5 Environment Hazards and their Simple Eco Friendly Solutions for Environmental Protection

As civilized man marches across the face of the earth, he leaves behind a desert in his footprints.

This statement, written in 1955 by Dale & Carter, two famous environmentalists of their times, was not an exaggeration. In the light of today's growing environmental problems, the quotation carries the ugly truth in it which invites us to call to mind what happens indeed with every footprint we leave behind as we travel the earth's surface.

We are all to blame for this sad state of our environment today.

Brief history of man's wanton neglect of his environment

In the beginning, man was contented with the primal elements, the pure clean and fragrant air he breathed, the cool clean water he drunk, and the velvety soil soft under his feet as he roamed around freely during his hunting-gathering days over the last two million years. Sadly, all of these had drastically changed.

About 12,000 years ago when modern man discovered that he could shape and manipulate the environment, he learned to industrialize and commercialize. He made rapid science and technology advancements. He began to explore his habitat of its biological diversity, from the smallest bacteria to the largest plant and animal. He became careless as years of discovery passed by. He destroyed the peaceful and well-ordered balance in nature. His activities were signs of sharp decline of his respect and reverence toward Mother Nature. He has since then wrought irreparable ecological damages to his one and only habitat- this planet called Earth.

Over only a span of about 1% of the time man has lived on earth, the desert of his footprints has widened, as he moves from one new land to another. He seems unmindful of the desert he leaves behind. He has done many hazards to the environment. Today, we are recipients of this habitat with a damaged ecosystem.

The hazards we make in the environment

In our desire to shape our environment to our own liking, consciously and unconsciously, we have introduced hazardous elements in the air, water, and soil.

1. Do you know that when you burn that unwanted rubbish in your yard, you are introducing aerosol, carbon dioxide, and other toxic chemicals in the atmosphere? These pollutants, like carbon dioxide, heat up the earth's temperature and produce the so-called greenhouse effect. This practice adds to CO2 emission in the air that causes global warming. This prolonged global warming has now produced climate change.

Polar ice is now starting to melt, world-wide tropical climate change in the forms of cyclones, storms, typhoons are inundating coastal cities. People in risk areas all over the world have to retreat to higher grounds for safety.

Aerosols and fluorocarbon in the air are blamed for that gaping hole in the sky that threatens the ozone layer. This is the earth's natural umbrella that protects us from the deadly ultra violet rays of the sun. The hole-tattered ozone layer is also blamed for the rise in percentage of cases of skin cancer on earth.

2. When you use fertilizers, detergents, and pesticides, you run the risk of doing more harm than good . Most synthetic and artificial commercial fertilizers, insect repellents, and soap ingredients are actually pollutants. Although fertilizers are used to increase yields of some agro crop hybrids, these are mostly water-based and are of low-nutrients. Fertilizers make the soil hard and dry through prolonged use. In time, soil fertility is lost pushing farmers in constant search for alternate sites for their crops. Why use fertilizers at all? Similarly, pesticides can kill the useful earthworm and contaminate the crops. Lessened green energy source increases the problem on productivity, food production, and food security. This warms the atmosphere as well.

3. When you cut down trees, you are courting the worst ecological problem to happen. Indiscriminate and illegal logging denudes the forests.Without the forests, many wildlife will die because of their absence of good habitat. Without trees, there will be floods, flash floods. Heavy rains usually cause soil erosion because of lack of forest covers. The continuous siltation of waterways due to soil erosion causes the flooding of lands and homes. Heavy loss of life and property is attributed to the strange behavior of of the tropical elements due to climate change.

4. When you dump your garbage in improper manner, the soil around is contaminated. Germs, viruses will abound and threaten the health of the people. There will be rise in skin diseases and many other ailments triggered by polluted soil. The foul smelling air will be a breeding ground for air-born diseases, the most common of which are respiratory diseases like asthma, colds, and coughs. The dirty juice of rotten garbage find their way to broken pipes of our potable drinking water making the water system unsafe for use.

Garbage thrown into rivers and other bodies of water produce chemicals that give rise to the recurrent red tide problem, hence the massive fish kill and food poisoning from contaminated fish the public consumers buy. The occurrence of large mass of algal blooms on the water surface prevents oxygen necessary for marine life, as well. The rise in water temperature due to heavy carbon deposit also contribute to global warming.

5. When you neglect care of your vehicles like cars, you are contributing to air pollution. Heavy smoke belching is also a contributor to carbon dioxide emissions that court airborne diseases as well as the holes of the ozone layer. It also affects the green life in the surroundings due to carbon emissions that leave dark oily covers on the green leaves thereby affecting manufacture of oxygen and productivity of plants and trees. The imbalance of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the air adds to the warming of the earth's atmosphere.

Some Eco Friendly Methods for our Environmental Protection

There is no time to spare now. We have known only few causes of global warming here among many. We have known the consequences of our neglect for the environment, insignificant as they are, we can start reforming our ways from here.


1. If by burning our rubbish, our trash, and litters, we are polluting the atmosphere, we must exercise self discipline on proper waste disposal. We can sort our garbage, dig the yard to bury the biodegradable wastes and save the usable non-biodegradable matters. We can adopt the 3R's - Recycle, Reduce, Reuse- the buzzword s of advocates of environmental protection and sustainability. This is very basic, isn't it?

2. If by using fertilizers, pesticides, and detergents, we are inviting disaster to our crops, food production, and food security, we can find replacements with environment-friendly alternatives. Coconut oil can be a good substitute for soap ingredient, organic compost offers better production and safer green technology. Soap berries are good substitutes for pesticides. Less carbon dioxide from these products means less warming of the earth's atmosphere.

