Green on Green

Three R

2011-12-18T04:12:00.000-08:00

In some parts of the Philippines you will notice garbage along the highway and vacant lots. You may quickly conclude that this is because of lack of discipline of its people. This may be true to some but for others this is due to poverty. Even though local government is the one in charge of garbage collection, it is not free in some municipality, the fee range from 30 to 100 pesos. For a country wherein most of the people live on $1 dollar a day, that amount is very hard to find. They would rather buy foods than pay the fee for garbage collection. For those who cannot afford paying the fee, they have no choice but to throw their garbage anywhere possible. This garbage include some hazardous materials and chemicals such as used fluorescent tube and used diapers, posing a health risk to the people especially the young ones. Some of this garbage is also being thrown to bodies of water like river, stream and seas causing fish kills and water pollution. Some were being burned releasing toxic gases in the air.

Its baffling why in some barrios or municipalities, garbage collection is free. This will made you wonder that there is a fund being allotted for garbage collection, it so happen that when the barrio official is corrupt, they will only put this fund on their pocket and will ask their constituent to just shoulder the cost of garbage collection. Though there is a fund being allotted for barangay, it is up to the barangay official where they will use that fund. Another possible reason why they are discrepancy in garbage collection is because fund allotment differs, there are barangays which have a higher fund allotment while some have small fund allotment. The government should shoulder the cost of garbage collection if fund is not yet being allotted for this purpose, since people are already paying high taxes which are more than enough to shoulder garbage collection cost. And to make sure that the fund being given to barangay will be used for garbage collection, they should make it illegal to use it for other purposes and collecting dues to its constituents.

Some may think that waste management is not important to be given that priority in the budget. Improving garbage collection will actually save the government budget because we can save the money being allotted for health purposes. Polluted air, water and land due to garbage can cause illness to people and damage to our environment. Improper disposal of garbage can also cause flooding, because this will clog our drainage system. Government has already spent so much money preventing flood and repairing the damage cause by it. And for ordinary folks, we should do our part too; we should practice 3 R, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. By following this 3 R there will be few garbage to collect, and few garbage mean less money to be used for garbage collection.

Is Extinction Near?

2011-09-30T18:22:00.000-07:00

There's an article in the Internet entitled 'Shocking' Report Warns of Extinction, it tackles the current report of expert panel of scientists that warns of a mass extinction unlike anything human history has ever seen. It may sound prophecy especially for those who don't believe in the global warming and even those who believe it but just close their eyes to protect their own interest. For sure many global warming deniers will contend these findings because they don't want their lavish lifestyle to be affected.

According to the report the mass extinction will likely to happen on marine animals. In the Philippines it appears that it already happening because recently there are series of fish kills that have happened in two Philippines provinces, Batangas and Pangasinan. According to the news the reason behind the fish kills is because of the lack of oxygen. Coincidentally this is one of the factors that will cause the future mass extinction mentioned in the said report. The other two are warming and acidification. They warn that the combination of these three will inevitably cause a mass marine extinction if there is no action taken to prevent it.

Sadly, this fish kills and previous calamities didn't serve as an eye opener to us specially the government. As of this time, no new country wide policy that has been implemented to stop this from happening again. Government official did not even include water pollution as one of possible reason for this fish kills. According to them the reason for this fish kills is over population of fish. Though, over population can cause decrease of oxygen, they should also look for other factors that may also contribute to the depletion of oxygen. Clearing of land can lead to erosion of soil into the river. Trees and plants prevent soil erosion but since they are being cut, erosion continues unimpeded. Some farmers, used large amounts of chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides to maximize their harvest and profits, but these can be washed into the waterways by the rain. This can also happened to leaks of oil and antifreeze from a car on a driveway. Excessive amounts of sediment in waterways can block sunlight, preventing aquatic plants from photosynthesizing, and can suffocate fish by clogging their gills. When organic matter increases in a pond, the number of decomposers will increase. These decomposers grow rapidly and use a great deal of oxygen during their growth. This leads to a depletion of oxygen as the decomposition process occurs.

Everyone should look deeper on the cause of recent fish kills in the Philippines . We should look on every possible reason so that a correct solution will be implemented otherwise this extinction will not be far from happening.

The Killer Maybe In Your House

2011-08-06T21:51:00.000-07:00

In this blog’s previous article entitled Mercury, it was stated that some Filipinos are not aware of the danger of mercury that can be found in several products available in the Philippines' market. Sadly there is another dangerous material wherein many Filipinos are not aware of. This material is asbestos, which according to the World Health Organization estimates, more than 107,000 people die worldwide each year from asbestos diseases.

There is alarming news in the Internet that mentioned about the plan of Canada to push through the production of asbestos from their last asbestos mine which is being objected by physicians and public health workers around the globe. This is due to the possible harmful effect of asbestos to people's health. The most alarming information from this article is that the asbestos produced from this asbestos mine would be exported to Asia, with about half going to India and the rest to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Pakistan and here in the Philippines, which according to the article are the countries with lax or nonexistent asbestos-control process. It is very alarming that Philippines is one of the countries lacking an effective asbestos control and the one who accept this kind of material.

Since exposure to asbestos can cause cancer and since cancer is the third leading causes of morbidity, it is only appropriate for Philippines' government to take an aggressive action in totally eliminating this material. Banning alone will not stop this material from entering our country; greedy business men with the help of corrupt government official will still be able to find a way to enter that banned material in our country. The best way to stop this is to go directly to the root. The Philippines government should collaborate with other groups or countries to pressure Canada not to push through with the production of this dangerous material. It is unbelievable that these big business, government corporation and leaders do not have a conscience and would allow this stuff to be mined and sold to the less fortunate and unprotected. It is very scary to think of how cruel and greedy human kind really can be! We should not allow this to be mined anymore let alone sold.

