Global Warming
By Rudy Arizala
(a letter sent to Fr. Francis Lucas)
Right now we are pre-occupied and with valid reasons and urgency, about the Laiban Dam and Kanan Agus River hydro-electric power plant projects due to the danger they poise to environment, fauna and flora, and people of REINA.
There is an equally important and pressing problem facing us not only in Infanrta-Real-Gen. Nakar area being near the sea aggravated by reportedly continuous deforestations and man-made interference with nature but also the whole world. The "global warming" or climatic change as reported by UN experts below.
Are we prepared for it in Infanta? And if so, what are we doing about it?
Of course, according to Michael Crichton, author of a book "State of Fear":
"Nobody knows how much warming will occur in the next century. The computer models vary by 400 percent, de facto proof that nobody knows. . .
"I conclude that most environment principles (such as sustainable development or the precautionary principle) have the effect of preserving the economic advantages of the West and thus constitute modern imperialism toward developing world. It is a nice way of saying: ´We got ours and we don´t want you to get yours, because you´ll caus too much pollution.
"Scientists know that continued funding depends on delivering the results the funders desire. As a result, environmental organization studies are every bit as biased and suspect as industry studies. Government studies are similarly biased according to who is runningthe department or administration at the time. No faction should be given a free pass.
"We desperately need a nonpartisan, blinded funding mechanism to conduct research to determine appropriate policy.
"We need a new environmental movement, with new goals and new organizations. We need more people working in the field, in the actual environment, and fewer people behind computer screens. We need more scietntists and many fewer lawyers.
"We cannot hope to manage a complex system such as environment through litigation. We can only change its state temporarily..usually by preventing something--with eventual results that we cannot predict and ultimately cannot control."
The above, methinks, are good food for thought regarding reportedly global warming, climatic change and on how to deal with our environment.
In other words, everybody has its own agenda, except nature or climate which merely follow the laws of nature.Like the coming and going of the seasons.
We had a "Deluvio" before as narrated in the Holy Book. But the same Hoy Book says there was a Covenant between the Lord and mankind, when a rainbow appears in the clouds, the Lord shall be reminded, never again there shall be a deluvio which shall erase mankind from the face of the earth.
Fiction or not, the Lord manifested to manmkind also to take care of the environment and not abuse it.
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CLIMATIC CHNGE - GLOBAL WARMING
(Excerpts from a news report from The Philippine Star, 08 April 2007)
Climate change is set to inflict damage on every continent, hitting poor countries hardest and threatening nearly a third of the world's species with extinction, UN experts warned over the weekend.
Global warming will affect much of life on earth this century, the UN's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in a landmark report released in Brussels, Belgium. The drafting of the report was marked by an angry row.
Damage to the earth's weather systems from greenhouse gases will change rainfall patterns, punch up the power of storms and boost the risk of drought, flooding and stress on water supplies, the IPCC said.
This will have consequences that, according to the level of carbon pollution that stokes global warming, will be adverse or, in some scenarios, even catastrophic.
"Poor people are the most vulnerable and will be the worst hit by the impacts of climate change. This becomes a global responsibility,'' the IPCC's chairman, Rajendra Pachauri, declared.
Up to 30 percent of animal and plant species will be vulnerable to extinction if global temperatures rise by 1.5 degrees to 2.5 degrees Celsius, the IPCC said.
No continent can expect to be unscathed by even a relatively modest increase in temperatures.