Sunday, February 28, 2010

This coming 2010 election it is not all about choosing our candidates but it is also the time to observe how this candidates follow a certain rules regarding on how they will be campaigning. Posters, placards, streamers… These are the campaign paraphernalia of those hopeful candidates who wants to have a position in the office. We will be amazed on how they endorsed their selves to the masses, everywhere you can see different faces of politicians, their advocacy, their platforms, etc. etc. etc.

But they are breaking some of the rules! Politicians should be aware in every step that they are making and also the people should be aware about the dos and don’ts of those politicians.

The posters that they are posting in the public places serves as an eye sore it is not campaigning at all they are going beyond their limitations, public places is obviously public property so no one is allowed to own privately anything that is owned by the public. Streamers are being put on the electric wires which are not appropriate because it is too dangerous. Can you imagine after this campaign period all of this paraphernalia will be considered as a trash and where all of this be put? Who are the people who will suffer most in cleaning all those trashes? Are the politicians who promise a lot during the campaign period? Obviously NO! Since some of them did not win they do not care about their loosing posters, placards and streamers at all. And the winning parties will not immediately do some action about this matter because their major act will be a big celebration.
Poor mother earth it is the one who will suffer the most! Additional garbage, additional suffering, additional environmental problem.

BE WISE! VOTE WISE! Let us always consider the nature.


Dona Charmaine P. Delizo
BJ3-1d
Comparisons are easily done once you had the taste of perfection… a famous line of Katty Perry in her song thinking of you. But this is not a review regarding her song but this is all about nature because once you had experienced an almost perfect environment you can easily criticize or say something about the place you are living in.

Almost perfect! This is how I can describe the place where I was raised; I always say that I am a proud “probinsyana” from Isabela a province of Cagayan Valley where you can see the longest mountain range in the Philippines which is Sierra Madre. Maybe this is because of the factor on how the Isabelinos are being trained even they are still young.

I remember when I was still in my elementary days, my teachers always asked the class to plant a tree in a black plastic bag, that was from grade one until grade six. So in my Alma matter I had six mahogany trees. Before I don’t really get the point why they are requiring us to do this activity every year I even told my teacher that our school will turned into a forest because of the hundreds of trees planted on it. But the good factor of this activity was step by step their students are getting aware of the status of the environment.

Compared here in Metro Manila, pollution was being spread all over; water, air and even the noises that is mainly created by humans… US HUMANS.

Before, we have a wide green field planted on it is rice, tobaccos and corns, agricultural crops that all of us are gaining but now it turned into a commercialized building, instead of tall trees we can see tall buildings, instead if clean and flowing water we can see stagnant black water with garbage floating on it. In this sense we can see we can see how people in Metro discipline their selves now a days, I am not saying that all of the people but let us all admit it there are SOME who always lose control in disciplining their own selves.
What if one day we will once again experience a super typhoon like the tragic ONDOY and PEPENG? At this point we must learn to change and that change is not tomorrow but NOW!


Dona Charmaine P. Delizo
BJ3 – 1d

Thursday, February 25, 2010

Gore sets new venue on Climate Change

Former US Vice President Al Gore and Nobel Peace Prize Laurette are set to visit the country to deliver their urgent climate change message to the top Philippine leaders this April in Manila.
Gore will keynote the Leadership Conference Series 3, a round of lectures organize for the top leaders from the academe, business, government and non-government sectors to learn from experience and expertise of global leaders.
The event entitled, “Al Gore: The Leader as Environment Steward”, will be held on the 30th of April, 2010 at the SMX Convention Center at the SM Mall of Asia Complex.
Gore will show an Asian version of “An Inconvenient Truth”, an eye-opener multimedia presentation on the threat posed by climate change and possible solutions treated to combat global warming.
A film which has been based on the Gore’s rapport has won Critical and box office recognition, including Oscar, and is already considered one of the top documentary films of all time.

by: Jerold Anthony F. Dalmacio

Plastic trash collection found in Atlantic

Studies have shown that there is a high concentration of plastic debris floating in the Atlantic Ocean North of the Caribbean.
The investigators said last Tuesday that the findings were based on more than 64,000 tiny bits of plastic collected over more than 22 years by Sea Education Association undergraduates. They believed that surface currents carry the debris to the area between 22 and 38 degrees north latitude.
Similar currents also deliver trash to a spot between Hawaii and California known as the Great Pacific garbage Patch.


Great Pacific Garbage Patch

by: JEROLD ANTHONY F. DALMACIO from the article in Philippine Daily Inquirer published on February 25, 2010

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

SIGNOS

It has been five months since our country suffers from worst typhoons that have been embarked in our history. On the night of September 25, 2009, typhoon Ondoy started its rainfall, no one imagine that it will be heavier the next day, September 26, 2009.

The typhoon Ondoy was even more powerful than the previous typhoon like Milenyo way back year 2005. Not less than a week, another super typhoon hit our country, Pepeng. This typhoon creates damage most likely in the northern part of the country, partly Baguio, Pangasinan and other nearby provinces.

These typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng , causes severe flooding which resulted in the loss of many lives and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. Our country has turned in an expected horror, submerged houses, washed away shanties and turned roads into raging rivers. Executive villages and subdivisions turned to be ghost towns as what had happen to the Provident village.
We can’t blame anyone or something for what had happened. This is the force of nature, a natural disaster. All we had to do is, to prepare ourselves and to do precautionary measures to avoid casualties.

This experience has teach me lot of things, that make me even realized that our country is now living its second life, that just more rain that time of calamity will swept our country in the map. Geographically speaking, our country has lesser forest range, no more trees that hold the land together garbage anywhere and everywhere, clogged drainage system. These are because of our illicit and manly acts.

Hope this won’t happen again, hope we learn from that dreadful experience. No one was spared, the rich and the poor alike felt the power of nature, everyone was wet, some died, and the rest of the country felt as if they were slapped on the face with the cold reality of nature's wrath.

How many times do we have to experience this tragedy just TO LEARN???


DONA CHARMAINE P. DELIZO
BJ3-1D

Monday, February 22, 2010

BROUGHT by DROUGHT

Have you ever tried walking under the sun for a couple of minutes? You get thirsty so you sip water from your hydro bottle or even buy refreshments in nearest store. At home, you take a refreshing shower to soothe your tired body. You drink plenty of water to re-hydrate yourself. You also wash your dusted clothes for another weekend of classes.

Truly, our lifestyle depends much on water. But, have you ever wonder where water comes from? “From the faucet,” Of course from the faucet! But look beyond the pipes laid under our house, have we ever ask ourselves where our water supply comes from? And; for that matter, where it goes after we used it?

At first, I thought La Mesa Dam is the main source of our water supply? Oh-oh. Although the La Mesa Dam supplies raw water, it is not the primary source. It is just a reservoir which is filled by water coming from rainfall, from its own watershed run-off and surrounding tributaries and, of course, from the Ipo Dam. Water coming from rain and in-flows from nearby streams is almost negligible since majority of La Mesa Dam’s water comes from Ipo Dam.

Previously knowing that a watershed was just a body of water such a lake or a big river. I found out wrong. I learned that a watershed actually comprises not just an inland body of water but also the area of land where water flows across or through on its way to a particular water body such as a stream, river, wetland or a lake. This body of water is the lowest point within a watershed and it serves as the collecting reservoir of all after that passes through the watershed.

How if our water supplies went to its deficit state? Do we able to perform our daily personal necessities? How about our agricultural sector? Of course, we won’t. We’ve already experiencing El NiƱo’s upshot and before we experience its worse effect, let us awakened and act accordingly. It is very clear that the major causes are the continuous destruction of our ozone due to our inhumane acts, rampant illegal loggings and kaingin, improper burning of plastics and throwing of wastes, patronizing CFC products that cause pollution as like as domino effect.
We have been hearing and hearing over the news about soil droughts and grass fires regarding our mountains caused by global warming. In Central Luzon, which serves up as our agricultural basket and water source where Ipo and Angat dam is locatd, rice fields needing water supply from dams are on it’s very critical stage as it concerns us all.

I would like to point out our watersheds needing trees to ensure a steady supply of clean drinking water for us. Without forest cover, there will be a reduced supply of water especially during this summer season. Because of deforestation, the soil easily dries up or desiccates causing freshwater shortage and even destroyed a million of crops. The increased reflectivity of sunlight from barren land warms up the atmosphere, reduces and disperses clouds, and may eventually cause a decrease in rainfall. Trees keep the water supply in a watershed intact.
As students, we can do a lot to save our land from deforestation. We all brag about being the first in everything, being the coolest. Why not brag about being the first to reforest lands destroyed by kaingin? Tell your story to the world so that they will also help in the protection and rehabilitation of our land, plant trees and be a responsible stewards of His creation.

“We abuse land because we regard it as a commodity belonging to us. When we see land as a community to which we belong, we may begin to use it with love and respect” a quotation from A Sand County Almanac


DONA CHARMAINE P. DELIZO
BJ3-1D

Sunday, February 21, 2010

Wait for Spring





Kimberly dela Cruz

Recycling changes the world

Recycling is one of the most important environmental activities that should be imposed in the world. There are a lot of help that recycling can contribute into maintaining the beauty of environment and our earth.
Garbage is another problem in the society even decades ago. Government and non-government organizations keep finding ways on how to solve this garbage problem and make our surroundings clean and healthy. With this vision, everything starts with recycling. Through recycling, we can reduce the garbage that we are producing every day, garbage problem will be minimal and we can help our government to deal with this problem. If we recycle, the amount of garbage being thrown in the landfills will be minimized and toxic wastes has a bad effect in our health will be also reduced. We need to recycle because the garbage that we threw will come back to us someday if we don’t make a move on preserving our environment. Aside from that, recycling is an eco-friendly activity. You can make money out of recycled garbage or you can make handicrafts from garbage. Recycling also helps prevent floods and disasters during storms because there is no need for a lot of trees to be cut out to accommodate our garbage. There are still a lot of good things that recycling can do to us. Recycling can offer jobs to others, can discipline people regarding garbage problem, recycling means less garbage and less pollution and most of all, recycling can save our existence in this world.
If we don’t want climate change to fully destroy our world, we should take part upon making our environment neat and healthy. We can start in simple things if we really want change. Start with recycling. You don’t know how huge favor you are doing for all the human beings in this earth especially yourself.

