Yesterday, May 23, 2008, the provincial government of Negros Oriental hosted a Negros Island-wide summit on climate change, in the hope of forging a united Negros response to the climate change issue. I was lucky enough to have been there, and to hear what the top Filipino scientists (a meteorologist, an institutional analysist. and a marine biologist) had to say about the issue.
The place was packed for the morning's activity, and all the way towards luch. But as i expected, half of the people who attended the activity left after lunch and decided not to participate on the workshops, which is the main thing about the summit. I guess they were not really interested in exercising their minds, on thinking about what they can do as local government officials to mitigate climate change.
Climate change is upon us already, and as the scientists said, we have to be prepared for it or suffer the consequences. As with any biological being, those who can adapt the coming changes will survive. And the same is true with human communities. Sad to say, of all the towns and cities in this island, I think only Bayawan City is ready for climate change, and seems to be the only one doing something concrete about it. I really hope that the other LGUs will follow the example of Bayawan, because more disasters are heading our way, and those who refuse to acknowledge it and do something about it will really pay the price.
A lot of people in that summit are not ready to make personal commitments towards changing their lifestyles to alleviate the problem. Giving up cars, airconditioning, and the fast food habit is hard for some people. But eventually, when gasoline prices hit $200/barrel (and its not only me saying this, the price now is at $135 and climbing), and when the bill to fill up the car and the electricity bills to pay the aircon and whatever home appliances soar to the high heavens, people will have to give up their heavily-carbon dependent lifestyles. Those who are already used to using less carbon on the other hand, will not have a hard time adjusting to the "crisis".
I recently read a book by David Strahan called "The Last Oil Shock", where he said that the world's oil production would peak by 2017, and eventually decline. It is still 2008, but we are feeling the effects of dwindling oil supplies already with the high price of gasoline and diesel. And one doesn't have to be a genius to figure out that when oil hits $200/barrel, P60/L of gasoline will be a bargain.
So what can we do as ordinary citizens?
The Filipino lifestyle is more environment-friendly than that of anybody in the West, this much I am sure. But still, even with our low carbon consumption, we should still do our share in the global movement to reducing carbon emissions. Millions of people doing little things everyday translate to huge savings in energy consumption every year.
A wise man once said, if we want to change the world, we must first change our self. Personally, this is what I am commiting:
1. Plant more vegetables. We have to be partly self-sufficient to cushion the blow of increasing food prices because of increasing fuel prices. And at least I know we are eating the real organic stuff.
2. Use the bicycle more often. I feel guilty sometimes that I don't use the bicyle more often. 3 km to and from work is really a short distance. And it would be great exercise for me--no more need to pay for dancing classes.
3. Compost, segregate, recycle - In our house, we compost our vegetable peelings. We eat mainly vegetables, so we have a lot. The first batch of compost will be ready when our vegetables are ready for harvest. And we seel our recyclabes--plastic bottles and tin cans and carboard and glass bottles--to the ladies going around buying junk to be sold also to junk shops. I got P16 last week from the sale of 1 kilo of hard plastic(P9/kilo) and tin cans (P4/kilo), and glass bottles (P0.50 each).
4. Using canvass bags for grocery shopping--I refuse to take the bag that LeePlae insists I use to bag my groceries. Those people at the cashier should be instructed, because I don't like making a scene (and I really do if they insist on putting my groceries inside the plastic bag). Since I have started using my washable canvass bag, I think I have refused using at least 30 bags. That's a lot of plastic that I am not dumping at the dumpsite in Dumaguete.
If everybody used less plastic, and recycled, and composted their organics, I'm sure the city will have 50% less garbage to transport to the dumpsite. And of course, this will save money, energy and space.
5. We have sort of started a book sharing club in the office. It not only saves on the amount of paper needed for new books, but also on money. And its nice when you can discuss a book with your friends.
6. Me and my husband are taking showers together more often to decrease our water consumption in the house. And no more new bonsais will be cultivated because they require a lot of water to maintain and are not very efficient carbon sinks (stunted trees can only sequester a small amount of carbon compared to unstunted ones).
As soon as we have a bit of financial leeway, the next projecta are insulating the roof so that we will use the ceiling less often for ventilation, getting an LCD monitor for the computer (which uses a fraction of the energy used by a conventional screen) and installing a solar panel and LED lights to provide our lighting needs at night. The TV will also have to be used less often by everybody else in the house. I occupy my down time at night with crocheting--and I recently took up knitting. If everybody read more, or bonded over Scrabble or Monopoly, or knitted something, or told stories, or practice on an instrument more rather than watch TV at night, the world will be a much better place, don't you think? And since these activities only require light--which uses much less energy than a TV-- we would all be doing our part to be less enerfy dependent and doing ourselves a favor by enriching our minds and our lives.
So, what are you doing about climate change?
I just got back from a five day marine mammal survey in Tanon Strait. It was among the best 5 days I have spent this year--stress free, living on a boat, and doing nothing but eat, sleep, and look out for dolphins and whales. I could easily spend a week at sea on a boat---if its a sailboat with a proper kitchenette and cabin, I could easily live on it. 
I am happy that the oil rig in Tanon Strait will not be put up after all, as our cetacean friends deser ve to live in a quiet and clean home also. 
