Roundup: Voices from the Philippines on Blog Action Day 2009

bkcrew — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 02:06:49 +0000

Here is a rolling roundup of Filipinos’ contributions to the Blog Action Day in the Philippines and the world. It would be impossible to include all posts but we’ll try to include a wide range of views.

We will update this throughout the day, so keep those posts coming and let our voices be heard.

Our efforts in the Philippines did not go unnoticed. CNN reported:

[F]or blloggers in places like the Philippines, it is not so much niche topics, but local issues that people are keen to share with the rest of the world. The recent typhoons — Ketsana and Parma — and subsequent landslides have killed an estimated 600 people in Philippines and thousands across Southeast Asia.

With these tragic events still very fresh in theirs mind, many of the country’s blogging community are keen to voice their concerns about climate change on Blog Action Day.

Previously, Inquirer.net announced our event.

Mula sa Bloggers Kapihan, saludo kami sa inyo!

Menardconnect.com writes:

I believe that awareness plays key role in understanding
climate change. I am lucky that Internet is very accessible to me and a great deal of information is available at my fingertips. I am taking this Blog Action Day as a start to know more and read the articles and links provided by bloggers. Seriously this is a good refresher on the basic terminologies like
climate change, global warming, greenhouse effect and such. I know these terms were discussed in school but let’s admit it that as we go on with our daily lives, these things we tend to forget or ignore. I will be more attentive and more sensitive to the issues moving forward.

Alleba Politics has this reminder:

Yes, ladies and gentlemen of the Republic of the Philippines. Climate change has affected and will continue to affect the Philippines. So what? You ask. It does not just mean warmer days or longer summers. It also means a change in sea levels, unpredictable weather patterns, and a disruption in the carbon cycle, among other things. Why should you care about the carbon cycle? Because, as most of us have learned in high school, it is one of the cycles in which all forms of life depend on. Simply put, you inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide while plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen, in case you’ve forgotten. And if these things change, let’s just say we better brace ourselves for more calamities such as Ondoy and Pepeng.

If we fail to react to these changes now, it might be too late and we will end up like the second frog. But we do not have to just react. The better thing to do is act.

abashet (a.k.a. Rock Ed’s Gang Badoy) writes:

Only when Ondoy and Pepeng razed through our country – in places familiar, near, or our own- did we realize how concrete their abstract warnings were/are. I know this. I didn’t ask enough questions. I will now. I will read a bit more. Talk to my geologist friends (only some of them) about the environmental shifts and the motions of the earth. I will attend foras on this. I will experiment, walk outside, think, wonder, try. I want to know more. I want to be an environmental activist.

I cannot be one if I just run on little knowledge from a 3-hour radio show. I cannot call myself one if I’m just running on frustration or frustration due to hearsay. I want to know more. I want the Earth to be okay. I am on it and so are the people I value, love, respect, treasure. I want my nephews and nieces to become adults in a world WE took care of. I want the older generation to pass before us with peace on their faces and not furrowed brows. I want many things.

I am blogging about this furiously. I am typing this like it was due tomorrow to be submitted on the desk of my Professor – but that’s not the case. I’m just breathless with new knowledge and excitement and something – I’m not sure yet.

I am no stranger to urgency – with my little practice on urgent situations I have a feeling I know it when I see it. And this is it. I should prepare for it. I want to be an environmental activist. A real one. Perhaps this blog post on BLOG ACTION DAY is my personal start.

tonyocruz.com called for a change in Philippine leadership and in the public’s mindset as well:

Climate change is not an issue that can be wished away. It must be confronted and the best possible option for the Philippines as we go to the 2010 elections is to have a new president and a new leadership that at the very least acknowledges it and at the most willing to lead the public in understanding and resolving climate change.

Most importantly, it is us the people who must press these candidates to shape up on climate change, jobs, wages, rights and other essential issues or ship out. Its about time we bind them to their public commitments and to workable, practical platforms as well as their visions. Although this may take time and require extra efforts from us as a people, it does not mean that we must give up. Neither can we surrender to cynicism and apathy because that’s un-Filipino and that cannot solve the problems we all face.

Pencil Pusher/Number Cruncher also thinks about the role of next year’s elections:

For Filipino citizens, we have a clear responsibility ahead of us: we must choose in May 2010 a national leadership that will put environmental protection and sustainable development as primary anchors of social progress. Our propensity to consume must be tempered with a promise to give back what we took from the planet.

The Four-eyed Journal wrote that:

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

A Filipino Mom Blogger wrote and announced:

It is about time politicians and our good government develop a political will to monitor all these urban developments not only of real estate developers but the squatters that line the rivers and the dams. Oh the squatters, the number of votes it brings these politicians. It takes political will to put this into action. It is time for urban renewal. We cannot avoid the climate change but we can certainly control the wide-scale calamity. Climate risk management and adaptation is a top priority in our government.

