May 6, 2008
At a recent mass I heard, the priest began his homily with mention of a story. He officiated a funeral mass unlike any other he did before. This was of a 9-year old boy who died of cancer of the liver. During the homily, the priest jokingly said that one doctor told him that if you do not die of cancer, you are not in.
Now, I must admit, I’m a person who is in tune with the latest trends. However, in this case, I would rather not be “in”.
Not so long ago, maybe a few thousand years back, cancer was probably unheard of. If cancer did exist, it was probably not as prevalent so as to say it is a mortality trend. So how come today, when the most sophisticated medical equipment and most advanced medicines are available is this disease claiming more and more lives per year?
The human body naturally has cancer cells. But these cells are normally benign or dormant. What turns them into aggressive marauding cells are triggers present around us. Examples are asbestos, tobacco smoke, dioxins from food cartons, charred residues from overcooked barbecued meats, acrylamide from overheated French fries and potato chips, and arsenic in drinking beverages. These are commonly known as carcinogens. I can give you a list and probably not half of what is in it is naturally occurring or exposed in amounts now existing in the environment.
This leads me to my point that perhaps, the prevalence of these deadly cancers is our own undoing.
We have highly advanced technologies, able to produce more sophisticated and likewise advanced products all for the convenience of mankind. However, it is questionable the way we produce and use them. We generate electricity through nuclear reactions of radioactive elements. We create automobiles that are several times faster and more powerful than the horse-drawn carriages. We produce handy plastic containers, more durable and cheaper than paper boxes or wrappers. We invented air-conditioning that uses ozone-depleting substances.
However, until what point will technology bring convenience to us?
We have been creating convenience at the reckless expense of our natural resources. We take but we do not give enough back. We take fossil fuels and emit millions of tons of greenhouse gases enough to cause global warming. We use radioactive elements to generate electricity and then we dump radioactive by-products elsewhere. We consume trees and minerals, nature’s raw materials and convert them into substances and materials unnaturally existing while dumping thousands upon thousands of gallons of toxic chemicals into our rivers and seas. Well, in this case we do take and give back, much like a mugger taking all your cash and valuables then still giving you a hard blow on the face leaving a nasty cut across your head.
In the same manner, we are mugging earth. We are taking all its valuables and rather than paying her, we exploit her even more. And we do this not once, but over and over and over and a million times over again. Everyday, every second we burn fossil fuels, dump trash, pollute the rivers and claim wildlife’s habitat for development.
Maybe we get mugged once or even twice. We get a nasty cut on the head or a swollen bruise around the arm. Then we learn. We equip ourselves with pepper sprays and even learn judo for self-defense so that next time an attacker attempts another hold-up, he would not know what hit him. It is going to be payback time.
Likewise, we won’t know what will hit us, too. Earth will learn. After all, it is a living, breathing planet. Though she has been patient for so long, it only means that payback will even be greater.
Consider these payback scenarios. Global warming that will cause melting ice caps enough to raise the water level and wiping out 30% of the entire land surface. A nuclear reactor that has gone awry spewing radioactive particles into the jet stream across several continents causing cancers among millions in the years to come. Death of a thousand river systems that supply fresh drinking water caused by unabated pollution causing Water Wars among nations. Extreme weather conditions across the globe - snowstorms, tornadoes, hurricanes, drought, wreaking havoc to homes and lives of billions.
These are just a few, very real and very possible payback scenarios. At the rate we’re going, it is not a matter of “if it will happen” but rather of “when it will happen”.
The story above was a payback. How can a child at 9 years old have cancer of the liver? Genetics? Maybe. But at 9 years old? Unlikely. The food consumed or the water he drank during the 9 years of his life were perhaps contaminated with toxic substances enough to trigger an early cancer. These are the very same toxic substances that human activities in pursuit of greater convenience produced. Today, unborn fetuses with tumors are not unheard of, albeit rare. Tomorrow, it could be commonplace.
Earth may have claimed one life in that boy’s case. However, with the payback scenarios above, Earth may claim lives in the billions in the not so distant future. Convenience we say?
I believe it’s high time we pay her back the right way.
Friday, June 27, 2008
Slowly and Surely
September 10, 2007
Putting things in the right perspective.
Sometime back, a few days after I wrote my latest essay on the environment, Living In It, Living On It, a friend asked me where I get my ideas. I was about to answer the newspapers, TV, internet... basically media. Then again, I re-thought my answer and a more appropriate response came into mind. I know I got the answer subconsciously from this source first hand. It is just unfortunate that a few of us will ever realize this without being told.
Around you and me.
