Posted 26 February 2008 - 03:38 AM
I'm a 3rd year high school student and I'm really passionate about the movement against global warming and all other dangers harming (or those that could potentially harm) the environment. I may only be sixteen, but youth is not an excuse for apathy. I live in the Philippines, and you may or may not know this, but Metro Manila is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Everyday, on my way to school at six o' clock in the morning, the first light can't be appreciated because of the dark mass of smog spread out through the city. If you're not taking the bridge, you would hardly notice anything visually, but your nose will definitely wrinkle from the unpleasant and unusual air. On the bridge, the smog can't be missed...even if you tried. Commuting is a hassle because of belching buses and carelessly maintained tricycles. People with no history of asthma are in need of neutralizers and inhalers due to the conditions we face daily. The government has created several republic acts to prohibit vehicle belching and other practices harmful to the environment. But at the moment, the country's too concerned and caught up in the problems we have with our administration and our wayward system that everyone's attention is being diverted from an issue far more severe. We're talking about the lives of future generations and the condition of our resources. In short, we're facing a problem that threatens our very existence. With melting glaciers, shrinking bodies of water, dying crops, filthy air, a hole in the ozone layer, and growing diseases, how much longer would you think the world has? No matter how small the act is, it is the beginning of a chain effect. We have to act now. Start with our personal practices to household practices to village regulations and so on. Sure, you may think your one little car and its consumption of leaded gasoline is harmless; but it's that mentality that got us in this situation in the first place. I'm not exaggerating here, but we have to really start with ourselves in order for us to take the next step into saving our earth. We're dealing with harmful emissions from our cars, excessive (and mostly unnecessary) energy consumption, and even improper waste handling and management.
Pasig River and the mutant plants growing from its depths.
Manila Bay then
Manila Bay now
Manila Bay clean-up service activity
Speaking of waste management, that's a crisis the Philippines has been facing for decades. During my trip to the Manila Yacht Club along Manila Bay, I realized how severe the problem was. This trip was actually a clean-up project where my batch and I got on a few rafts and roamed the bay waters with nets to collect the trash floating in the bay. We were forewarned to maintain our balance and be careful because we might fall in. What the members of the yacht club were afraid of did not having anything to do with drowning...they feared that we could die from poison. And it was during the shore clean-up that we found the most peculiar and most grotesque wastes. We found syringes thanks to the improper waste management of hospitals and we were even informed that a number of the trash we collected came from Vietnam because of the trade winds! This goes to show that when one country's affected, the others get a piece of the action as well. Global warming is already drying up our bodies of water and melting our ice caps, what more when a lot of our bodies of water are poisonous and even hazardous??? On this same day, we visited Pasig River, which has been declared 'biologically dead' because it is MUCH too polluted as it is. And in the Philippines, the Pasig River is our symbol of life. So what does THAT signify?
Our countries may be led by different governments and we may practice different kinds of trade and whatnot, but that does not mean that our countries live in their own worlds. We're all one in the same when it comes to this issue. Sure, the Chinese had Sino-centrism before and the Americans may have had the isolationist policy where they isolated themselves from the war; but this is a war, a battle we all have to face together. Because, in truth, we are battling, not each other, but the effects of our past practices.
Think more critically when segregating, avoid using your vehicles too much, conserve energy, promote recyclable bags, and avoid non-biodegradable wastes. No matter how small your acts may be, they will take a GREAT effect in the future.
Here are some of the small acts I practice...and hopefully, you will too:
1) Refuse the packaging of purchased goods in paper or plastic. (You may think paper is harmless, but they're made from virgin trees and they can't even be used more than five times. Bring your own bag to place your purchased goods in. [But make sure you paid for the goods in your bag
)]. And plastic takes DECADES to degrade. PLUS trees are our source of oxygen.)2) School-wise: Go to school in carpool systems to avoid extra gas emission and to save on gas and water.
3) When drafting anything from songs to essays to proposals or even just writing tiny memos, use scratch paper and paper that has been previously used. We keep scratch paper boxes in school and at home.
4) Practice proper segregation of plastics, wet foods, paper, old metals (old safety pins, paper clips, staple bullets, etc.).
5) Save water. Turn off the faucet when you're not rinsing and still brushing your teeth or soaping your hands or face.
6) Quit smoking. It's not like I ever smoked, but I'm pretty exposed to second-hand smoke thanks to some colleagues who I constantly pester to quit smoking. It's also for your health.
7) Change your internet homepage to www.blackle.com - it saves a LOAD of WATT HOURS
Awesome little quirk, isn't it? 8) Use environment friendly light bulbs. I forced my mom into this. It's a little more expensive, but they last much longer than ordinary bulbs PLUS they save energy.
9) Don't leave your computer on stand-by. Totally shut it off when you're not using it.
10) When appliances or other electronics are not in use, unplug them.
11) Don't fill up your glass with more water than you can finish.
12) I'm a theatrical performer and hairspray is as essential as a heart pulse to me. But I've had to give that up because it really does harm our air.
13) Plant trees or small plants during your spare time. I totally pimped out my garden doing this last summer. Plus you burn a whole load of calories doing this.
14) Recycle soda can tabs. Guess what? I collected a thousand of these tabs and donated them to the hospital last year and there's now a wheelchair somewhere in the hospital under my name. You can do that too
Bonus: I'm anti-fur, anti-leather, anti-animal by-products.
Well, this is just a few of the things I practice. Of course I'd like to do more, but I have to master these small practices first. It's not the quantity of the things you do that count, it's the quality, if you can really do it whole-heartedly. It's just a matter of self-sacrifice and perseverance. Little by little, things will definitely change for the better. I guarantee you.
Thanks for your time!
~Miel
Posted 13 March 2008 - 02:19 PM
few more days in this state and i'll be walking with a uni-brow.....
)
