For instance, the French Revolution is believed to have been partially caused by a summer drought in 1783 followed by an extreme winter in 1784 which are hallmarks of a severe El Nino (ENSO). These two events led to failed wheat harvests and then to rising bread prices, which were the tipping point for the revolution. Ineptitude, corruption and conspicuous consumption in the ruling classes in the light of poor food security have been identified as the key factors in the revolution. Of course we cannot dismiss the importance of Enlightenment ideas and the perceived disconnect of the Roman Catholic Church with the concerns of the poor.

The Russian Revolution had also environmental roots. A spate of severe winters in the early 20th century resulted in poor harvests. The winter was severe in 1914 and with Russia involved in a costly war (as well as the ineptitude of the Tsar and the issue about Rasputin), the end of the Romanovs was inevitable

The 1896 Philippine Revolution had also environmental roots. A spate of El Nino related droughts in the 1880s as well as increasing taxation severely affected the poor’s access to food contributing to the unrest prior to 1896. This has been documented in the studies Luis Camara Dery which have been published and available at reputable bookshops in the Philippines. Even the ilang-ilang flowers were taxed when food was scarce.

Mrs Carmen Guerrero-Nakpil puts its well in her historical essays “For want of flowers, an Empire was lost”

My environmental science students are thinking that with El Nino, poor food security, an extremely corrupt ruling elite and “acts of God” like that earthquake in Tuguegarao :-), we have all the ingredients for revolution.  The tipping point is so near.

While political pundits and op-ed columnists  (who I believe need more environmental and historical sensitivity)  have analyzed EDSA 1, EDSA2 and EDSA 3 , they have missed out that food security was never a major issue in these political upheavals. Common to all revolutionary situations is food insecurity which under yellow tinted glasses may be missed out. Sure corruption and poverty were but those who lived through 1985-1986 would remember that the face of hunger was in that Negros waif named Joel Abong (if I remember correctly). Negros is far from EDSA and the middle classes while they showed empathy were also distant from the issue. But in 2010 the face of hunger can be seen in so many of the urban poor just in front of Manila’s trendy malls where the middle class cools off. There are so many Joel Abongs on the streets.  The smaller middle classes can no longer be distant anymore.

Are we in the El Nino that will tip it over?

I would agree. It is really bad. And like her, I have been traveling in many places in the Philippines since December and I have noticed that this 2010 ENSO episode could tip the Philippines over the edge. In Ilocos and Cagayan Valley, I have seen wilted corn, dried up fields with the rice crop planted last December failing to make it to harvest and the wilted veggies. Perhaps nothing hit me hard (being a pinakbet lover that I am) that the eggplants were being harvested and they were almost as thin as a purple “sitaw”. Since calabasa is a crop that requires a lot of water, we may be served pakbet with only sitaw and no talong, okra and calabasa!

The latest stats on how  much has been lost due to the ENSO is in the news and it runs at least to 3 B pesos. The loss can be as much as 10 B or more considering we are just at the start of the 4 month long hot and dry season. My student briefed the class about the fact that ruminants (cows and carabaos) are now dying. The network news report that chickens are dying in central Luzon poultry farms. In Cagayan, I was told by farmers that they may have to cull their “itik” since these birds cannot survive the expected long periods of extreme heat.

And this remark came from Tuguegarao and Iguig residents! Cagayanos are used to living in summer temps of up to 40 C and to a certain extent, that is a source of pride. But now they are worried that they would have this temps for long stretches of time.

I am not a stranger to bad ENSO episodes. I spent a few years in the land of ENSO a.k.a northern Australia. I have experienced the worst of the dry and the wet. But Australians especially those living in regional Australia, are used to this climate phenomenon. Filipinos have experienced ENSO but I believe that nobody at present has experienced this kind of ENSO we have now. I keep on telling my students that this kind of ENSO is considered bad even by Australians.