That was my answer. Look outside the window and the answer is right smack in your face. Millions of tons of garbage, toxic sludge, and air pollutants are dumped into the environment as if it was a giant toilet. Even the posh business district of Makati is not spared. Bring me to an avenue where there is no litter and I’ll hand my next pay…slip (just the payslip, haha!) This is no laughing matter though. To put it in the gravest manner possible, let me tell you something, though, chances are you know this already. The environment is dying. And with it, we are. And the generations after us are no less spared.
Have you ever wondered why the water-refilling business is a big hit today? There are probably as much water-refilling stations in the Metropolis as there are internet cafes. Those who know capitalize on the current state of the environment. We are running out of clean, potable water… good business prospective huh?
What is more regrettable is that we already know the fact that our waters are unclean. We buy bottled water and have treated water regularly delivered to our homes. Yet, we ourselves are the culprit, the cause why water has become so filthy. I daresay that there is no river that runs through the Metropolis where you can catch a fish you will eat yourself. If you even catch one (that doesn't have two heads, arms or wings with fluffy feathers). Dare! I bet my payslip on this too!
At least some people are agreeing that we have to do something about what’s happening. Recently the APEC leaders came up with the Sydney Declaration on Climate Change. This is a non-binding agreement where the leaders acknowledged, as the Australian PM noted, “the need for a long-term aspirational global emissions reduction” and “the need for all nations, no matter what their stage of development, to contribute according to their own capacities and their own circumstances to reducing greenhouse gases." Tell that to the big bigots that is your government and the US! 172 countries signed the Kyoto Protocol and nowhere in that list is the US and Australia.
Agreeing is one thing. But acting on it is another. Scientists have determined that the amount of greenhouse gases has already reached levels enough to delay the next Ice Age. The Ice Age, FYI, is a cyclic phenomenon that occurs every 100,000 years. At the rate we’re puffing up smoke into the atmosphere, we’ve already delayed it some 500,000 years lang naman. This is good if you don’t want to see Wooly Mammoths rampaging along Ayala Avenue or what’s left of it. Agreeing is good. It’s a step forward. But if we don’t act on it soon, it may be too late.
Other doomsayers suggest that because of global warming, polar ice caps could melt and the sea level could rise a few meters above current levels. If that happens then coastal areas would be completely submerged in seawater. Living in Las Piñas, my bed would be crawling with barnacles and the floating garbage of Manila Bay by then. Ten, twenty years from now, if one asks “how many islands are there in the Philippines?” you could be answering, “Low tide - 7107 islands, high tide – 710.7”.
Whatever doomsday scenario these scientists say will hold true, the fact is we’re headed for one thing. DOOM. That is, if we don’t act. Right now, whether it is global warming, relentless water pollution or unabated solid waste production, WE HAVE A PROBLEM, PEOPLE!! And consider this, with the amount of toxic chemicals in the air, water or earth that could most likely exist in the near future, the probability of an unborn child having cancer prior birth could be commonplace.
We are killing the environment. And with that, we are killing ourselves, slowly and surely. The air we breath, the water we drink and the food we take could already be contaminated with toxins. Unless you want to be a Mutant Ninja Turtle, we should put an end to this. It’s not just your life in the line. It’s the life after this generation, and the next, and the next after that. The farther you go down the line, the gloomier the scenario is.
If I were able to invent anything, it would be a time travel machine. I’ll bring anyone willing to the future, say 100 years from now, and I bet, what you’ll see will scare the hell out of you.
Putting things in the right perspective.
Sometime back, a few days after I wrote my latest essay on the environment, Living In It, Living On It, a friend asked me where I get my ideas. I was about to answer the newspapers, TV, internet... basically media. Then again, I re-thought my answer and a more appropriate response came into mind. I know I got the answer subconsciously from this source first hand. It is just unfortunate that a few of us will ever realize this without being told.
Around you and me.
That was my answer. Look outside the window and the answer is right smack in your face. Millions of tons of garbage, toxic sludge, and air pollutants are dumped into the environment as if it was a giant toilet. Even the posh business district of Makati is not spared. Bring me to an avenue where there is no litter and I’ll hand my next pay…slip (just the payslip, haha!) This is no laughing matter though. To put it in the gravest manner possible, let me tell you something, though, chances are you know this already. The environment is dying. And with it, we are. And the generations after us are no less spared.
Have you ever wondered why the water-refilling business is a big hit today? There are probably as much water-refilling stations in the Metropolis as there are internet cafes. Those who know capitalize on the current state of the environment. We are running out of clean, potable water… good business prospective huh?
What is more regrettable is that we already know the fact that our waters are unclean. We buy bottled water and have treated water regularly delivered to our homes. Yet, we ourselves are the culprit, the cause why water has become so filthy. I daresay that there is no river that runs through the Metropolis where you can catch a fish you will eat yourself. If you even catch one (that doesn't have two heads, arms or wings with fluffy feathers). Dare! I bet my payslip on this too!