In the upcoming election 2010 , I will make it my business to ask each the presidential, senatorial and congressional candidates their platforms towards climate change and sustainable urban and rural development. Are they aware of the flaws in their respective regions and what needs to be done? The climate change will form part of my election 2010 coverage together with other bloggers in our upcoming project, called Blog Watch.

The Marocharim Experiment calls climate change “the great human injustice”.

Poet Richard Gappi posted this poem on Facebook:

An Ode to October 15, 2009
(International Blogging Day on Climate Change)

Inside your air-conditioned cubicle,
you are the unwitting dictionary defining
and unmasking what climate change is:

Greed is a bulging pocket of a G-8 capitalist
puffing nucleared smolder
like the mouth of a factory spewing
black,
thick
mushroom-tar-ladened smoke.

Today, our words reach high
like protruded penises and mountained nipples;
crossing the borders of Himalayas,
Alpine, Artic and Antartic Ocean.

If pen(is) mightier than the sword,
then let my words be like daggers
piercing on greed’s heart and soul.

To my words, stab them like penises;
Aroused them like a tongued-pinnacled clitoris.

So that in one climatic burst–
like the Big Bang,
this world find its womb of rebirth.

-Richard R. Gappi
10:56pm
14 October 2009
(Sa bahay nina Dino at Che Villaflores)
Angono, Rizal, Pilipinas

Also on Facebook, activist Renato Reyes Jr. shares information and charts and tables on climate change and the role of the world’s biggest capitalist countries in the climate change crisis.

bikoy.net pauses and reflects on the relief operations, including the participation of US soldiers.

For full circle, the challenge is to look beyond the obvious and strive for profound changes:

Beyond its response or lack of it to the calamity, it should be made to answer for the laws it passes and the policies it upholds not only about disaster preparedness, but also to the overall economic and political system it protects that exploits the people and condemn them to poverty that make them suffer the most during natural disasters.

Further beyond this is the mother issue of climate change, a wanton destruction of our fragile atmosphere by the corporations of rich industrialized countries, chief of them the US, whose greed for profits not only destroyed our environment but exploited the peoples of the world as well.

The global capitalist order has caused so much poverty and destruction through wars and climate change that its criminal record against humanity warrants a deluge by the people more ferocious than the ones the exploiting countries have made nature to produce.

Baddieverse published a “message from the Cobra Commander”:

As you know, it’s only a matter of time before I completely conquer the world. I will not rule over a dead planet! I need beautiful and serene orchards where my sex slaves can play! I need polar regions teeming with life where I can exile my enemies! I need clean air so I can, you know, live longer and shit. I need a healthy empire! A clean kingdom! A LIVING PLANET. What you’re doing now is doing damage to my future plans of grand conquest. You’re ruining my dream of a majestic future (for myself and my 70 hot young wives)! You probably know that your days as my slaves are fast approaching, that’s why you’re consciously killing Earth. SABOTAGE! I will not tolerate your scorched earth tactics!

Ramon Tayag of The Ink Squad also blogged today:

Why in the world am I posting this article then? Because climate change is going to affect in greater apparency our children, and their children to come. I don’t want to make the same mistake previous generations made. I don’t want to give in to societal pressures and continue doing things the way they have been – which is highly polluting.

Why am I posting it through Inksquad then? The Inksquad reflects many beliefs and visions I and the rest of the staff has for Filipinos, intertwined with the tremendous potential for the possibilities the Internet can provide. Somewhere in the top 5 of those beliefs you’ll find care for the environment. Living amidst concrete walls, plastic chairs, and composite wood, we humans tend to forget just how reliant we are on nature. We’re making it a point that The Inksquad doesn’t forget that.

Addressing the world, adayinthelifeofrj.com says:

There is probably no better time for us to come to you — the rest of the world — our brothers and sisters. We want you to know this: The world is changing like we never saw it happening. The latest and loftiest of technologies that we have proved no match for nature’s wrath.

It is time to take stock of what’s happening the world over. Let us set aside our differences and work together for the preservation of the human race. To say that it affects each and every one of us is no exaggeration — no lie — no hoax — no conspiracy theory.

Kathang Katotohanan seeks to clarify:

[T]his contradiction between the powerful and the disenfranchised [is present] all throughout the issue of climate change, even at the local level. Let us take the recent Ondoy and Pepeng experience as an example. It was the urban poor and the rural communities that suffered the most from the massive floods and landslides, even as the media claim that the eyes of the typhoons didn’t differentiate the poor from the rich. The moneyed definitely have the capacities to overcome the economic setbacks brought by the typhoon, but the poor lost everything as the surging water swept their possessions away.

