Blog Action Day Pilipinas

With the recent twin horrors of typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng devastating Luzon with their unprecedented amounts of rain in recent history, one can no longer ignore or dismiss climate change as fiction.

It no longer matters whether you live on the hills or on the foot of mountains in the provinces or in the suburbs of the nation’s capital, massive deforestation and irresponsible mining is no different from careless urban planning and “development”. As long as we disregard the environment and continue with our unsustainable lifestyle and national policies, our people would continue to suffer the wrath of a raging planet.

Politicians, especially those who have declared and shown their intentions to run for the Presidency in the coming 2010 national elections, who have joined the efforts of providing any form of relief, rescue and assistance to the victims of Ondoy and Pepeng deserve some credit. However, they must not stop at this simple, band-aid solution – of which they easily turn into early campaigning gimmicks and worse, propagating patronage politics and abusing the people’s tragedy.

Come the official campaign period, talk must not solely focus on one’s track record, popularity and so-called plans/visions of so-called development for the country. Climate change, addressing the environmental problems of the nation and achieving sustainable development must be among their top agendas.

No human force may stop the typhoons from coming, but we can prepare and adapt to the natural world we live in instead of just waiting and praying for the best. Prayers could only do so much, and blaming some omnipotent entity has been of little help either. Government policies must not only strive to achieve equitable distribution of wealth, justice and peace but must also include sustainable development, use and management of our environmental resources.

We’ve been chanting the mantra of ‘new politics’ come 2010, I strongly believe that ‘new politics’ is a ‘greener shade’ of politics.

So let’s all do our share, be informed about climate change. Be also informed about our country’s environmental situation. Lastly, take a stand on climate change.

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Yesterday was Earth Day, long live Mother Earth! Well, in order for that to happen is for us humans to stop polluting the planet and doing amends with our mother Earth.

What is Earth Day?

Earth Day — April 22 — each year marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970.

Earth Day founder Gaylord Nelson, then a U.S. Senator from Wisconsin, proposed the first nationwide environmental protest “to shake up the political establishment and force this issue onto the national agenda. ” “It was a gamble,” he recalls, “but it worked.”

Earth Day 1970 turned that all around.

On April 22, 20 million Americans took to the streets, parks, and auditoriums to demonstrate for a healthy, sustainable environment. Denis Hayes, the national coordinator, and his youthful staff organized massive coast-to-coast rallies. Thousands of colleges and universities organized protests against the deterioration of the environment. Groups that had been fighting against oil spills, polluting factories and power plants, raw sewage, toxic dumps, pesticides, freeways, the loss of wilderness, and the extinction of wildlife suddenly realized they shared common values. Earth Day 1970 achieved a rare political alignment, enlisting support from Republicans and Democrats, rich and poor, city slickers and farmers, tycoons and labor leaders. The first Earth Day led to the creation of the United States Environmental Protection Agency and the passage of the Clean Air, Clean Water, and Endangered Species acts.

Earth Day 1990

As 1990 approached, a group of environmental leaders asked Denis Hayes to organize another big campaign. This time, Earth Day went global, mobilizing 200 million people in 141 countries and lifting the status of environmental issues on to the world stage.Earth Day 1990 gave a huge boost to recycling efforts worldwide and helped pave the way for the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro.

Earth Day 2000

As the millennium approached, Hayes agreed to spearhead another campaign, this time focused on global warming and a push for clean energy. Earth Day 2000 combined the big-picture feistiness of the first Earth Day with the international grassroots activism of Earth Day 1990. For 2000, Earth Day had the Internet to help link activists around the world. By the time April 22 rolled around, 5,000 environmental groups around the world were on board, reaching out to hundreds of millions of people in a record 184 countries.

Sonnie’s Porch has a good selection of links to blogs and sites celebrating or giving their share in reminding us that Earth Day has just went by and what have we done in relation to it?

His observation struck me, very few Pinoy bloggers have blogged about celebrating Earth Day. Tsk tsk tsk, we may be up to date with what our friends are doing on Twitter or what they’ve blogged about tru our feed readers but when it comes to being friendly to mother Earth, where are we?

I envy the great Mike Abundo for his blog is hosted on a host that is not only reliable and delivers great service, it is also now carbon-neutral.

For those who still ignore or take the environmental issue, particularly climate change and global warming, think twice, wake up and act now. Why? Well our country is now in danger of loosing much of its coastlines to the seas and oceans if we don’t do anything to take care of our environment. Yes, Metro Manila, well parts of it may soon be underwater in the next few decades. Believe it or not, but you better, read it all here.

More on this in the coming days for now I’ll share a song that has been one of my personal favorites since highschool during the time I turned towards the Left-of-center, with a particular shade of green. I always wanted to physically join Greenpeace but school and other more important things have always taken priority.

This song is quite old, it was composed by Noel Cabangon, the same artist who composed “Kanlungan.’ Of all the songs made by Buklod, this particular one strikes two birds with one stone. At first hearing it is obviously dedicated to Mother Earth, playing it again and paying it more attention, you’d soon realize it’s not just for Mother Earth, it is for everyone who has been tired of being oppressed, taken advantage, has been in struggle for so long, or simply made to suffer. In it’s simple yet profoundly powerful lyrics and soul-touching music, this song will take away all those suffering and heavy burden, at least for the moment.

This song is entitled, “Oyayi sa Mundo” which means a lullaby to Mother Earth.

Oyayi Sa Mundo

Aking mundo, ihimlay ang pagal mong katawan
Sa duyan ng kalawakan
Hayaang maghilom ang mga sugat sa iyong dibdib
Na likha ng mga tao
At itigil ng isang saglit ang iyong paggalaw
Pagkat sa muli mong pag-inog ay may bago nang buhay

At itigil ng isang saglit ang iyong paggalaw
Pagkat sa muli mong pag-inog ay may bago nang buhay
Aking mundo, ihimlay ang pagal mong katawan
Sa duyan ng kalawakan

Listen and I hope the song would inspire us all to do something to save our planet.

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This is the very first “quick links” post on this blog and I plan to do this at least three times a week, it’s part of breaking the isolationism the Four-eyed Journal has been in since like ever. So it’s time to spread the link loves!

Ed Yong has a piece about how bacteria in our guts could be linked to obesity. Have read something about this issue before, too bad I lost the links, none the less Ed makes a good point in that this is just another positive step in understanding the workings of our bodies and we should not stop here.

On Neatorama, Alex asks what could go wrong now that scientists have revived the Spanish Flu virus. Excellent question, though I’m sure (and hope) that the scientists have lots of good reasons why they resurrected another mass-killer bug. Let’s keep our fingers crossed.

chez mistral makes a connection between Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” and tries to look at how global warming is affecting wine growing. Wine enthusiasts would probably get interested in global warming once they realize that it directly affects the quality and price of wine.

Well that’s it for now, more link loves coming soon.

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