Opening of Classes Heyday for Crooks

2011-06-17T18:27:00.000-07:00

Opening of classes in the Philippines are here again, parents are doing everything to save money needed for the enrollment of their kids. They're working very hard to be able to earn money but some schools especially the private schools are making it harder for them. Most of the schools in the Philippines always make revision to the prescribed book to prevent students from just borrowing a used book from friends or relatives, this mean additional profit for them because students will be forced to buy the new revised books. During my time, I'm only borrowing the books of a relative or sibling, this give a lot of savings to my parents. Unfortunately, this day due to greed, students can no longer do this to save money.

I understand that there are some updates that need to be done, but it should not be on all the subjects and not as frequent as they currently doing. It can be acceptable for computer books since there are always changes in computer technology, but for other books like mathematics, language, those were invented long time ago and heard no changes recently, it obvious the main reason for revising the book is money. And the most unbelievable is even books regarding religion is being updated frequently. I cannot imagine that there are always changes in the teachings of our Creator and sadly the project director of the book is a priest. I cannot believe that he will condone an action that is very clearly have a negative effect to the people and the environment.

According to the prediction of some scientist by 2030 we will need two earths just to supply the resources we need to survive. Upon reading it, I thought that the author is only making a hyperbole but by the way I see people now on how they exploit our natural resources due to greed for money, I think what the author mentioned is not far from happening. It needs 500,000 trees to produce one ton of papers. If all students will buy new books it is not impossible for us to consume that one ton of papers to make a new book for every student in only one school year.

It is scary to know that money is now became so powerful, it can now dictate people on what to do, sadly, most of this are not good for the human kind and environment. And they can now control people in every walk of life including those who you think will guide us to what is morally right. The president is planning to increase the number of school year to enhance the education of the Filipinos and improve their lives. But for me this is not the right thing to do, as long as we have this kind of system in our school institutions, even you lengthened it to another more year this will not improve the Filipino lives. The school has a big influence in our children lives; they are the one that suppose to hone them into a better person. But showing our children this kind of business, it is not possible that they will do the same thing in the future. With the institution that suppose to be the one to instill what is morally right is the one showing example of wrongdoing and greed, improvement of Filipino life is still far from reality.

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Natural Arthritis Remedies

2011-04-14T17:42:00.000-07:00

After playing basketball I felt a little pain in my left knee. I suspect that I already have arthritis because this is not the first time I felt that pain in my knee. I just ignored it previously because the pain is still tolerable and the pain will subside in just a few days. Though the pain is not that worst yet, but since it became regular lately and I also felt the pain in my wrist and shoulder joints I have decided to give attention to it before it get worse. To take advantage of the wonder of Internet, I search for more information about arthritis and I have learned that there are lots of natural remedies for Arthritis. This is good news to me because I am not fond of using over the counter medicines. I grew up in a herbal medicine dependent family. All of us siblings were given herbal
instead of the commercial medicines that being administered to a new born. My mother has bladder stones and she was able to cure it using herbal medicines.

What’s good about it, is one of them are available in my backyard and some of them can be bought cheaply in the market. According to the articles I have read, boswellia, tumeric, oregano, dandelion, grapple plant, myrrh, meadowsweet and willow bark are natural remedies for arthritis. I have an oregano plants in my backyard, I usually use this to cure cough and colds but I'm not aware that it also helps cure arthritis. It made me more feel relieved when I learned that the natural remedies for arthritis is not only limited to herbs. Sulfur-Rich Foods such as avocados, lentils, broccoli, cabbage, coconut, soy beans, and garlic and high in omega-3 fatty acids food such as fish oils, flaxseed oils, green leafy vegetables and eggs can also help cure or prevent arthritis. Most of the foods mentioned were already part of my diet all I need to do is to eat more frequently of those food to cure or probably totally eliminate this disease.

If you will notice most of the natural remedies mentioned are plants and trees, this only show how important trees and plants to our lives and environment. It doesn't only help us save money, cure our ailments and keep us healthy it also has a big contribution in saving our planet. So even you are not a tree hugger, but you still have a lot of vacant space for these natural remedies, you may still want to plant them if you want to have a free remedies for your ailments.

For Real or Not, Let's Go Green

2011-02-26T18:26:00.000-08:00

Still on the heated global warming debate, some expert suggested that instead of calling the current weather event a global warming the right word should be climate change. This is to stop some Global warming deniers from using the current cold weather to deny global warming. That is not the only word that is being changed because of the heated debate on Global warming. Democrats the political party of the current US president, now prefer to call the energy they are promoting on the national stage a clean energy instead of green energy.

Due to cold weather the debate whether the global warming or climate change is for real or not became more intense which lead to some to make changes with the terminology. Leading proponents of Green Living have said that "scientists have warned for the last 20 years or so that global warming could bring more snow. And snow has two ingredients: cold and moisture. Warmer air collects moisture like a sponge until it hits a patch of cold air. When temperatures dip below freezing, a lot of moisture creates a lot of snow." But despite of this explanation on why we have this cold weather, the debate has not died down. One of the Global warming denier have answer to that explanation, he said that the earth is entering the phase of its orbit that will take it the farthest distance from the sun that is why the earth cools naturally. And some said that the changes in the climate are happening naturally and the human activity has nothing to do with it.