At least some people are agreeing that we have to do something about what’s happening. Recently the APEC leaders came up with the Sydney Declaration on Climate Change. This is a non-binding agreement where the leaders acknowledged, as the Australian PM noted, “the need for a long-term aspirational global emissions reduction” and “the need for all nations, no matter what their stage of development, to contribute according to their own capacities and their own circumstances to reducing greenhouse gases." Tell that to the big bigots that is your government and the US! 172 countries signed the Kyoto Protocol and nowhere in that list is the US and Australia.
Agreeing is one thing. But acting on it is another. Scientists have determined that the amount of greenhouse gases has already reached levels enough to delay the next Ice Age. The Ice Age, FYI, is a cyclic phenomenon that occurs every 100,000 years. At the rate we’re puffing up smoke into the atmosphere, we’ve already delayed it some 500,000 years lang naman. This is good if you don’t want to see Wooly Mammoths rampaging along Ayala Avenue or what’s left of it. Agreeing is good. It’s a step forward. But if we don’t act on it soon, it may be too late.
Other doomsayers suggest that because of global warming, polar ice caps could melt and the sea level could rise a few meters above current levels. If that happens then coastal areas would be completely submerged in seawater. Living in Las Piñas, my bed would be crawling with barnacles and the floating garbage of Manila Bay by then. Ten, twenty years from now, if one asks “how many islands are there in the Philippines?” you could be answering, “Low tide - 7107 islands, high tide – 710.7”.
Whatever doomsday scenario these scientists say will hold true, the fact is we’re headed for one thing. DOOM. That is, if we don’t act. Right now, whether it is global warming, relentless water pollution or unabated solid waste production, WE HAVE A PROBLEM, PEOPLE!! And consider this, with the amount of toxic chemicals in the air, water or earth that could most likely exist in the near future, the probability of an unborn child having cancer prior birth could be commonplace.
We are killing the environment. And with that, we are killing ourselves, slowly and surely. The air we breath, the water we drink and the food we take could already be contaminated with toxins. Unless you want to be a Mutant Ninja Turtle, we should put an end to this. It’s not just your life in the line. It’s the life after this generation, and the next, and the next after that. The farther you go down the line, the gloomier the scenario is.
If I were able to invent anything, it would be a time travel machine. I’ll bring anyone willing to the future, say 100 years from now, and I bet, what you’ll see will scare the hell out of you.
Living In It. Living On It.
August 7, 2007
Hail in Baguio. Hellish weather in Manila. Torrential rains in Bangladesh, India and China.
There must be some kind of explanation why the weather is crazy nowadays. For instance, here, the rainy days have long been delayed. At a time when the country is usually struck with a number of tropical storms already, the weather is still hot and humid. In other parts of the globe, people are dying of flashfloods when we are suffering from drought. Talk about weird weather.
Not really.
Scientists have alerted governments around the world of the thinning ice caps – a clear indication of Global Warming. The sea level is rising and global temperatures are steadily climbing. This phenomenon is caused by the increase of “greenhouse” gases that traps heat in the atmosphere. The most common of these gases is carbon dioxide. The levels of this gas have considerably increased since the pre-industrial period. Since global warming is unnatural, the environment is behaving just as rationally as it is agitated, thus, the oddities of weather occurrences around the globe.
One can then easily surmise that the ultimate cause of global warming is industrialization. However, industrialization is not at all bad. It’s a natural process taken by mankind on the road to development. So let me qualify that previous statement. One must be able to surmise that the ultimate cause of global warming is reckless industrialization.
It is too sad that we are one of the first signatories of the Kyoto Protocol aimed to take an active stance on climate change yet we are one of the last to abide by its principles. We are no better, maybe even worse, than the United States who did not sign the treaty at all. Ironic? No, it’s hypocrisy.
The reason why the US did not sign the treaty is that, in agreeing to actively reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, this industrialized nation will have to look for more expensive sources of energy other than the cheaper fossil fuels whose combustion by-product is carbon dioxide. In so doing, its industrial operations will be adversely affected. Operational costs will soar. Prices of goods and commodities will increase. Consumption will decrease. The economy, the biggest in the world, will slow down. So, they might be thinking, why compromise its global economic position when it can let the rest of the nations tackle global warming and it will just be business as usual for them. Let’s take a minute and pray that a hole in the ozone layer will open up over the White House and over the US Congress.