While ENSO has periodically affected Australia for millions of years  (The kangaroo is an example of a mammal that is perfectly adapted to ENSO!), Australian food security isn’t threatened much by a bad episode since Australia is a large country but has just 20 million or so people. The Philippines on the other hand, has 90 million or more people, an archipelagic country and is a rice eating nation that now imports a huge fraction for its needs. Rice as we all know is a water intensive crop.

We don’t really know if this ENSO is somewhat directly linked with global warming although some climate models predict that we will have a global climate pattern called a  “general ENSO state” (Collins et al. 2005, Climate Dynamics, 24, 89-104) which means more expected and we hope not permanent ENSOs and probably drier conditions on our part of the planet.

The current ENSO and its agricultural effects has environmental scientists worried. On the human health side, many Filipinos have no experience of prolonged hot and dry weather. This is revealed that for many of us,  the experience of extremely hot weather is limited to “Holy Week” and that really only lasts for 4 days!  Extended periods of having 38 C  or more temps in Metro Manila may result in a higher death rate among the elderly and those with cardiovascular health problems similar to what was experienced in the European summer heat wave of 2005, when an estimated 10,000 people or more died. The Europeans were not used to having prolonged spells of temperatures above 33 C.  While PAGASA may forecast Manila to have 34-35 C temps, our heat island research points out that the real temps due to the effects of a built -up environment can be 3-4 C more than the forecast temperature. So we can have extended periods of having 39-40 C temperature. People living in desert climates are used to this and have behavioral adaptations to cope with this, but I doubt if we Filipinos have these adaptations.

But as a wag told me, we Filipinos are particularly adapted to talking about politics. (FV posts are a supreme example!)

But seriously, the food security situation is beginning to look dire and it is just the end of February. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo may turn over the presidential palace to her successor on June 30  with a famine on her train. Ask any of your grandparents who lived through World War II. They would tell you that the Filipino people experienced famine  within the last century only during the Japanese occupation and that was not due to climate change but to colonial master change!

The next President of the Philippines should now be aware that even as a candidate poverty or corruption  are not the immediate problems but food security. Surely these are problems but their solutions will take more than one presidential term. Food security can be immediately addressed at the start of the term.

And last September Catholic bishops ordered an “Oratio Imperata” against the rain. Now they are ordering another for rain!

If I were God……….I would say “Wait a minute. You brought this upon yourselves!”

And BTW God is still kind,  He/She allowed the evolution of the supreme ENSO veggie which is  none other than sigarilyas. This bean requires little water or fertilizer, and is nutritious filled with protein and vitamins and likes this kind of weather we have now.

And this I reflect on as I gaze into a cloudless Philippine sky and recall my days as a student living in northern Australia’s dry!

Clean up the trash.

Upgrade the sewage system.

Pick up your trash. Don’t throw plastic into the rivers.

Rationally apply Urban Planning. Enough of “spot zoning”.

Don’t vote bozos into Congress.

Vote for bozos who provide winning solutions and demonstrated these in the past – not because they are “winnable”.

Everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong.

When nature came knocking at the door, people paid for these preventable mistakes with their lives.

This is an I TOLD YOU SO moment.

The chickens have come home to swim, in Manila.

Comprehensive Development Plans

The Philippines practices Urban Planning and each city has a Comprehensive Development Plan (CDP) crafted. Implementation is another matter though.

Coming up with a CDP is an involved process which entail a series of public hearings where the public provides its inputs to the CDP. In areas where the citizenry are uninvolved, the process practically institutionalizes the local elite’s dominance of the domestic market for goods and services. They can direct the development so that if they happen to have properties adjoining the area then there will be an appreciation of the value of the property.

However, the practice of “spot zoning” has rendered lots of CDPs inutile.

Spot Zoning

Wikipedia defines “Spot Zoning” as

The Planner’s Web website provides more details on spot zoning

“Spot Zoning” is a lucrative business. Firms lobby legislators to pass the spot zoning ordinance. In the process, the bounty is distributed to all who vote in favor of the spot zoning legislation. This allows the likes of pig farms, coconut oil refineries, activated charcoal plants to operate within areas which are clearly zoned as residential.