Big transnational corporations engaged in large-scale mining and logging activities is what aggravated the landslides and flooding. These activities are instrumental to the displacement of rural communities that leads to rapid, mal-development-driven urbanization. This blaming of the urban poor for clogging our drainage systems and other waterways with their shanties and garbage is a manifestation of the bias against the poor in any aspect of climate change, for it is in fact rooted in the profit-driven activities of the rich.

gameshogun meanwhile remembers:

Here in the Philippines, our local weather agency, the Philippine Atmospheric, Geophysical & Astronomical Services Adminstration or PAGASA issues what we call Public Storm Warning Signals (PSWS). I remember when I was young (late 80s / early 90s), Signal No. 4 was born and it was the first time that we heard about a/the “Super Typhoon“. People were scared at that time and talking about these new terminologies that the generation before us (us = my generation) haven’t heard of either.

This sent a message to us that the typhoons will only get stronger and bigger. And so it was, we had plenty of Signal No. 4s and got hit by Super Typhoons as well. Then everything seem to have stopped when the El Niño phenomenon hit us. After two or three hits which spanned a some years (if I remember correctly), our “normal” climate returned or so we thought. It wasn’t the usual at all!

Fair and Square offers us the point of view of an interior designer:

Sustainable design in the architecture and interior design field is not a new thing. There are even institutions that encourage and recognize the efforts of design professionals in finding sound design solutions to create a healthy and sustainable living environment.

As an interior designer, I strive to use sustainable materials, eco-friendly and energy efficient equipments and incorporate plants and trees in the projects I do. Perhaps other professions can also find ways where they can reduce the impact of their to the ecology.

teacher ria it is never early to teach children about climate change and shares four ways to do so, including:

Incorporating recycled materials in everyday activities. I used to love a fresh new sheet of paper. I’d make sure I’d have a stack of these papers on hand for what ever activity/exercise I do in class. Using scratch paper was a rarity for me. I used to say that it would be a shame to have the kids make a great painting/drawing that cannot be fully appreciated because the markings on the backside of the paper that is recycled can be seen. Now, the kids do not have fresh papers all the time. In place, I have a box of used papers (from reports and papers of my college students) that they can use for scribbling, writing exercises and similar drills. Also, other materials such as toilet paper rolls, P.E.T. bottles and empty jars have found its way to the arts and crafts table.

Mindanaoan wrote:

There will also be more hurricanes, more floods, more fires (!) because of climate change. We may have to say goodbye to lakes (goodbye Lake Apo and Lake Sebu!), to precious mangrove trees (just like the ones found at Matina Aplaya) and to glaciers! (To see a real, huge glacier is part of my bucket list) We may need to say goodbye to tarsiers, koala bears, tamaraws, Philippine eagles and Philippine deers. Goodbye to White Island in Camiguin and to the rainforests in Mindanao. Goodbye to beautiful Samal beaches and amazing marine creatures.

Atheista calls for “more revolutionary” solutions, and suggests that the Philippines:

1. Conduct topographical studies that would map out areas with an immense risk of flooding – both permanently and temporarily – by using models for sea level rise and super typhoons. Advice the people of these areas regarding the risks and if possible, give suggestions on either how to fortift buildings in the area or suggest a possible re-settlement site.

2. Hire experts that would look at the ways to construct dams and dikes that could serve as protection should the seas encroach unto our shores. This would be very costly, but if the city of Manila is to survive sea level rise, big moves would have to be made.

MLQIII rounded up the Philippines’ online communities’ efforts, both online and offline, in the face of the Ondoy and Pepeng aftermaths.

Ready to be Rich meanwhile suggests how to save money and the environment.

The Searchlight Project today announced to the world that he will try his best to slash his CO2 use by 10 tons for the next year:

Daydream Believer also pledged to take five personal steps to a Greener Earth.

Earthlingorgeous introduces the Copenhagen Summit.

Ang Sa Wari Ko shares interviews with environmentalists Amalie Obusan and Lory Tan and a call to focus on Copenhagen.

Senator Kiko Pangilinan posted this status message on Twitter:

Today is Blog action day on Climate change. Let us all do our share to help protect Mother earth. Bloggers unite!

JaypeeOnline shares five emerging green techologies, while Digital Manila features Sinag, the first Filipino solar-powered car.

Blogbastic! warns: Time is running out

cocoy, who wrote his piece days in advance, shares:

the question whether Climate Change is real or not no longer matters. It is like fighting the last war. The debate isn’t whether humans is the root cause of our climate problem. The debate is, how do we adapt? We need to build technologies that let us be more “one” with nature. If that means discovering new process for storing solar energy, based on photosynthesis to power our digital tomorrow that would be great right? if it means building cars like the tesla or aircraft that doesn’t use fossil fuel, it would just be awesome. If it means building cities that are more environmentally attuned then that’s what we need to do.