I think we should end up the debate on whether the global warming is real or not. And whether we want to call it global warming or climate change, wager on Clean Energy, preserving the ecological balance and being conservative in using our natural resources are the right role for everyone. It doesn't matter if we call it clean energy or green energy, what’s important is we are applying it in our daily lives. Let’s Go green save money, and leave the place a better world for us and future generation, Small steps make for big changes.

Let's Do It Online

2011-02-04T22:04:00.000-08:00

I know many of you are already aware of online jobs. I learned this also a long time ago but I did not give too much attention because I'm doubtful if it is legit and I'm also preoccupied with my current job. But because of the current financial crisis and the price of everything are going up, I'm having problem stretching my budget. The best solution to this problem that I can think of is by having extra job. But since it is not easy to find a part time job now a day, I have decided to give the online job a second look. When I learned that one of my friends is earning handsome amount of money doing online job, I quickly asked him for details. Upon checking the website he referred to me, I was amazed by the volume of available jobs being offered on that site. From data entry to website design and it almost available to everyone teens, students, house wives, retired persons, part time or full time. And it is not only for those looking for job but also to those who want to outsource their work, it is an employee and employer haven.

This made me wonder what if all the people in the world will do most of their transaction online, like shopping, schooling, viewing beautiful places or even looking for their future partner. Imagine if you want to buy something in Europe you do not need to spend a lot to travel there and go shopping. Earn more by staying in the comfort of your home considering that you will save a lot in transportation expenses. Now that the prices of gas and car spare parts keep increasing, this will be a good relief. If you are still going to school, you can choose the schedule you want when attending classes, no need to buy notebooks, pen or books. There are unlimited possibilities. I know that this already happening to some but if we will made this available to everyone,this may be the solution we are looking for to the problem with the rising cost of fossil fuel and most importantly the climate change.

Mosquito Season, The Third Philippines Season?

2011-01-21T16:32:00.000-08:00

I can't help myself laughing every time I see the commercial of a fabric conditioner. The commercial model/actress claimed that it is mosquito season again. I find it crazy because why they are adding season to our climate just to promote their product. Philippines have only two seasons, the dry and wet season. No wonder the product they are promoting is a fabric conditioner which they claimed effective in warding off mosquitoes. And they are still airing the commercial now even it is no longer rainy season which is the only season when we have a lot of dengue cases and when there are a lot of mosquitoes.

But when I learned that the son of my neighbor got dengue, it looks like they make sense after all. Dengue is most common during rainy season and it is quite surprising that this kid still got dengue when it is already dry season. And what more surprising is our barrio has just been fumigated by barrio officials. It is alarming to know that we now have an all season dengue carrying mosquitoes and the use of chemical is not quite effective in eradicating this kind of mosquitoes. This is only show that we cannot resolve the dengue problem by using insecticide alone, we still need the natural way of limiting the population of mosquitoes. We still need the help of animals that prey on mosquitoes. We cannot discount the fact that during the old days the big population of this mosquito predators save us from mosquito related diseases. Sad thing is their population is now very small. The most common mosquito predators here in the Philippines that I know are frogs and lizards. I can rarely see frogs now a day even during rainy season and the last time I saw is a victim of a road kill. The on going land development is the main reason why their population decreased. Farm land which is their habitat is now being converted to residential and commercial area. It is sad that we have maintained our old belief but not the ecological balance. Up to now many still afraid of Palakang Araneta or bullfrog in English, because they believe that they will be poison by it, so every time they see this kind of frog they will kill it, but so far no known incident wherein a person has died because they were poison by this frog. While the Palakang Bukid or mountain frog has remained as one of Filipino staple food, which is why they are always being hunt. While the Palakang Dikit or banana frog is being believe to be the cause of kulogo or warts once you have contact with their urine. Although lizard can still be seen, there is still a possibility that their population will decreased because there still some Filipino that still believed that eating a lizard will cure their asthma.

If we will continue to have this beliefs and we will believe with the word of the commercial model of the fabric conditioner commercial that they will be able to solve the problem of disease cause by mosquito then we will continue to be reluctant in keeping the ecological balance which is very important in keeping the harmonious coexistence of , organisms and their environment.

Cold Snap Energized Global Warming Deniers

2011-01-15T16:38:00.000-08:00

Global warming doubters and agnostics get help from cold weather to bolster their argument that global warming is a hoax. Due to cold season many doubters flooded blogs, online news site, social networking and forum to criticize those environmentalist that promote green living. They are saying that the proponents of green living only use the global warming scenario to earn money. They are now asking for explanation why there is a cold snap if the earth is warming.

Maybe our creator only wants to remind us what we will lost if the global warming is for real and will reach its peak. Sure it may be cold now, but as a whole the world is warming. 2010 is the warmest year on record; we've been experiencing a hot weather for a long time, so let’s not be quick to conclude that global warming is a hoax just because of once in blue moon cold snap. If it wasn't for global warming this cold snap would happen much more regularly. We don't know what will happen next, this might be the last time we will experience a cold weather.

I hope that the current cold weather will not halt the ongoing green program of some organization and government and the environmentalist will not be discouraged by the recent challenge being thrown upon them. Regardless if the global warming is true or not I still see some benefits if we will continue to be conservative in using our natural resources. Let us remember that by limiting our carbon footprint we will prevent air and water pollution. Two million die prematurely each year because of air pollution and ther'e is a mass extinction of marine life due to water pollution. Let’s not forget that fish and other marine life is our main source of food. By taking care of our environment we are also taking care of our future, health and wealth.

