2005-33594
BS Civil Engineering
The Reality
It's true : Our climate is changing.
The concept of climate change is not a new concept for most of us. In the same way, one may always connect this change to a phenomenon called global warming. Although scientific in nature, the term global warming is self explanatory. In fact, one logical person may actually deduce a lot of effects of this phenomenon from the term itself. Most of the effects, though, that we are familiar are effects for the earth as whole (thus the term global). I must confess, too, that the effects I can enumerate are also related to the earth in general like melting of ice caps in the Arctic, rise of water level in the Pacific and extreme temperatures in African deserts among others. It is only after watching Signos, a GMA7 documentary on climate change, when I realized that the effects of such phenomenon to a developing country like the Philippines could be more serious and threating because of lack of resources for adaptation.
Unlike its predecessors such as Algor's The Inconvenient Truth, Signos highlighted the effects of such global phenomenon particularly climate change in the Philippines. For me, the documentary could be more informative than noneducational since there are no new ideas presented, rather, showed present realities we often overlooked. We might have encountered such signs of climate change presented like the melting of ice caps, decrease in crop production and vegetation, global warming, and existence of climate sensitive diseases like malaria among others in the newspapers, while watching TV, on a conversation with a friend and even through personal experiences.
Unlike polar bears, that are directly affected by the changing climate through melting of ice caps and glaciers in the Polar Region, Filipinos cannot see this globally natured effect of climate change. Despite this, however, more simple but threatening impacts are almost always experienced in our daily live. I can attest the truthfulness of such signs thru my very own experiences. Here are two:
05 August 2008
I struggled to take a bath this morning. It's very cold. This is totally colder than the mornings of my first year in UP way back 2005. Well, if I did not wake up late, I will have time to heat water. But nothing could be colder than the temperature of Departamento ng Filipino at Panitikan ng Pilipinas' AVR where my first class at 7 AM will be held. Thank God I brought my jacket. This has been useful until the end of my CE 110 class. However, after the CE110 class, the temperature drastically changed: from the very cold morning to an extremely hot noon. And so I placed my jacket inside my bag. This will be useless. Oh, I think I will have cold tomorrow. 
25 August 2008
It was a very hot morning of Monday. I was on my way to the grocery when I passed by the Barangay Hall. I can't stop myself noticing the very long line of people waiting for the NFA delivery truck. Most of them had been there as early as 5AM just to be the first in line. This is the sign of the so called “rice shortage”. My grandparents, too, who owns a farm in Valenzuela experieced poor crop production this year. I was told by my grandmother that although new technologies have been available now, they still can't match their production 10-15 years ago.
My personal experiences might be shared by most of us. It might just happen that we are unaware that these daily experiences are brought by the changing climate.
The Unrealized
Signos, like most scientific claims, highlights human activities as a major cause of climate change. Intellectual people may argue, though, that there are other factors too. For example, landslides maybe seen as not only a result of deforestation but also slope stability, soil cohesion and natural phenomenon like earthquake among others. But even though there are other factors, I can say that human activities contribute the most. Continuous emission of greenhouse gases through human activities contribute in destructing the ozone layer and triggers greenhouse effect. Even small act of throwing plastics actually harm the environment.
Unwittingly, we contribute to the pollution of the earth. In Signos, the global heating of earth had been rooted to drastically change after the Industrial Revolution. And so I may say, that there really is a connection between human activities and climate change. For me, the more we develop our living, the more we destruct the earth. Despite this belief, however, I understand that we must not blame technology further. As implied in Signos, we are all suspects and victims of our own crime.
The Realization
Although there is scientific uncertainty in the relationship between human activities and climate change, this 
should not hinder each of us to take proper actions. Atty Rommel J. Casis in a UP Forum article in fact quoted that “ where there are threats of serious or irreversible damage, lack of full scientific certainty shall not be used as a reason for postponing cost effective measures to prevent environmental degradation”. The same stand is shared by Signos .
After watching such a documentary, I have realized that this is not the time to point fingers to others. No one is to blame. In the same manner, I have realized that we are all in grave danger.
Because of this, I fear for my future family that they might not have water to drink and no more place to live. I fear for the Filipino people that the country we once call “home” may not exist anymore if flooded by the rising sea level. I fear for all the species that they might have nothing to eat once the forest are deforested and the oceans acidified. I fear for the mother earth that it will be completely destroyed if such threats of climate change continue to occur. But I repeat: No one is to blame.
I, myself is guilty for being a contributor in the hastening of the earth's changing climate. And I have confirmed that indeed, I am a suspect for the earth murder crime. After honestly answe
ring the Ecological
Footprint Quiz, my carbon foot print results taken from http://www.myfootprint.org showed that I need 4.47 earths if my living condition will continue. This is alarming because this implies that interplanetary explorations is necessary. And so I fear that my conscience will hunt me if I will do nothing.
Signos and the Ecological Footprint Test become an eyeopener for me.
Something must be done. I know. But what is it?
My Ecological Footprint showed that the reason why we need 4.47 earths if everybody is like me is because of my Carbon Footprint which is 64.1
against the country average of 1.7. What I can do is to help recycle. I can recycle papers from previous courses for example by writing on the back of it. I should also reduce my transportation thru carbon emitting vehicles. I should start using bicycle perhaps or just walk for small distances. In this way I will be able to reduce my carbon footprint. But words are easy to say. I should try this.
No, I MUST DO IT!
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References:
Signos: Banta ng Nagbabagong Klima. 
http://blogs.gmanews.tv/signos/category/about-the-show/.
Hungry Hands. http://www.flickr.com/photos/kitoy/2563555398/
Rommel J. Casis. Maroon and Green: The Role of University in Addressing Climate Change. UP Forum. July-August 2008.
Environmental Pollution. http://www.flickr.com/photos/szatya/2363145899/
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