Monday, February 8, 2010

WE AS ONE






Since environmental awareness has began, we have been educated that abuse of human to nature has been the cause of global warming. It might have been true, if not the blame became centered in the individual cases of wrong disposal of non-biodegradable materials or for the simplest of terms, throwing our garbage improperly.


If you've been blaming the tragedies of Ondoy, Pepeng and the other catastrophes; that left grave damage upon the earth; on each individual you saw sneaking up throwing their candy wraps everywhere, well, you could now think twice and try researching the Kyoto Protocol which determined that over-production is the number one source of global warming.


This proves that environmental problems are not solely a problem of an individual but also to our society, thus, it should be solved collectively.


However true that each of us should be responsible in every piece of thrash we threw, long-time solutions to these environmental problems wouldn't be solved just by keeping it to ourselves. Community awareness should be conducted to educate others about these environmental problems concerning our society.


Planting trees wouldn't be enough to stop flash floods if illegal loggers and mining companies continue to linger and destroy our lands. The problem should be, collectively, solved with real solutions, implemented not only to each individual but also to the roots of our problem.

-Kimberly dela Cruz



Sunday, February 7, 2010

Environmental Advocacy by Dianne Lynn A. Dulgach

Senator Loren Legarda attended a forum in the University of the Philippines last February 6, 2010 and gave her speech in front of the students and professors regarding its theme: Mga Kandidato ng Kalikasan at Kapaligiran: May Boboto ba?
Senator Loren said that because of the environmental degradation and disaster risks that happened in our country, the present government had failed to take an action to solve and reduce these kinds of environment disasters.
Senator Loren’s advocacy is to protect and practice our different communities to be ready from different environment disasters and calamities caused by climate change. She advised that climate change must be added in the school curriculum. Aside from that, she also said that climate change adaptation should be practiced.
“We face other major threats of our time – poverty, threats to peace and order, and a widening gap between rich and poor. Formidable challenges, indeed. Advocating green politics is not as simple as a walk in the park, what with other issues and advocacies that appeal more to the masses of voters.”
Senator Loren believes that advocacy concerning the environment should be one of the top priorities of the next government and next leaders.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Nature is Crying

Are you throwing your waste anywhere? Do you stick your chewing gum under the armchair? Do you dispose your waste properly?

Nowadays, we are completely aware of the environment that surrounds us. We witness different exhibition of human ill behaviour especially how they dispose their garbage. Here in the Philippines, it is normal in our sight to see those wastes anywhere because we used to be with it in our normal lives. We can see piles of waste materials besides the street, we can see dogs and cats scavenging garbage around it, and sometimes we see even those street people doing the same thing. We Filipino, most of us are messy, disobedient and arrogant, it hurts nut that’s ironic. We don’t obey proper management of our wastes. In instance, in schools, students just randomly hurl their garbage in trashcans regardless of the cans label (bio, non-bio, recyclable). We don’t pay attention to the label for as long as we dispose our waste immediately. In some instance, students or even others will just toss the filter of their cigarette butts on the roads right away after they’ve smoke, others will spit their chewing gums and saliva anywhere.

Most people no longer care for the environment, and as a result they forget how to manage their waste properly. With the practice of improper waste disposal, we are just adding burdens to the nature. If we could just reverse everything or be simply disciplined creatures, not only we can help ourselves but furthermore save earth away from its austere state. It’s still fresh in our minds, the storm and the floods that make our country devastated. Somehow I can’t blame the nature, this are the consequences of our illicit acts. Our environment is really suffering because of us. You can’t blame someone about this, WE, we all have to take responsibility of our nature that’s slowly deteriorating. THINK NOW, ACT NOW… is this the environment we want to handed down through the next generation and to the generation after next generations? We are depriving their right to live, their chance to see how our nature is magnificently created.

WE SHOULD TAKE PART, YOU ARE HUMAN AND YOU ARE PART OF THE ENVIRONMENT!!! WE CAN DO BETTER TOGETHER…


Dona Charmaine P. Delizo

Monday, February 1, 2010

Our Humble Abode




This would be the perfect getaway if you want to escape the noise and pollution of the city. A simple house perched in the middle of the hill with bananas and papayas scattered across the area. Fresh air, green surroundings, simple lifestyle. Beautiful.


Kimberly dela Cruz
BJ 3-1D