Eat Bulaga's Plastic ni Juan

2011-01-08T18:54:00.000-08:00

It is 12:00 pm again and I'm about to watch my favorite noontime show "Eat Bulaga". Eat Bulaga is the longest-running television show here in the Philippines. One time one of their program segment caught my attention because of its environmental tempo. I learned that Eat Bulaga has a project named “Plastic ni Juan”, this is part of their Juan For All, All For Juan: Sugod Bahay sa Barangay segment. They are asking viewers to bring 3 plastic bottles or containers so that they can join a game wherein they have a chance to win cash prizes. According to one of the program host, this project aims to collect waste plastics so that it can be used for good purpose instead of clogging the drainage system and avoid flood. The Collected plastics will be then recycled to a school chairs and will be donated to selected public schools here in the Philippines.

It is nice to hear that a TV variety show such as Eat Bulaga is doing an Eco project like this. This only shows that environmental awareness is getting a headway. This will help spread environmental awareness among Filipinos especially the masses since Eat Bulaga has a lot of viewers from all social classes. And since Eat Bulaga is the number one noontime show some TV program tried to imitate them to gain viewers. It will be advantageous to the environment if the other TV program will also have their own environment friendly program.

But there is a little downside though. The plastic they are collecting are those that can be sold in the junk shop. Most of these plastics are being collected by scavengers and being sold to junk shop. Plastic bottles and containers are like treasures to the eye of scavengers so it is very rarely that they will missed one and end up in the drainage system. And because most Filipinos having a hard time with their finances very few people throw this kind of plastic, there a lot of Filipinos now a days collect everything they can sell and that's include plastic bottles and containers.

I am not trying to discredit their good deeds, I'm just hoping that they will be able to think a project that instead of collecting plastic bottles and container it should be plastic bags instead. Plastic bags are the most common cause of clogging of our drainage system. Since plastic bags cannot be sold in the junk shop, they are mostly being thrown away everywhere and ends up in the drainage system. And the worst thing is some Filipino just burned their garbage that includes plastic bags that is why it emits toxic smokes. Or a much better idea is a project that will encourage Filipinos to limit the use of plastic bags.

Beauty And The Bees

2010-12-28T23:00:00.000-08:00

The Sugar Sop tree planted in my front yard have a lot of fruits and the size are much bigger compare to other sugar sop. And as far as I know this tree bear fruits only once a year but this sugar sop tree bears fruit thrice a year and in succession, a new flowers will appear again right after we harvested the fruits. Me and my neighbors notice the distinction of my sugar sop tree and wondered what is the possible reason behind it.

I suspect that it is because of the presence of bees in our backyard, I noticed the presence of two beehives in my backyard one in the sugar sop tree itself and one on the Annato or Lipstick tree. I got this idea in one of the famous game in Facebook, FarmVille. I am one of the addicted player of this game and it took times before I was able to complete the Beehive. As I learned in that game, your harvest will increase if you have a bee in your farm. I did research and I learned that this is not only true in the virtual farm but also in the real one. I learned that beekeepers are earning money for moving their bees from field to field as the crop needs pollinating.

I also learned that Pollination is the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. So next time you see a bee in your backyard and you think it will not be a big distraction, if it is possible just keep it there and it will help your plant to reproduce. The lesson that we should learned from this is every living things have their contribution to this world and ecological balance. We should give importance to every living things because they were not created without a purpose. With honey bees we can assure the continued reproduction of plants and trees. That means they are helping in increasing the number of plants in the world through natural process. And the more plants and trees the more air that will be cleaned.

Planting Of Trees Requirements Not Needed

2010-09-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

According to weather expert 2010 might become the warmest year on record, in spite of this cutting of trees are still rampant while planting are anemic. It is very seldom that you will hear a tree planting activities and it is uncommon to see a new trees growing unabated. There are few political figure and organization who do tree planting activities but their action is only limited to planting. They don't care anymore what happened to the tree after they were planted. Some of our politician doing it only to capture votes during election.

I wasn't blessed with big land and money, I am not influential and don't belong to any environmental group. But this sad reality encourages me not to limit my tree planting only in my small backyard. I know that I need to do some tree planting activity outside my limited space to at least offset those trees that were cut.

Prior to deciding to have my own tree planting activity, I already have some tree sapling planted in a used plastic bag. Every time I see a used plastic bag, I am having a hard time throwing it away because I know that if I do so, it will contribute to the already polluted environment. And since there is a lot a tree sapling growing in my backyard, I have decided to transfer the rest of them to these used plastic bags. And just dream that someday lady luck will smile on me and will give me a land to plant these trees. But it looks like my dream will not come to a reality sooner or might not happen at all. The trees are growing fast and need to be planted to a well suited environment, so I found it perfect to use these trees in my tree planting activity.

I have decided to do my first tree planting activity in the vacant lot between one of the streets and the fence of our subdivision. It has a width of only one meter but it is almost fifty meters long, enough to plant at least 10 trees. I discovered this vacant lot while jogging in our village. I found it well suited to plant trees because this will no longer be used by the residents of the village. And this will also favorable to those who love to jog because it will give them shade during sunny days.

I did not completely fill the idle lot with trees right now, I will first observe if the tree I have planted will be able to grow fully on that location and no one will delay or stop the growth of the tree I have planted. This is to avoid wasting my effort, time and energy. I'm always checking the progress of the tree every time I jog during weekends and so far it is going well. I hope it will continue and I know that this is not enough to cope up with the massive lost of trees all over the world but at least I am doing my small contribution and if each and everyone of us will do the same it is not impossible to happen.

