Where are the Pinoy eco-bloggers?

Warning: This is a long rant

Earth Day has gone and passed and though there are still hangovers from the celebration, little has changed. We’re still destroying our planet.

Though things are starting to change, if a little late, the nature channels like Discovery and National Geographic have started to showcase documentaries and programs not just about the environment and nature but how we can protect both. Discovery has their Green Planet programs which so far has been quite interesting. I’ve seen a program about possible solutions to the looming energy/oil crisis.

All of this started when Al Gore’s documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” won several Oscars the year it made headlines. Global warming, the climate change, and saving the environment has taken center stage. But this is in the mainstream media. Where are the eco-bloggers?

In particular, where are the blogs about the Philippine environment?

Blogging has been around in the Philippines eco-blogs must number in the dozens if not hundreds, so I first went to the re-launched TopBlogs.com.ph thinking that it would make my search much easier.

Lo and behold, it doesn’t have a category about the environment or nature. Perhaps it will be added in the next expansion of the site.

Of course this depends on whether environment-focused blogs will come out and flourish in the local blogosphere. And so far, we have a very, very long way to go.

If probloggers have been constantly telling us to find a niche to blog about, this is it. The make money online niche is just so saturated most noobs would just contribute to the ‘noise chamber’. The same goes for the staple niches like technology and gadgets, how to become better bloggers, star/gossip/PBB and others.

Blogging about the Philippine environment would make a lot of sense because our country has been tagged as one of the richest in terms of biodiversity. More insects, plants and animals are found in our islands and no where else in the planet.

We have some of the most diverse and beautiful coral reefs, beaches and lagoons.

“we blog as if everything is fine and dandy in the Philippines”

We also have some of the most polluted cities in the world. Our forests are also one of the fastest disappearing ones. We also have some of the most polluted rivers, some of the worst mining disasters in the world – there are just too much to blog about our environment.

But no, we care more about exotic donuts, cheap notebooks, PBB, expensive coffees, gossip and anime that we blog as if everything is fine and dandy in the Philippines.

I’m starting to rant off and before I go on and on, I’d end it here. Hoping that I would strike some nerves, wake minds and touch others’ sensitive sides, but if it will cause them to start blogging about their neighborhood, their province’s environment situation, our eco-status then all the trouble will be worth it.

We Pinoy bloggers are strong believers in the power of new media and blogging. We’ve already proved that this could change our society. How about we do it once more and this time around, let’s do it to save our environment.

We may not be directly involved but our blogs could be the start of something, good and green.

If not, then to hell with blogging and to hell with the Philippine blogo…oh nevermind.

Tagged as: Advocacy, Ecology, Environment, WordPress & Blogging