If one were to review all the spot zoning ordinances, one will see the active players. Allegedly, the offer is made to the senior legislators, both the majority and minority floor leaders – and the leadership of the City Planning Office – all the way to the mayor/governor. This process is replicated many times over – through generations, through administrations, throughout the archipelago – no exceptions.

Looking to the future, the dynamics of “spot zoning” and homelessness need deeper examination if lessons are to be learned.

The Familiar Road Ahead

As people come to grips with the catastrophe and the fact that lives could have been saved, one can just imagine the wave of fingers assigning blame – the Blame Game. The Blame Game is a familiar group activity in the corporate world, here’s how it is played:

1. Start by identifying a serious problem, the more imminent and avoidable, the better.
2. Point your finger directly at someone who has nothing to do with the problem.
3. Think of an unfounded, false accusation that implicates him.
4. State it loudly and unashamedly. This is called Passing the Blame.
5. Watch that person shrivel in terror.
6. Play then passes to the person you’ve pointed at.

The object of the game is to keep the Blame Session going as long as possible. Remember that no one is ever allowed to offer an actual solution to the problem. You earn bonus points for blaming people not at the meeting while keeping the Blame Session alive. When any player is unable to Pass the Blame, the Blame Session ends. At this time, the players choose a Scapegoat.

One brief word of advice: If this game is an accepted part of your corporate culture, decide now to leave. Look for another job, or whatever it takes to get out. But do get out.

One Scapegoat to Take The Fall

“Someone Must Be Punished”, whether through demotion, redifinition of responsibilities, or exile to some concern of no value or importance. Termination is the toughest measure and used only rarely; though in a Fear-dominated culture the ScapeGoat usually does get sacked.

Failures have many causes. Too often the sins of all those involved are concentrated into the persona of a single individual, as though this figure, once “fixed”, will take away all the ills that have befallen the undertaken. It is essentially a ritual for the appeasement of external or public concerns. However, its traditional use is the punishment of a symbol in place of the review and re-engineering of more fundamental challenges.

When society lives by a culture of seeking scapegoats, the consequences can be disastrous. Placing the focus on finding someone to blame may let the real culprit go undetected. Genuine mistakes can keep on staying under the radar and graver results may occur.

Blame and Disempowerment

J Timothy King’s blog points out that in a recent research conducted by Raj Persaud, author of The Motivated Mind revealed that ““Blaming what happens to you on external forces encourages a victim mentality that frequently leads to inactivity and self-loathing.” When you blame others for your problems, it’s becomes more difficult to take on those problems, and even harder to solve them. According to Persaud’s research, this has a number of effects:

Instead of assigning the blame for a problem, we can look hard for all the other reasons that may have created the problem.  If we want to work on solving the problem, we focus on ALL the issues that caused it. We can learn about what we did/didn’t do and what we can do to fix the part under our control. For the most part, we are made to believe that blame leads to punishment. And we fear punishment, so the blame is deflected as a first resort. Due to this fear of punishment, we gripe and bellyache about things beyond our control instead of making a difference in the areas where we can.

Blame disempowers and will not be helpful to the “victim”.  It also affects morale and productivity. It is difficult for people to be innovative, courageous, and ethical in a workplace where a culture of blame exists because so much effort is exerted to protect one’s ass. This does not mean that people will not be held accountable because any serious wrongdoing and unethical behavior needs to be dealt with judiciously and promptly. Blame for blame’s sake is counterproductive. However, taking appropriate responsibility empowers and lets us know what we need to do to fix things.

So how does a culture of blame take root? It can be due to a climate of fear instilled by a bullying boss or authority figure. Sometimes it’s because of a culture of “happy talk” or “blue sky” – people just want to hear the good news. When that’s all the “boss” wants to hear, people tend to keep away from passing the bad news. Or if “shooting the messenger” is widespread, people will keep silent and there will be no real accountability.