If our government can not impose laws that will protect the environment and avert a “Day After Tomorrow” scenario, then we should at least do our part. There are a lot of simple things we can do to save the environment: refuse stores to wrap your goods in plastic, recycle office paper, do away with styrocups that stay in the environment for over 500 years, plant trees. Being an environmentalist myself, I remember once in a fastfood joint asking the manager why they still serve meals in styro containers. During my stint in my former employer, I even conducted a study on office resource consumption and found out that we were consuming about 187,000 styrocups a year! Imagine that.
One of my findings in that study is that styro containers lose weight after use. Meaning, part of it goes into your body. Polystyrene, which dissolves with heat, is taken in together with your hot drink or meal. Try having your fat tissues tested for trace and you’ll find out you have traces of this chemical in your body. In considerable amounts, this causes damage to the nervous system. So are you feeling a little twitchy lately?
The environment is where we get our food, the energy we need to go on with our daily activities, fuels for our cars and power plants. It is where we get the air we breath. It sustains life and it is where we live. But at the pace we’re going, we’re devouring it, chunk by chunk. We are living on it rather than living in it. There is not another earth within the nearest galaxy. So we might as well take care of it. Let’s not wait until hell literally freezes over before we do something.
If each of us can plant even one tree in our lifetime, then all of us would have planted 8 billion trees for the next generation. When one asks you “why are your nails dirty?” Wouldn’t it be nice to answer “Coz I planted a tree for you.”
Hail in Baguio. Hellish weather in Manila. Torrential rains in Bangladesh, India and China.
There must be some kind of explanation why the weather is crazy nowadays. For instance, here, the rainy days have long been delayed. At a time when the country is usually struck with a number of tropical storms already, the weather is still hot and humid. In other parts of the globe, people are dying of flashfloods when we are suffering from drought. Talk about weird weather.
Not really.
Scientists have alerted governments around the world of the thinning ice caps – a clear indication of Global Warming. The sea level is rising and global temperatures are steadily climbing. This phenomenon is caused by the increase of “greenhouse” gases that traps heat in the atmosphere. The most common of these gases is carbon dioxide. The levels of this gas have considerably increased since the pre-industrial period. Since global warming is unnatural, the environment is behaving just as rationally as it is agitated, thus, the oddities of weather occurrences around the globe.
One can then easily surmise that the ultimate cause of global warming is industrialization. However, industrialization is not at all bad. It’s a natural process taken by mankind on the road to development. So let me qualify that previous statement. One must be able to surmise that the ultimate cause of global warming is reckless industrialization.
It is too sad that we are one of the first signatories of the Kyoto Protocol aimed to take an active stance on climate change yet we are one of the last to abide by its principles. We are no better, maybe even worse, than the United States who did not sign the treaty at all. Ironic? No, it’s hypocrisy.
The reason why the US did not sign the treaty is that, in agreeing to actively reduce carbon dioxide emissions in the atmosphere, this industrialized nation will have to look for more expensive sources of energy other than the cheaper fossil fuels whose combustion by-product is carbon dioxide. In so doing, its industrial operations will be adversely affected. Operational costs will soar. Prices of goods and commodities will increase. Consumption will decrease. The economy, the biggest in the world, will slow down. So, they might be thinking, why compromise its global economic position when it can let the rest of the nations tackle global warming and it will just be business as usual for them. Let’s take a minute and pray that a hole in the ozone layer will open up over the White House and over the US Congress.
If our government can not impose laws that will protect the environment and avert a “Day After Tomorrow” scenario, then we should at least do our part. There are a lot of simple things we can do to save the environment: refuse stores to wrap your goods in plastic, recycle office paper, do away with styrocups that stay in the environment for over 500 years, plant trees. Being an environmentalist myself, I remember once in a fastfood joint asking the manager why they still serve meals in styro containers. During my stint in my former employer, I even conducted a study on office resource consumption and found out that we were consuming about 187,000 styrocups a year! Imagine that.
One of my findings in that study is that styro containers lose weight after use. Meaning, part of it goes into your body. Polystyrene, which dissolves with heat, is taken in together with your hot drink or meal. Try having your fat tissues tested for trace and you’ll find out you have traces of this chemical in your body. In considerable amounts, this causes damage to the nervous system. So are you feeling a little twitchy lately?
The environment is where we get our food, the energy we need to go on with our daily activities, fuels for our cars and power plants. It is where we get the air we breath. It sustains life and it is where we live. But at the pace we’re going, we’re devouring it, chunk by chunk. We are living on it rather than living in it. There is not another earth within the nearest galaxy. So we might as well take care of it. Let’s not wait until hell literally freezes over before we do something.
If each of us can plant even one tree in our lifetime, then all of us would have planted 8 billion trees for the next generation. When one asks you “why are your nails dirty?” Wouldn’t it be nice to answer “Coz I planted a tree for you.”
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