Save Our Bodies of Water

2010-08-28T17:37:00.000-07:00

I came across an article entitled "Welcome to the World's Trashiest Hotel" which topic is all about a hotel made of garbage. According to the article this hotel was created to help save the beach throughout Europe. I have decided to share it because we have a lot of polluted beaches and rivers here in the Philippines and thought that this program might help clean our polluted bodies of water. And being an archipelago, much of the Philippines is surrounded by bodies of water. We have a lot of beaches to save so we need all the help we can have.

Although currently the program is only open to European waterfronts but the article said the company is considering expanding the Save the Beach program to other areas in the coming years. I hope they will also include other bodies of water like lakes and rivers. This is good news for beach lovers here in the Philippines; I think this is our chance to give back to our beaches that always give us fun experience especially during summer. If you want to nominate one of our beach for the “Save The Beach” program, you can go to the article I mentioned for more information or you can go directly to this site www.coronasavethebeach.org, this site is the one provided in the article wherein you can nominate the beach you think that needs cleanup. But be sure to check first if the program is already expanded to include beaches and other bodies of water all over the world.

Pacquiao Vs Mayweather, Tired of Waiting?

2010-08-07T16:29:00.000-07:00

Confuse with the title? You think you accessed a wrong blog or article? Well you are not; you are on my Green on Green blog that deals about environment. But how come the topic is about Pacquiao Vs Mayweather. Yes it is about boxing, but there is a good thing that we can do to the environment with this boxing match.

I know that many boxing fans are already pissed with the very long wait for this fight. And it looks like the second negotiation will not progress because Mayweather shows no interest with the fight. And Manny Pacquiao according to his adviser is willing to move on if the much anticipated boxing match will not push through. He will go ahead and fight either Antonio Margarito or Miguel Cotto.

I know that majority of boxing aficionados only wants the Pacquiao Vs Mayweather fight, but there still some fans of both fighters will still watch their fighter fighting another boxer. They will not bother to cross the ocean and climb the mountain just to watch their match. And we are very much willing to spend money and time just to root for their idols. And most of the time we always ignore the effect of our craving to the environment.

If Manny Pacquiao has moved on, I think its time for us fans to move on also. And let’s do it with a cause. How? Well it is very easy, an idea popup to my mind when I saw some of the posted comments in the Sports News that I had read. Many posted comments encourage not to watch the fight of Pacquiao or Mayweather if they will be fighting different fighters. I know that even though some of you are diehard fans, your interest was also lessened when you learned that the match is not between Pacquiao and Mayweather. Being a Filipino, I am a die hard fans and it will not be easy for me not to watch his fight. Since he became famous I never failed to watch his fight.

This is not Manny's fault and he is a very good man, but I think this is a good time for us to use our concern for the environment as the main reason for not watching the fight of Pacquiao. No travel means no fuel to burn; we can also avoid the TV Network from showing to much commercial just to satisfy their greed for money which gives us headache on our electricity bill. We can teach those boxing promoters that they cannot take advantage of our hard earned money by keep fitting Manny to another fighter until we lose our interest on it. Let show them that we already reached that point and we will not support boxing until the much anticipated mega fight has been shown.

Decongesting Traffic in a Green Way

2010-07-24T22:57:00.000-07:00

If you still remember on my previous blog, I condemned those who cut the trees along Mc Arthur highway here in San Fernando Pampanga. The cutting of trees was previously halted due to the intervention of some environmentalist, but after few months they are back again. The hot temperature even after a strong rain, the heat wave and the previous devastating flood failed to encourage this group that global warming is for real and this due to the increasing amount of carbon dioxide in the air and rampant cutting of trees that clean them.

I learned that the reason they are cutting the trees is because of the road widening project. But the way I look at it, the widening of the road doesn't help in reducing traffic congestion. It looks like that traffic congestion is much worse today than before the roads were widened. They are also installing drainage system but the stretch of Mc Arthur highway in San Fernando is not being flooded because of the trees and grass on both side of the road.

The place where the trees were planted were paved to add additional lane, sad thing is the additional lane is not being used as road but a parking lot for big trucks car and public utility vehicles. Some enterprising individuals also put a stall for their merchandise on the additional lane.

I understand that we need to widen our roads due to the growing number of vehicles and to decongest traffic jam but if possible let's make it less damaging to the environment. For example in the Mc Arthur highway we can add additional lane without cutting the trees because the space between the trees and road boundary is big enough for one additional lane. These additional lanes can be intended for public utility vehicles, so that they will not block non passenger vehicles when they are loading and unloading passengers. These trees can also be used as barriers so that big trucks cannot park on the additional lane. Or the additional lane can also be used as bike lane which will become the first bike lane here in the Philippines, this will encourage Filipino to use bike instead of car because it is safe already to use bike because of the bike lane.

As we improve our roads we need also to improve our discipline. As I see now the traffic congestion is not cause by limited road space but rather due to lack of discipline of some individuals. The cutting of those trees doesn't worth in trying to resolve the problem cause by our lack of discipline. If only the person in charge of this project have a little care for the environment, he/she will also see that these trees were not the cause of traffic congestion.

Mercury

2010-06-25T23:37:00.000-07:00

The advent of Internet help people to discover a lot of things. It also became a very important tool of some people to become famous. But right now most people are now preoccupied with social networking such as Facebook, Bebo and Friendster. This maybe the reason, they failed to discover important information regarding their health and environment.

Although I have also tried using this online social networking, I never got hook to it, I still prefer reading news and blogs. One day I bump into an article about light bulbs, the author made a comparison on available light bulbs in the market and give info which one is the most practical to use. Through this article I learned that CFC bulbs contain mercury that is harmful to our health and environment. I learned that this chemical can damage the brain and nervous system, especially in children and fetuses.

