Let's get serious on saving the environment

Like hundreds of millions of televiewers all over the globe, I tuned in midnight of Jan.21st to watch history in the making, the Inaugural ceremonies of US Pres. Barack Obama, the 44th President of the United States of America and the first ever black man to hold this prestigious position. The millions of people at the mall in Washington D. C. was already historic enough. In attendance was a veritable “Who’s who” of Americans. What we saw was democracy in action, a peaceful transfer of power through the ballot, by the will of the American people.

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We attended the Metro Cebu Summit on Climate Change yesterday morning at the MCWD Auditorium, organized by the City of Cebu where the Metro Cebu Airshed Governing Board was created. This was apparently the first such a governing board created in this country and Cebu leads the way to point the rest of the nation towards preserving our climate.

Keynote speaker Hon. Heherson T. Alvarez, Presidential Adviser on Global Warming and Climate Change pointed out “As global warming continues, the world is moving towards a dangerous tipping point. Scientists report that if the level of atmospheric concentration of greenhouse gases (GHG) reaches 450 parts per million (PPM), the world would reach the tipping point of irreversible climate change. The current level is now at 372 ppm and the tipping point may be breached by the year 2050, that’s 41-years from now.”

Alvarez added, “Unless we put a halt or at least slow down this process, by 2050, that tipping point will correspond to a 2-degree centigrade increase in global temperature, melting ice caps as thick as three miles in Greenland, which in turn will raise sea levels by 6 to 7 meters.” Just like what former US Vice-President Al Gore pointed out in his environmental documentary“An Inconvenient Truth” Alvarez showed a Google Earth photo of Metro Cebu at the 7-meter level, where half of Mactan Island would be under water.

We’ve heard more than enough statistics about global warming and all the warnings on what we ought to do about it. The time has come to do something about the environment and take on a “damn-the-torpedoes” attitude to those who refuse to help or cooperate in this global endeavor.

While we’re elated that Cebu has taken the lead in the fight to preserve the environment, there are huge stumbling blocks along the way. A case in point are those pesky smoke-belching jeepneys that until now the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) hasn’t taken off the streets. I would like to see this Governing Board get strict on smoke belching so we can have a better air quality in Metro Cebu.

But first things first. I do recall that the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) had only one Air Quality monitor. I would like to see the DENR come up with Air Quality monitors along the major thoroughfares of Metro Cebu, not just in Cebu City. If they get this done, then we can have an idea of the air quality in Metro Cebu and see if their advocacy would improve our air quality.

But apprehending smoke-belchers is a cat and mouse game, unless the Airshed Governing Body would order the DENR, LTO or LTFRB not to accept fines for smoke belchers and literally get them off the street! This alone is already very controversial. Vehicle owners would fight this tooth and nail.

“Prevention is better than a pound of cure.” The only way we can effectively clean our air quality is to stop importation of used vehicles, especially those “chop-chop” mini-pickups. They’re so cheap but they are no longer sold in Japan because they pollute the environment. We allowed Japan to dump these polluting vehicles into our country.

Importers would fight to keep this very profitable business, even at the expense of polluting our environment. But those businessmen already “profited” from this business, many of them are already multi-millionaires, so they really have nothing to lose. They should no longer be allowed to bring in junk and pollutive chop-chop vehicles to this country.

I sure hope that DENR Secretary Lito Atienza the Chairman of the Metro Cebu Airshed Governing Board would put real teeth into its policies so that once and for all Cebuanos would realize that saving the environment is serious business and everyone must band together to do their share.