When there is a gap between what’s on the table and what’s not being said, then there are serious issues for an organization or a society for that matter. These are very ripe fields for a culture of blame to take root and flourish, because there is no tolerance for reality. And if it’s a harsh reality, then someone must be blamed.

A Culture of Blame vs a Culture of Examination

The story of the little train that could demonstrates the superior results that can be generated from examination and movitivation. We have an intrinsic behavior to look for a scapegoat and we will find ways to justify why the person being singled out should take the blame. In this instance, blaming the employee will lead to passing the buck, and starting the blaming game. In doing so, we lose sight that the culprit could be a defective process or a defective input to the process. Thus, no matter who took on the role the result will always be flawed because the methodologies are defective in the first place – it was doomed right from the start!

The primal challenge therefore entails shifting from a culture of blame to a culture of examination. Assigning the blame is easy, motivating the stakeholders to become accountable for their future is where the crux of the matter lies. Apparently, people do not feel safe enough or confident enough to look truth straight in the eye enough to effect good.

And so the task of transformation continues – encouraging people to take a deeper examination of the issues that confront them in their daily lives and to resist the temptation to blame.

Ondoy is a catastrophe. Still, there is a bigger catastrophe that underlies Ondoy. The culture of blame has disempowered our capacity to do the right thing. We have surrendered our ability to change our political and economic institutions by playing the blame game. Our capacity, as a nation, for denial, for half-truths, for mediocrity, for idiocracy, for compromising our convictions, for not thinking things through – have now come back to haunt us not just in a the form of a rude awakening – but a deadly one at that.

What can we do right this time around? Are we willing to snap out of denial and look at the harsh realities that confronts us, and make the necessary well thought out  adjustments?  Unless we have fish gills, the next mega cyclone to hit us will not care how resilient we are – or whether bayanihan is alive or not – or if bayanihan is a behavior that is uniquely Filipino (please stop me from barfing).

Yesterday, the chickens came home to roost… este…swim. Tomorrow, the chickens could be in submarines.

This year scientists from three UP campuses, Visayas, Manila and Diliman  and DOH medical researchers presented the results of three years of post-spill monitoring. The results are clear. While the acute effects have passed and the resort beaches seem as white as ever, the chronic effects continue and this has started to affect people’s health. Dr Rene Rollon of UP Diliman presented evidence of mangroves and seagrass dying or no recovering. Dr Lem Aragones presented evidence of overfishing aggravated by the oil spill. While 10 years ago, fishers caught 6 kg per trip, now they catch less than 2 kg. Dr Rodel Subade of UP Visayas presented a mixed picture of the island’s economy where tourism seems to be the bright edge.  In ecotoxicology, Dr Flerida Carino and Anna Rivera presented evidence that mollusks consumed by people ingested toxins from residual oil.  Dr Toti Moya described the water crisis facing the island province. Dr Ando Siringan described shore erosion and I described the large scale ecological effects of the spill on shore ecosystems.

The health aspects received the most attention among the people. Dr Lynn Panganiban of UP-PGH presented evidence of abnormal blood chemistry in people living in the worst affected areas. The presence of high levels of blood sulfur may suggest chronic exposure to oil fractions. The physician fears that the worst effects of the spill on human health is just 10 years away when people start manifesting cancers.

The troubling results in all scientific disciplines from chemistry,ecology, economics, geology and marine science show that environmental catastrophes have long term effects. While the government may declare the problem has been solved, this is hardly the case. Damage payoffs may answer immediate needs but the money cannot be expected to last forever. The Congress passed a bill appropriating more than 200 million pesos for meeting immediate rehabilitation needs. But Congress isn’t likely to fund for 20 years. This leaves Guimaras holding the short end of the stick. Guimaras Governor Felipe Nava realizes this and says his constituents should be able to do the rehabilitation on what their revenue can.