But it looks like that I am one of few Filipinos knew that information even though
today we are drowning in a sea of information: 24-hour news channels, newspapers, magazines and the crashing pandemonium of the Internet provides us with a gushing abundance of real-time information about events happening throughout the world.

In the US, CFC bulbs packaging contains special handling instructions for breakage and they have a clear guidelines on how spent lamps be properly disposed or recycled. The retail price includes an amount to pay for recycling, and manufacturers and importers have an obligation to collect and recycle CFLs. Safe disposal requires storing the bulbs unbroken until they can be processed.

Here in the Philippines there is no regulation specifically designed for CFC bulbs and tube, no wonder why the CFC bulb is very cheap here in the Philippines. You can buy CFL bulb as low as 25 pesos or $0.55. You can buy it directly from Chinese traders or it can also be bought from famous hardware and store, there is price difference, but whether it is cheap or expensive or you bought it in a known store or not, the packaging still have no instruction on how to handle breakage and how to properly dispose it. Worse thing there are no information that will educate buyer that it contains hazardous chemical.

There are a lot of proofs that majority of Filipinos were not yet aware of the danger of this harmful chemical. One glaring example is when a contestant in a top reality talent show in the Philippines use breaking CFC tubes on his head as his talent. Spent bulbs can be seen in garbage can, some are already broken, it can also be seen thrown on a vacant lot or even on a busy street wherein passerby doesn't give a damn.

I hope the new government are already aware of this ongoing problem and implement a strict law that will prevent mercury contamination of our food and water.
And I hope it is not yet too late, this has been ongoing for so long now and it is possible that mercury is already part of our daily diet and drinking water.

Election Aftermath

2010-05-30T00:37:00.001-07:00

As usual majority of the candidates in the last May 10, 2010 election did not try to be earth friendly when campaigning. And same as past election, the Philippines is littered with election paraphernalia after the election. The big burdened lies again to our poor street cleaners.

But there is one change that is very positive. The Philippines held their first automated election. During the manual counting of votes, the counting usually takes months before the winner will be proclaimed but due to the automation the counting of votes only took weeks. This not only help speed up the election and lessened the burdened of election personnel, it also help reduce the carbon emission. The automated election make the counting in the Precinct level finish in just one day, this save a lot of electricity being used during the counting of the vote. And since the results of the counting is being transmitted electronically to municipal and provincial board of canvasser, no need to use a lot of gasoline powered vehicle to ferry the ballot boxes and election returns. This save a lot in transportation cost for election personnel, watchers and candidates.

I hope this is the start of the improvement of Philippines ' election. There are still some minor glitches but this maybe because it is the first time we automate the election. I hope that we will learn from our mistake and those glitches that give us a little delay in voting will no longer be there on the next election. I also heard that the Commission of Election will penalize those candidates that put their campaign poster in the non-designated poster area. Though their intention is not to avoid pollution due to non-biodegradable materials being used as election paraphernalia, this will at least discourage future candidates to use that kind of materials. I also noticed that there are already some Filipinos who volunteered in the cleaning, what amazing is that all the campaign materials they were able to collect will be recycled and their intention for helping is to clean the environment.

Philippines Election 2010

2010-05-08T18:51:00.000-07:00

On May 10, 2010, we will select again our new leaders. There was no survey conducted that will show what is the majority of the Filipinos want to their new leader. But if you will base it on the survey that determines who is leading in the presidential race, it looks like that the Filipino prefers honest leader while expertise in business in close second. This is because the leading candidate for president is a son of pro-democracy icons. A win for leading candidate Benigno "Noynoy" Aquino would return power to a dynasty that has near saint-like status in the Philippines. His father, Ninoy Aquino, was a democracy activist and vocal opponent of martial law. He was gunned down and killed at Manila Airport in 1983. His mother, Corazon Aquino, subsequently led the famous "People Power" movement that ended martial law and ushered in democracy. She was later elected president from 1986 to 1992. Noynoy has done a very, very effective job as presenting himself as the least corrupt candidate. While Noynoy's main rival, Manuel Villar, is a self-made billionaire with a rags-to-riches story, who has tried to run a populist campaign promising that he will use his business expertise in removing the Filipinos from poverty.

If the Filipinos choose them because of their campaign promises, that means this survey also shows that environment is not yet the main concern of the majority of the Filipino right now. This is because Nicanor Perlas the presidential candidate known to be as environmentalist lags behind in the presidential survey. This is not hard to accept for the Filipinos to have this choice because Philippines ranked No. 139 in Transparency International's 180-country Corruption Perception Index last year, far worse than China (79), India (84) or even Indonesia (111). And the country's per-person GDP, at $3,300 on a purchasing-power basis, lags behind many Asian peers, and about one-third of the Philippines' 100 million populations live in poverty.

What is not acceptable is majority of the candidates does not include the environment on their campaign promises and sadly their way of campaigning is harmful to environment. I already discussed the campaigning strategy of Filipinos in my previous blog; entitled "Environment Friendly Campaigning" this will show how I consider it as not environment friendly way of campaigning. And unfortunately it is still happening in this election.

Earth Hour 2010

2010-04-25T19:05:00.000-07:00

I was not home when the Earth Hour began; we have a practice for the coming basketball tournament in our barrio. We were able to finish the practice before the earth hour started but we still decided to meet in the house of our manager to talk about our game plan. We were preoccupied by our discussion and we failed to notice that the earth hour already started, we were just reminded by the wife of one of the player that earth hour already started and encouraged our host to turn off the light because she already did that on their house. Our host responded immediately and turn off all the lights on their house. And he even looks sorry that he failed to do it earlier.

