Election fever

Election fever is up again, and here we go again.

A lot of new movements and organizations are on the rise. Dinky Soliman’s Change Politics Movement has been formally launched. So are DDB Group’s Ako Mismo, a youth group of Fr. Robert Reyes and ABS-CBN’s Ako Ang Simula. Personally, I look at these organizations as a healthy democratic practice. I even signed up with Ako Mismo, because I believe in their advocacy.

The only concern is, while these and perhaps more groups will be launching one after the other, can’t we get our acts together? I am concerned for more impact and results of the efforts we are doing. And since we do not unite under one umbrella, chances are the 2010 elections will just be as divisive as the ones before, resulting to an elected government by plurality which will in the end be “more of the same.”

Even in politics, the trend is the same. There are so many political parties, each having their own candidates. It is a predictable future – déjà vu 1998 and 2004 – elected leaders that do not possess what we have been ideally telling our people to choose because the mass electorate is just as confused as we are.

It is even sad that everyone is capitalizing on the young, especially the first time voters. I hope that in the process we do not frustrate their idealism, just as how much frustrated we, their elders have become – of the system, the politicos and society in general.

Really sad that we cannot find a good rallying point among the crops of leaders that we now have. There must be a miracle - a miracle that will open our minds and really see what and who do we need in these trying times when the economy is in bad shape, when peace is so elusive, poverty is so pervasive, injustice abounds especially victimizing the most vulnerable of our women and children, and the environment is in such a state that threatens our very existence.

But hope springs eternal. It is still barely a year before the 2010 elections, so let us keep praying for that miracle.

Climate Change

From the materials I recently gathered (thanks to Environmental Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources), I wish to share with you the following:

What is climate change?

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) refers to climate change as "any change in climate over time, whether due to natural variability or as a result of human activity."

What are the impacts of climate change?

Climate change is indeed a global environmental problem. As industries, the transport sector and other human activities continue to pump more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the planet is now becoming more vulnerable to potential impacts. Ranging from severe droughts and heavy downpours to ocean acidification and spread of vector-borne diseases, climate change rapidly becomes a major threat in various parts of the globe.

The IPCC Fourth Assessment Report cited that coastal areas, especially heavily-populated megadelta regions in South, East and Southeast Asia, will be at greatest risk due to increased flooding from the sea and, in some megadeltas, flooding from the rivers.

The whole world will be affected by rising sea levels. Changes in weather and climate could severely affect fisherfolks and coastal communities because of floods. When there is too little or too much rainfall during growing seasons, agricultural productivity will suffer, thus affecting food security.


So now the clarion call is sounded: Let us do our share in helping conserve our environment before it becomes too late.