To his credit, Governor Nava realizes the importance of scientist input on local government policy and programs. Guimaras may be the only province in the country whose environmental plans are not just driven by political considerations but by good scientific data.

One thing is sure, a chronically stressed Guimaras is something Imperial Manila doesn’t want to hear not after DENR has given the all OK! And this may be a liability for anyone wanting to run in 2010!

I reckon that she has read the latest studies on environment and how it can retard economic growth. That’s good for starters.

Thus environment is the third E in her summary of achievements of her 8 year watch. For the first E economics, even her co-professionals and critics in the business, like Winnie Monsod (who BTW has told a succession of Chancellors and Presidents of UP that she will finish her dissertation!) will admit that she has done an admirable job in doubling the size of the economy despite the concerns over legitimacy and the string of corruption scandals involving her spouse and political allies. The economy grew despite a global recession. It is likely that her macroeconomic reforms has buffered the Philippines against the recession. How long this buffer will last will be seen in the next term of the Philippine executive. For poverty reduction, the jury is still out. IAs for education, her statistics are challenged by several studies made by education professionals. The best that can be said about education in the Arroyo years is that the results are mixed.

On environment concerns, the first term Dr Arroyo focused on liberalizing the investment climate for natural resource exploitation well in accordance with her neoliberal policies. This brought about a year of windfall for companies involved in mining exploration and environmental impact assessment. It also brought in new freshmen for UP’s mining engineering department whose freshmen intake dropped to zero about 7 years ago. With new job opportunities engineers started re-tooling themselves in the environment professions. However with the collapse of the big banks, major exploration investments were put on hold.

The liberalized regime resulted in resource-use conflicts with indigenous peoples, environmentalist groups and people’s organizations. However with the pull back of exploration, an uneasy truce has prevailed. In her last SONA Dr Arroyo has mentioned the risks for climate change. This is rather late in her term since the issue of climate change risks is at least 20 years old and 10 years ago, it became very fashionable and politic. However 20 years ago, advocates of climate change mitigation were on the fringe of public opinion.

The buzz word today is climate change “adaptation” but the present administration focuses on mitigation. Nonetheless that Dr Arroyo has made this a key but extremely late policy of her administration suggests that the economic indicators of climate change has made an impression on her. The Philippines and much of the world’s economy relies on agriculture. Erratic changes in rainfall patterns has doomed the economic recovery of several subtropical countries and has produced the newest class of UN recognized refugees, the environmental ones. Changes in monsoon patterns can mean at least a loss 2% GDP for the Philippine economy. That still does not factor in the costs of flooding and landslides on the economy which can cost at least 10 billion pesos a year. The Philippines is now seeing its own environmental refugees. One need not travel to far off provinces to meet them but many are on the fringes of Metro Manila or even inside the metro itself.

The next Philippine executive will have to deal with population displacement. An American environmental scientist and geographer who has done extensive research in the Philippines once said in a lecture last April that the Filipino diaspora overseas has reduced the pressure on the environment especially in provinces with marginal environments and economies. These provinces have reported increases in forest cover. However rainfall shift and unpredictable monsoons are beginning to make historically productive environments such as Central Luzon and South central and eastern Mindanao into marginal environments. This will threaten the food security of the nation and may half the economic growth prospects of the Philippines. The island provinces of the Visayas will be even more at risk due to their small size and limited water resources. Desertification and prolonged flooding are already the top two major threats to food security. The rice shortage of 2008 was partly due to the 2007 ENSO event which shaved off about 1.5 % of our GDP.