I'm not sure if they also participated in the previous earth hour but the scene I see is a welcome development towards our fight against global warming. This is only show that the earth hour is working and it brings awareness to the Filipinos.

I am very happy with what I witness but I became worried that I am the one who did not participated in the earth hour. Since I wasn’t home, it is possible that my family did not turn off the lights. Because I remember last year when my wife noticed that our neighbors are not participating, she is hesitant to turn off the lights. But when I went home, I was happy to see that all the lights were turn off even though our neighbors still did not participate in the Earth Hour.

Pacquiao vs. Clottey, TV Network vs. Environment

2010-04-04T23:54:00.000-07:00

Last March 14, 2010, was a Pacquiao fever again. Pacquiao fought Clottey for WBO Welterweight Championship and as expected majority of the Filipinos were glued on TV. Every time Pacquiao have a fight, almost the entire Philippines pause for a while to witness Manny Pacquiao's fight. Streets in the Philippines become empty and there is no traffic and according to police authority, there is a 0 crime every time Pacquiao's fight.

Another advantage is due to the temporary halt in Filipino activities, carbon emission was halted also. I have a co worker that is complaining on the very long commercial in between rounds of the Pacquiao fight. I told him that it is good because the longer the Filipinos glued on TV the lesser carbon emission. But he told me I am wrong because the television consume electricity therefore the longer it is on, the more pollutant being emitted.

I realized that my co worker have a point, due to the greed for money of the TV Network that is showing the Pacquiao's fight, the commercials usually takes 8 to 9 minutes in between rounds, they also put commercial on every national anthem sang and introduction of fighters, they also done this even on the supporting bouts which is why it takes almost 6 hours just for the 3 boxing cards they televised.

Ironically this TV Network is one of those organizations who participated in the recent Earth Hour and produced a commercial that encouraged Filipinos to join. But it looks like that they will only help the environment if this will not have any effect on their profit. If I remember correctly this is also the TV Network wherein one of their TV personalities asked the audience to turn off the light but not the television.

Sad thing is most of those watching in the free televised Pacquiao vs. Clottey belongs to impoverished citizens of the Philippines because they cannot afford the Pay per View. Imagine how much will the increase on their electric bill because of their television is open for a very long time. How can a multi awarded network was able to take advantage of this poor people just to earn big profit. This TV Network needs to be careful because Pacquiao love his countrymen very much and if he will learn that somebody is taking advantage of them, it is not impossible for him to leave this TV Network as a sign of support for his countrymen and the environment. And the most damaging that may happen is if the Filipinos unite and decided to boycott them. It will be like Ondoy to them, the Natures way of getting the attention of the people for their complete disregard of the environment.

Ningas Kugon

2010-03-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

I am planning to investigate who planted the trees along one of the main road here in Pampanga so that I can write an article about him/her as a way of saying thank you for helping the environment. Due to busy schedules, a month passed by but I wasn’t able to check it out. Unfortunately during the lull I found out that it is only a one day project.

No one is watering the plant and they let the grass grow around the trees. So when there is a grassfire, the trees that were planted were also burned. The only remnants that I can see now is the dried trunk of the trees, there still some few trees that survived but I was wondering if the remaining trees can still survive the long drought. According to the government weather agency, there will be a long drought due to the El Nino phenomena.

It seems that this is another testament to ningas kugon attitude of most Filipinos. Ningas Kugon refers to the Filipino attitude of only good at first; they will start a project or work but will not finish it. This maybe the reason why after a known personality claimed that they planted trees, he/she will no longer update us on what happened to the trees that they planted. This also answer my question why after so many politician, government or non government organization claimed that they planted trees our forest still dwindling and trees in the countryside are decreasing. It is sad that the environment became an unhappy victim of the Filipino ningas kugon.

If we really want to resolve the problem with global warming our ningas kugon attitude should be removed and address proper urban and regional planning in our environmental endeavor until to the end. Until we have that attitude any good environment project that we will start will all be wasted.

An Unpopular Green Program

2010-02-20T18:00:00.000-08:00

Our company is campaigning for a Green Program. The goal of this program is to save resources by switching off unused lights, be frugal in the use of tissue paper and by not leaving the faucet open.

As expected it was not accepted with open arms by some employees. They think that this is another way of the company to maximize their profit. And they feel that the company is just trying to penalize them. They didn't think that it would be better for the company to do this than to reduce their benefits. Any savings the company may get for this program might be used to increase our salary and benefits.

I am just wondering why there are people who cannot stop their wasteful habit and complete disregard of the environment. Do they not know what is good and what is right? I am saddened that they cannot accept the environment as a replacement for their miniscule sacrifice. An energy saving of 1 million kWh of electricity can avoid 800 tons of CO2 emissions and a savings of approximately 80,000 pesos.

Until there are people who cannot make a small sacrifice for the environment, politician wherein agenda for the environment is just being used to attract supporters and people that still believe that global warming is not for real, the threat of global warming is still far from over.

Environment Friendly Campaigning

2010-02-14T19:40:00.000-08:00

I watched TV and learned from the news that campaign period for May 2010 National Election already started. Though streamers, banners, posters and campaign paraphernalia of some candidates can already be seen all over the place, you cannot tell if the legal campaign period already started because it is common practice of some candidates here in the Philippines to violate the prescribed campaign period.

