that waste recycling is a source of revenue. Waste management is a profitable industry in industrialized countries.
Will it work if we change the “message” from merely educating about the importance of environmental awareness, to one that everyday folks can relate to — ie, “what’s in it for me? How can I translate that extra chore that I need to do in a way that benefits my daily life?”
There’s money in waste management. Sometimes, we just need to change the focus to get the desired result. Focus on the financial rewards and the offshoot is environmental consciousness.
On the personal front, I’m very eco-conscious. I’ve gone *almost* paperless, at the office & at home; do most of my bill paying online. Stopped all newspaper subscriptions and shifted to online subscriptions. Recycle cans, plastic containers… I also reuse whatever can be reused. I’ve scaled back on my lifestyle to exclude excessive wants. Instead of my materialistic pursuits of the past — because yes, I was once there years back — I’m now focusing on enriching myself with everyday experiences, instead.
It’s been a rewarding (internally, for me) journey.
I’m not necessarily a minimalist but I’m close to it. I’ve found that it has lessened my stress level, too, since I have less “things to worry about and maintain.”
Finally, I support businesses who are also into the green revolution. I also support business who are community-aware and who plow back some of their profits into community enrichment.
Hi to all of you and thanks a lot. #3 Raz: I tried to come in contact with green peace asia, but no reply yet.