I learned about rainfall shifts as a major economic threat when I was studying in northern Australia.That is why agricultural research in that region focused on dry and wet tolerant crops. However Australians have been used to unpredictable rainfall regimes. Filipinos on the other hand are not used to this and it is only lately that farmers are starting to deal with it. On a visit to Cagayan Valley last April, I spoke with farmers who complained that their corn crop was ruined by a fungus as a result of unseasonal heavy rains. In fact the climate pattern for the supposed “dry” 2009 March to May “summer” season is more of the temperate ‘spring” rains than our “summer” dry. The same unexpected rainfall regime ruined the manggahan festival in Guimaras.

Geographers such as Jared Diamond of UCLA write in a series of papers that economic development is much hampered by the climate and geography of a region. The Philippines is cited as a showpiece case together with sub-Saharan African countries as a country wherein yearly climate related (typhoon) disasters cost so much in human development. While the Philippines has not yet experienced the climate related disease outbreaks in Africa, the epidemiological predictions do not look good. South Asian and Southeast Asian countries are likely to experience more intense rainfall and this couples with disease outbreaks. The Philippines with a barely reduced but still high population growth rate and expecting a flood of OFWs who have lost jobs overseas is not in a good position to deal with this. The response of our DOH and school authorities to the H1N1 pandemic and the flouting of quarantine and health regulations should open eyes.

Thus the claim of Dr Arroyo in her SONA that we are more prepared for climate related disasters and risks need to be taken with a grain of salt. If she were making an example of Bayani Fernando, think twice. The Philippines has just one Bayani Fernando and he was never able to mitigate flooding in Metro Manila but just ensured that floods will recede much faster (which is true). This doesn’t mean that the whole country is prepared. The rapid response of Bayani Fernando may be needed in every province and MMDA cannot handle a succession of disasters without exhausting its employees. At the rate things are going, very expensive engineering interventions must be made and some real solutions are bad politics (like abandoning Malabon and Navotas). BTW abandoning towns due to some environmental catastrophe isn’t new to the Philippines. The town of Taal in Batangas is an example of a town abandoned and re-established on a new site.

But Dr Arroyo who should make a perfect Premier (if Parliament nominates her and the President gives her a commission) with a concurrent environment portfolio given her workaholic habits has seen the economic numbers on this issue quite a bit late. Better late than never! It may be that she read Jared Diamond in Nature! Being an alum of the UP School of Economics, she should have complete access to the archive in JSTOR.

Her electorate to her advantage, are known survivors. But how long can they survive?

Doesn’t this sound like a ridiculous way of being supplied electrical power?

Next time you buy a bottle of drinking water, think of how we’ve been so completely suckered into a dependency on this “product”. It is a product that commands prices that are anywhere from a ten- to 100-fold premium over a more readily-accessible alternative — tap water. Yet the industry is now worth billions.

As a wise man once said:

You can start a lucrative business with a bullshit product. All you need is a few million suckers to sell it to.

Indeed, selling bottled water has proven to be profitable, more so because manufacturers of bottled water do not have to bear the cost of storage and environmentally-sound disposal of the empty plastic bottles. Furthermore the bottles, like most plastic products, are petroleum-based. Let’s also not forget to mention the fuel burned by delivery trucks moving the “product” about.

Bottled water is the biggest scam of the last several decades. How long is it going to take for the sensibilities of humanity to catch on?

Maybe to get a sense of humanity’s track record of coming to its senses, consider that other billion-dollar industry — tobacco. Smoking began to be banned in public buildings and then in enclosed areas only in the last two decades of the 20th Century – thirty years after its grave risks to peoples’ health were discovered. Nevertheless, it is quite remarkable how cigarette smoking has gone from being the über-cool prop it used to be — a la James Dean and his Lucky Strikes — to the stigmatised disgusting habit it is seen to be today.

Why not a similar fate for this modern-day mass insanity? Just like the sight of a full ashtray today elicits revulsion once considered bizarre half a century ago, perhaps we will one day walk into a museum and get a few laughs viewing an exhibit dedicated to that old turn-of-the-century relic of humanity’s victimisation-by-clever-marketing — the Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) bottles used for selling drinking water to an entire generation of suckers.

