2006-27132
BS Civil Engineering
Apathetic
It’s our hearts that need warming, not our Mother Earth.
I remember my childhood experiences at the Diosdado Macapagal-built tenement. I toured myself everyday through the settlement’s seven floors and barangays, inching through the maze-like halls and ramps. Looking back, it was maze-like due to the settler’s per-floor scheduled week cleaning, which required me to take detours. As the sons and daughters of the original settlers took charge, however, the tenement has changed from shipshape to garbage. Today the tenement is filled with filth and dirt from the inside out.
The new generation of settlers turned apathetic to what is happening to their shelter. As long as it is not required, as long as they are comfortable they tend not to partake in essential issues. The same rings true with us and global warming.
Global warming is the increase in the average measured temperature of the Earth’s near-surface air and oceans since the mid-20th century, and its projected continuation. (1) Not only does global warming increase global temperatures, it also induces climate change. (2)
I can testify that the climate has indeed changed and notably, has become unpredictable. During wash days I and my family are exhilarated to hang our newly washed clothes under the bright sun, only to find out after a few minutes rain soaks our clothes wet. What’s surprising is after a short while the bright sun appears again and we’ll wait to make sure that the weather is fine and hang our clothes again. And then it pours again. This goes on and on until we are tired of trusting the clouds, exclaiming, “Pinaglalaruan na naman tayo ng ulap ngayon!” (“The cloud plays tricks on us again!”)
Nature, on the other hand, testifies the presence of global warming. Signos, a documentary about climate change, covered essential issues that are brought about by global warming in the Philippine setting, such as rising sea levels (and delineation of land), increasing rates of dengue, malaria and other diseases, displacement of people near shore lines, decreasing agricultural and marine products and coral bleaching.
What’s worse is our lack of willingness or inability to act. Either we lack hearts to act on the issues brought about by climate change or we may want to act but we feel incapable to do so.
As if not content of bad news, the worst to come is that even if we reduce our greenhouse gas output, which is one of the primary causes of global warming, to year 2000 levels, further warming would still occur. (1)
What’s next?
Many movements have been launched since the discovery of global warming. These movements slowly change the hearts of people towards global warming. Information campaigns, rallies and work towards action for global warming give us a chance to act from the personal and social perspectives. One such movement by Redefining Progress, the Ecological Footprint quiz, measures our consumption and use of the earth, particularly carbon, food and on the personal level. The site then measures how much earth we need if the whole population were like us. (The current average is 1.5 earths!)
Personally garnering an average of 0.5 earths, the weight of the problem overrules the satisfaction of washing my hands from the problem. We need to think of ways to help these movements towards global warming. True enough, Third World countries will be much more affected in the crisis of warming than First World countries in terms of capability to adapt and supply required needs. (1) Third world countries, however, have less contribution in the crisis than first world countries. This is seen in the capability of countries to consume. This, however, does not entitle us to point fingers.
A large part of being apathetic is the lack of information and the lack of being involved in the problem. Whether we like it or not, we are included on the issue of global warming, as being a country with a wide shoreline, even wider than the earth’s circumference. (2) We need to act. And drop our procrastinations.
Being a part of the solution in the information campaign, we need to sort the politics versus essentials in the warming issue. It may be hard to do so, as politics is intertwined with every issue. However, we need to agree towards the essential issues in global warming in order to act before considering the politics. Simpler said, we need to agree on why we need to act before we discuss how we need to act. Being an isko I need to take part in the continuing research and information campaign through encouraging others to take part in the issue.
Personally, we need to start acting in small ways. Being ecological in the personal basis is a must before teaching others to do so. Building habits and teaching these habits to other people too is a good start, as we are being more open in considering Mother Earth in our daily lives.
Sacrifices are also considerable. Dropping some of our comfort and renewing ourselves, such as walking instead of taking the tricycle, managing computer times and cutting our consumption may be hard, but we will never know where our actions would sum up to.
I firmly believe in the critical mass. By being considerate ourselves, we can teach other people until our influence can be accounted in the society.
Let us not wait for other people to act on the issue. The Earth needs every personal effort in its recovery.
Are we positive or apathetic?
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(1) Global Warming, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Global_warming, Wikipidia November 22, 2008
(2) Global Warming Threatens the Philippines, too, http://www.haribon.org.ph/?q=node/view/660, Tacio, Henrylito November 22, 2008
(3) Ecological Footprint Quiz, http://myfootprint.org/, Redefining Progress, November 16 2008
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