As usual Philippines ' election always marred by cheating, mudslinging and violence. Money is flooding during election and the recent Maguindanao massacre is a reminder that Philippine politics is still very much dominated by goons, guns and gold. There is already some action that were done to prevent this from happening like the computerization of this year election. This is a welcome development, and lets pray that this will already stop cheating and other election violation.

Another good development is the issue of global warming; it is now becoming an issue in this year election. Unlike on all the previous elections, the environment is always taken for granted. Not even one brought up the problem with our environment.

We can now see some environment concern citizens that are begging to the candidate to take consideration of the environment when campaigning. They also encourage voters not to vote for those candidates who will not take care of the environment. And you can hear now some candidate that environment is already part of their agenda.

Unfortunately, for some candidates, it is just a lip service. You can still see their posters, banners and streamers hanging on trees. Some were nailed and tied to tree branches, which harm the tree that helps clean the air. And like on all previous election, the campaign materials become a nightmare for garbage collectors and street cleaners. Most of these campaign materials are made of plastic or tarpaulins which take years before it will decompose. Most of this will be added to mountains of garbage that emits methane gas.

Its time for them to change their way of advertising their name and agenda. Instead of using poster, banner or streamers, print their name and agenda in a shirt, GI-sheet, plywood, mugs, caps or umbrella. They can distribute the shirts with their name to victims of calamities, like Typhoon Ondoy and Mayon volcano eruption. The GI-sheet can be used as roof and plywood as wall by those who lost their homes due to these calamities. Use materials that can be useful to our daily lives so that it will not end up in the garbage can. This will also helps industries that manufactured this kind of products. They can also use media like television, newspaper, Internet and radio, using this media will give them enough exposure in the whole countryside without harming the environment.

Let also hope that our Commission on Election will include the banning of campaign materials and way of campaigning that will be harmful to the environment on their rules and regulations. And the new leaders will implement their promise of protecting the environment and hope all the voters will include environment as one of the factor of choosing a candidate. Let me borrow the parting word of one of TV reporters, if a candidate cannot take care of the environment during campaign period how can we trust them of our future when they win.

My Not So Environment Friendly ISP

2010-02-05T23:05:00.000-08:00

I am planning to write more articles for my blog and made some improvement on it but my mind is not that quick enough to think of new topics to write. Another hurdle that keeps me from writing more articles is my Internet connection. My slowness in thinking for new topic cannot beat the slowness of my Internet connection.

Do they not understand that due to slow connection their customer spent more time online and consume more electricity. And consuming more energy means more carbon emission, thus destroying the earth that we live in. Sad thing is this company use earth as their logo but does not give importance to it. If they don't want to give importance to their customer, at least to the logo that they are using.

A slow Internet connection can be very annoying when you are trying to do something on the Internet. It became more annoying when you keep calling this Internet Company to complain the slow connection but there still no improvements. I have a friend who call almost everyday but still have a slow Internet connection, he ends up canceling his subscription. But of course there is a consequence; there is a one year contract that you need to fulfil before you can cancel the subscription without incurring any penalty. Since he was only subscribed for lest than two months, he was charged an early cancellation fee.

Almost all the ISP here in the Philippines requires a lock-in period before you can subscribe, some last up to two years. I think this need to be stopped since; this is very disadvantageous to customer. It is not fair to keep your subscription even they provide you a poor service. It is time for our government to step in stop this malpractice. And for all environmentalists, I think we need to consider them as one of the polluters of the environment that we need to stop and penalize.

Rebuilding My Bike Into a Better One

2010-01-23T18:58:00.000-08:00

As I mentioned on my previous post, the threat of global warming should led to advocacy of bicycles as an environment-friendly means of transport.

And since my New Year's resolution is to tighten my belt even more, and since I am advocating the use of bike, I have decided to refurbish my bike which already collecting rush and dust at the back of our house.

I bought this bike a long time ago because I want to use it when going to work and reduce my transportation cost, but since it's an uphill battle, especially in the Philippines where cyclists face a particularly hostile environment: road rage-crazed and cyclist-hater drivers, traffic-choked streets, relentless heat or torrential rain and air pollution, I have stop using it. Another obstacle comes from an unexpected source: the bicycle itself. Since I cannot afford expensive bikes I have no choice but to buy the cheapest one. Since it is cheap, it has a poor quality and not comfortable to use. I cannot use it for long travel because it is like pedaling a pedicab that has three passengers and usually the chain disintegrate from its plate.

Another reason I lost interest in bike is because I'm the only one who use it for practical means in our office. Though some people who work in factory and construction use it as a way of transportation, some office workers cycling is seen more as a recreational sport rather than a practical means of getting around.

I have decided to just rebuild my old bike because it will be hard for me to look for a cheap but durable and high performance one. In countries where cycling is an accepted form of mass transport, mainly in Asia and Europe, cheap, durable and practical bicycles are readily available. In countries where the car is king, such as the US and, sadly the Philippines , you need to look harder to find them. Local bicycle retail industry has chosen to focus on the expensive and high-performance bike market, to the virtual exclusion of everything else. That's fine if you're in the market for an ultra light, 20-speed, and carbon fiber racing bike or a full-suspension aluminum alloy mountain bike with front and rear shock absorbers and 27 speeds. If not, you're just out of luck.

I am planning to rebuild my bike into high performance and comfortable bike, even though I need to use expensive bicycle parts to accomplish it. That will still be cheaper though compare to buying a new one. I opted to use expensive parts so that I will not be forced to abandon it again because of poor quality. I am planning to use it for a long time hoping that Philippines will become a safe and encouraging place for bikers and a country where bicycles are tools not toys.