There is hope:

THE Southern Highlands village of Bundanoon is poised to become the first town in Australia, and quite possibly the world, to ban commercially bottled water.

A town meeting tonight – bearing the almost irresistible slogan “Bundy on tap” – will ask for a formal show of hands on the proposed ban.

All Bundy’s shops have supported a ban, agreeing to lose over-the-counter income in order to combat the hefty carbon footprint associated with bottling water and trucking it around the state.

“It’s also a moral thing, in that it has just been such a wonderful marketing job by the beverage industry, selling people something they can have for free,” said Huw Kingston, who owns a combined cafe and bike shop in the town.

Beverage companies truthfully maintain that bottled water is a healthier alternative to fizzy soft drinks. But the plastic bottles are made from crude oil and most are thrown away rather than being refilled.

See the full article here.

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Pasig River as seen from Jones Bridge and filled with water lilies

This scene baffles me every morning when I walk the stretch of Jones Bridge to go to my office. The mystery that my mind always thinks about is those water lilies that are floating toward the Manila Bay. Where were those lilies came from? How many water lilies are there alive in all the rivers that are connected to Pasig River? Were those lilies planted intentionally to reduce the pollution of the river? These are few of the questions that springs to my mind whenever I see those water lilies that never seem to stop floating in the Pasig River.

Pasig River is an evidence of how Filipinos deal with the environment. During the times of Jose Rizal, Pasig River is still clear and many people relied on it for drinking water. Nowadays, Pasig River is virtually dead and only few dared to swim its filthy waters. Some birds still rely on the river for sustenance by eating edible trash and dead fish.

There is a renewed effort from various groups in revitalizing the dead river. However, for this renewed effort to succeed, they must understand the current situation of, not only the river, but the society that surrounds it and the provinces that have rivers connected to it. They must also study why the project “Piso Para sa Pasig” failed in its mission.

Years of neglect and wasteful lifestyle caused the current condition of Pasig River. Haphazard land use plans and feeble attempts of the Government to apply all the environment laws made the matters worse.

The Philippines is one of the most blessed countries when it comes to natural resources.  We had beautiful beaches, majestic mountains and diverse flora and fauna. The problem is that the Philippines is also blessed with people that do not care with the environment and because of this Pasig River suffers from pollution.

So, when will we see a clean and clear Ilog Pasig? Not as long as the people around it lives wastefully and without due regard to the environment.

I have worked with Antonio “Tony” Oposa  Jr on several environmental concerns. I was pleased to learn that he was given a prestiguous laurel, that is being elected to the board of trustees of the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) in Washington DC.

Tony Oposa is best known for winning a case in the Philippine Supreme Court that is now considered legal doctrine in many jurisdictions all over the world. This case  “Minors Oposa vs Department of Environment and Natural Resources” established as a legal principle the ethical principle of intergenerational equity. My layman’s take on this is that the young and unborn can sue for their rights to a good environment. Lately Mr Oposa has won another case at the Supreme Court when it ordered the government to clean up Manila Bay.  Tony Oposa also inspired other lawyers to take on environmental cases. One of these is Ms Golly Ramos, whom I met in Cebu before. Golly Ramos is a law professor in the University of Cebu and specialises in environmental law, women’s  and family law.

Oposa’s efforts has led the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to create committees in the national and regional chapters to deal with environmental cases.

Oposa’s and Ramos’ work brings environmental law from the idealist and quixotic realm (as one of my ex students and now a budding environmental lawyer put it) to the forefront of legal practice. Hopefully, their work may inspire law students to go into environmental law.

Well we need more lawyers that need not be cast into the sea with a heavy rock tied to their legs!

Planting trees is a good Earth Day activity but it means work

This summer I am not teaching but I am preparing new ways of teaching Environmental Science 1 (Environment and Society) for the coming academic year. ES 1 is one of the more difficult introductory courses to teach. Unlike other general subjects, you cannot “box in” environmental science with a straight laced syllabus.