Begun, Climate Change has. We must adapt or we perish. Choose.

fritzified.com calls for a leader:

We, however, need something that will jump start the movement. A leader. Somebody who can think strategically yet act on instinct with a will power fueled by demand and, more importantly, socially sound morals. No, I’m not even referring to the highest seat in government. Don’t be silly, we all saw how clueless they were during the first few hours of Ondoy and Pepeng.

This person, the leader I’m referring to, is US. YOU, ME, THEM, US.

Radical Pinoy underscores:

Sama-sama natin talagang dapat harapin ang climate change at mga epekto nito. Kaya natin ito mapigilan. Pero hindi bilang mga indibidwal lang. Hindi lalo kung papaloko sa mga ginagawa ng mga malalaking kapitalista. Kundi bilang nagkakaisang mamamayan na may tunay na hawak ng kapangyarihan sa lipunan at sa mundo. At ang unang hakbang ay pawiin ang panlalansi at pagkaganid na ginagawa ng iilang malalaking kapangyarihan na ikinapapahamak ng nakararami.

Dapat baguhin ang mundo. Kasabay ng hangin, tubig at temperatura, baka kailangan mauna natin pawiin ang ginagawang pagsasamantala ng iilang ganid sa mamamayan ng sandaigdigan.

ganns dean uses a palindrome to drive home our one, common message.

There are many others who have taken time out to post, including

BLOG ACTION DAY 2009: Philippines, speak out and take a stand now on climate change!

bkcrew — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 16:01:37 +0000

Philippine map grabbed from 18dao.net

This is it, this is our chance as Filipino bloggers and as online Filipinos, to change the topic of discussions and focus on climate change.

Climate change is a big issue globally. Sadly, many of us don’t know anything about it. More importantly, climate change has taken a back seat to more pressing, more fundamental problems that a country such as ours need to confront and resolve: Issues like corruption, foreign domination and social inequalities that keep most of our people impoverished and without power.

The supertyphoons Ondoy (Ketsana) and Pepeng (Parma) however has forced us to confront climate change as well. Here we are, a nation that has endured about 20 typhoons in a year, shocked and devastated by massive floods and landslides never before seen by our generation. To add insult to injury, we decry official negligence as the recent disasters struck and we are beginning to realize the effects of many government policies and business practices.

Blog Action Day is thus an opportunity to make climate change an essential and important issue, with bloggers and online Filipinos given a chance to remember the recent past when we had “normal” climate patterns, to take a look at environment policies of government and environment practices of business, to check what has happened to the long list of promises given us in exchange for development. This is also a chance for us to propose solutions, to offer alternative paradigms and views, to raise a call for development that uplifts the poor, corrects bad policies, tears down unfair practices, and conserves the environment for both the present and future.

What we can do today

This is heavy stuff but as we say, big things come from small beginnings. Blog Action Day’s global organizers actually offers us suggestions on how to take this discussion forward, how to participate as bloggers:

A Technology or Business blog might write about emerging clean tech and how innovative companies might be able to help address the problem of climate change.
A Health or Lifestyle blog might write about how climate change will affect our children’s health and daily living.
A Nonprofit or Political blog might write about how climate change is deeply connected to many other issues – such as poverty and conflict.
A Design blog might write about new trends in eco-friendly or sustainable design.
A Travel blog might write about the places you want to see now before climate change makes them difficult to access or, well, under the sea.

Resources are a-plenty:

Agham Youth released yesterday a Blog Action Briefer.
Gaiatribe has all these links to many other basic materials.
A German think-tank meanwhile has this study that found the Philippines as the No. 1 victim of climate in 2006 (PDF)
Primer on Climate Change by Ibon Foundation (PDF)

Another thing you can do is to sign the People’s Protocol on Climate Change.

We can also use our experience through the online and offline bayanihan for relief aid as an example or inspiration for what we can accomplish if we focus on climate change.

Special challenge to political leaders

We also issue this special challenge to those who are planning to run for office in the 2010 elections, specifically the presidential, senatorial and congressional candidates — as well as the incumbents: Join today’s discussion. Tell the people and the world what you think about climate change. What changes can we expect if you run and win?

Those on Facebook, Twitter, Plurk and other social media are also welcome to join the world’s bloggers by sharing notes and links to these materials and posting the Philippine badge to the Blog Action Day 2009.

The day we’ve waited for has arrived. Its already Oct. 15 and it is time to take a stand and to act.

Bloggers Kapihan » bkcrew

Roundup: Voices from the Philippines on Blog Action Day 2009

BLOG ACTION DAY 2009: Philippines, speak out and take a stand now on climate change!