Mother Earth and eco-platform

Only when US Vice President Al Gore came out recently with his documentary film An Inconvenient Truth, and won an Oscar for it, people around the world suddenly took notice of a creeping problem that encompasses race, religion, culture and geographical boundaries.

I am talking about the issue of Global Warming, the environmental disaster — which hundreds of scientists from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) predicted would happen in the next 100 years — that is surprising the world because catastrophes are happening right now. Locally, the film was shown for free last January at the SM Megamall courtesy of the EarthSavers Movement, led by founding chairman, former DENR Secretary Heherson Alvarez, together with the Department of Education, SINEMALAYA, the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), the National Disaster Coordinating Council (NDCC) and the National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA) and SM Cinema.

Last week, there was an earthquake followed by a tsunami in the Solomon Islands; avalanches and killer floods caused by heavy rains and spring snow melt that killed 150 people in Afghanistan. Still being talked about are the massive floods in New Orleans in the US, as well as killer tornadoes in America. Locally, we have seen how flashfloods killed hundreds in the provinces of Quezon and Leyte, as well as in Leyte and Bicol region due to landslides caused by extraordinary heavy rains.

All these disasters are being blamed on global warming because beginning in the 1900s, when industries were born, we have slowly been building deposits of carbon dioxide and other global warming gases in the atmosphere.

We emit more each day when we burn coal, gasoline, diesel and other fossil fuels, and even our garbage. By doing so, we throw carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and sulfides in the global atmosphere that cause global warming.

Global warming upsets world temperatures, resulting to heat waves and droughts in some parts of the globe, while raging floodwaters devastate the other parts because of the El Niño and La Niña phenomena.

As ordinary citizens, how do we stop or at least help mitigate global warming? Mr. Alvarez shares some practical reminders so we can all help protect our environment. The garbage that we throw away clogs our esteros and waterways, killing marine life and poisoning our drinking water. We can do our part by minimizing the use of energy, electricity, vehicle fuel, food, forest and other resources. We need to reduce the use of air conditioners, motor vehicles and electricity — as this lessens emission from our power plants and less carbon dioxide from our vehicles.

Mr. Alvarez advocacy plans under the auspices of the EarthSavers Movement, with the assistance of the NCCA and the Komisyon ng Wika include the translation of Al Gore’s movie into 10 major Philippine languages for better appreciation. We commend him for his efforts, being also the first Asian Awardee of Climate Change Institute for Public Policy Administration, for this crusade for environmental education.

Alvarez also challenges candidates in all public posts this coming election to bare their environmental agenda or platform. "We hope that in this election season, the critical issue of caring for the environment would not be left out in the candidates’ quest for public office. The voting public must discern whether a candidate’s platform not only includes social service plans but also programs to protect the environment and conservation measures for our natural resources," he said.

The environment should be one of the raging issues in the elections and hope that the people we vote into office this coming May will have the same commitment and conviction to help save Mother Earth.