The truth is that right from day 1 of the semester, students will have to think not just outside the box but beyond it. The science  of environment of course rests on theories. I introduce the following theories 1) Matter and energy links and cycling, 2) Resources, 3) Technology impacts 4) Sustainability and 5) Earth as a system.

Take note I don’t have in the syllabus “climate change”. This is a subject that in my few years of teaching “boxes” in students’ thinking to the extent they mouth what I call “Greenpeace-isms”

Climate change for one thing, cannot be stopped for if there is one thing true about planet Earth’s climate, is that it is always changing. But climate change can be best dealt in the classroom in terms of all the theories earlier mentioned. So I hope students develop a critical eye on events like “Earth Hour” and “Earth Day”.

National Geographic has something on how Earth Day started. What was once a Vietnam War era anti-war type of protest has become a global movement. This year 1 billion people are expected to take part. But sadly many people just celebrate a single day of commitment. That’s why I found Earth Hour an idiocy. For one thing that’s just 6o minutes of commitment.

Earth Day is historical for it ushered in a global awareness of environmental problems. But the Earth Day activity that has the most impact is caring for trees. The usual tree planting we do is a one time commitment, but taking care of trees is a lifetime commitment. As for the usual Earth Day plantings as part of publicity stunts and corporate social responsibility involves a photo op and putting a tree sapling in a hole previously dug by someone else! Then the soil is put back in the hole and voila, I am green and I feel good!

But the foresters I know have said that these Earth Day activities take much from their most pressing responsibility of guarding and seeing that the trees are cared for or protected. Also its the foresters who dig the holes and these weekend environmentalists never even bother to dig the hole themselves.

Planting and carine for trees is the most basic “landcare” activity. It has a pedagogical purpose. Students should internalize after the activity that planting trees means hard work . In fact it is much easier to chop down trees.

So some environmental advocates say that we need to dedicate “Earth lives” if we want to see some positive results. But our Pinoy Earth Day is I believe still a cliche! This morning I saw a media spectacle of an Earth effigy held aloft as a protest in front of DENR’s Visayas Avenue gate. The stunt caused a traffic gridlock which resulted in 1) more greenhouse gases spewed up by idling engines, 2) more NOx emissions and 3) a horrible rush hour!

Now how’s that for saving planet Earth? So just like many things about Pinoy society, our environmentalism has to grow up and send for recycling its cliches.

The environmentalism that counts is more than mere one day gimmicks but something more substantial. Thankfully we have people like Cardinal Dency Rosales of Manila, who as Bishop of Malaybalay showed how the Church can critically be engaged against the illegal logging problem.

BTW, in the photo above, you can just make out the dilapidated UP Institute of Environmental Science and Meteorology (IESM)  building. The good news this Earth Day is that construction of the new IESM building has commenced at the National Science Complex (NSC).  Environmental Science has been a discipline at UP for almost 40 years but hasn’t received much priority in science program development. In the last 20 years, our science development priorities were directed at launching the economy to high technology industrial development. Environment took a back seat. But now the idea of viable “green technologies” has taken the front seat.

The IESM building will be the first “green” academic and research building in the country. While it cannot be completely carbon neutral (sorry, some of the analytical and research equipment requires airconditioning!), at least the teaching building will utilize passive cooling, using appropriate engineering and architectural innovations,  recycled rainwater for toilets, solar energy for lighting, and if there are sponsors, venues for demonstrating “green technologies” for urban settings.

However the 100 million peso budget allocated by the national governmemnt only covers the physical structure itself and given the technical and design specs for the building, this amount is barely enough. We need friends to ensure that the classrooms will have the right facilities to make learning enjoyable. If readers want to sponsor the classrooms, just holler!

Pinutol na puno sa Ayala Avenue

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Photo taken using a Nokia 5800 mobile phone. Taken in front of the building housing Krispy Kreme at Ayala Avenue in Makati.