EDITORIAL - Slap in the face

Call it anything you want. But what local environmentalists got from Noynoy Aquino last Monday was nothing less than a slap in the face. And you know what the surprising thing was about that? Most everybody loved it.

"Ano ba ang gusto nila, magkaroon ng rotating brownouts for the next two to three years or hanapin nating ng solution yong mga concerns nila, na madali lang naman masolusyonan yan," the president said when told about the environmentalists.

The president was in Cebu to inaugurate the new power plant of Kepco-SPC in Naga City and was told environmentalists are not only against the coal-fired plant but have in fact filed cases to stop its operation.

The president correctly pointed out that a coal-fired plant, provided it uses so-called "clean coal" technology now in use in many modern countries and complies with environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act, is a better option than crippling power shortages.

This is precisely the same reason why local environmentalists have remained isolated and failed to gain significant support for their advocacies. They are too idealistic and impractical. They have a mindset that shuts out existing realities that need to be factored in their equation.

These realities include the fact that the perfect environment they envision for the Philippines cannot be realized given our shortcomings, and that perfect environments must first originate in developed countries where they are more realizable at this time.

The Philippines simply is not in a position to adopt cleaner technologies to power life as we know it. So we make do with what we can. Refusing to recognize that and instead insist on impossible environmental ideals is to bring down life as we know it to a halt.

And when that happens, do the environmentalists have the mitigating measures in place, in quantities and qualities sufficient to forestall chaos when everything grinds to a halt? To come up with throw-back prototypes of coping is too simplistic as to be ridiculous, nay idiotic.