3. If by cutting down trees without reforestation we are introducing future heavy flooding, then let us pull our efforts together in reporting illegal logging. to proper authorities. The improper "kaingin" system of Filipino farmers or the old-age practice of clearing the forests and burning unwanted debris is often the cause of forest fires. This, too, must be stopped. Even if we cut trees in the forest, so long as it remains a forest, it regenerates itself under wise human cultivation, and reforestation. This way, it burgeons to its fullest productivity and eventually outlives its service to mankind. Thick forest covers, vegetation, and plantation help in the balance of carbon-oxygen-nitrogen in air the that makes a cooler and cleaner atmosphere.

4. If improper garbage disposal is detrimental to our health, then for our goodness' sake, let us practice proper waste disposal. Again, use the buzzwords of the 3r's for a clean environment and for our best of health. This way we are also preventing garbage clogging waterways that cause heavy floods. We can also check carbon emissions in the air.

5. If smoke belching vehicles add to heavy carbon emissions in the air, then we must give proper care to the vehicles. Have them checked on regular basis by proper authorities who will determine if your vehicle needs a change oil job or a major repair. And besides, your car is like your home away from home, so it must be safe all the time.

These are only few and probably insignificant issues and concerns regarding the total environmental problems. But aren't small things the beginning of great things? Hazards must be addressed ahead of time in order for us to live in an eco friendly habitat.

Photo by McDnry and chrissatchwell on Flickr

DISASTERS: SIGNS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ?

Disasters such as typhoons, flash floods, landslides, etc., that are occurring with alarming frequency here in our country and abroad are suspicious signs that climate on earth has been changing. During my school days, I learned from my books in science that Scientists all over the earth prophesied a bleak future headed toward numerous baffling phenomena about the Earth warming up and cooling down. And true enough because not long ago, even the man on the street knew about the El Nino and La Nina phenomena. When the climate or weather patterns on earth is unfavorable say for instance, the amount of rainfall decreases, food production will be affected. Many people will starve. The heating up of the earth's temperature beyond the normal will melt the polar ice caps. Sea level will rise and coastal areas will be under water.

Let me start to review our basic knowledge about climate for the youth who are the heirs of this earth. Climate in a particular place doesn't change quickly. It is because it is influenced by permanent factors like altitude (or the height of a place above sea level), latitude ( or the imaginary lines that run parallel to the equator going north or south), bodies of water, wind system, and amount of rainfall or snowfall a particular area receives for a longer period of time. Climate differs from weather as the latter is that condition of the sky that changes from time to time, from day to day, influenced by cloud formation, water evaporation, location, temperature, wind speed and direction, and rainfall. Climate is the average of all weather conditions prevailing for a longer period of time.

The Philippines sits in the tropics in the Northern Hemisphere near the equator. Due to such location, the country experiences two distinct seasons- the wet season and the dry season. The Philippines has a tropical climate- not very hot, not very cool. In places where it is sunny and dry for months, the climate is dry. Areas that experience longer period of rainy days are described to have wet climate. Elementary grades pupils are very much aware of the following types of Philippine climate, to wit:(reference-Into the Future:Science and Health for Grade Six)

The first type of Philippine climate is open to southwest monsoon. It is described as dry for 6 months (from November to April) and wet for another 6 months (from May to October). The sample areas with this climate are Metro Manila, Baguio, Western Luzon, Panay, Mindoro, Negros Island and Northwest Palawan.

The second type is open to northeast and southwest monsoons, described as without dry season with maximum rainfall from November to January. Some provinces covered are Catanduanes, Daet, Sorsogon, Samar, Eastern Mindanao, Camarines Norte, Quezon, Leyte.

The third type is open to southwest monsoon but is protected in part from the northeast monsoon. Central Cebu, Isabela, Nueva Viscaya, Southern Quezon, Masbate, most of Eastern Negros, Palawan, and parts of Northeastern Mindanao are areas covered by this type.

The fourth experiences rainfall throughout the year and is evenly distributed. This is felt in Davao, Batanes, Northeastern Luzon, Western part of Camarines Norte, Eastern Mindoro and Marinduque.

It is clear that the Philippines experiences four types of climate depending on the amount of rainfall received by a particular area during a particular period of time during the year. However, today, the statistical data above seemed to have changed. I can say this because Western Luzon where Pangasinan, my province, is located, is experiencing wet days even as far as the month of December which is supposedly a dry month in this area. The rains and worse the typhoons are highly unpredictable nowadays. At present times we have more incoming wet All Saints' Days and Christmases in November and December, respectively. If this is not due to climate change, then what is this all about?

Scientists all over the world agree that there is tendency of climate to change. Why there is climate change is an earth issue which these people have been studying, searching for categorical answers all their lives. Scientists have already unearthed evidences since 1940 that the Northern Hemisphere has been cooling off and that the Southern Hemisphere shows signs of warming up but they simply don't understand why. They tend to differ in their views also as to whether the people's activities affect climate.

For example, burning just anything on earth that produces heavy smoke releases great amount of carbon dioxide in the air. This gas popularly known as greenhouse gas acts like glass in a greenhouse that traps heat and retains it longer causing worldwide rise of temperature. While some of these geniuses believe that strengthened greenhouse effect cause ice caps in the north and south poles to melt, others think otherwise. They say that a stronger greenhouse effect will increase moisture in the air and clouds will form. The more clouds the better because clouds will reflect incoming sunlight back to space keeping the earth's temperature in a balance. Excessive dust from farmlands are also said to increase the greenhouse effect that warms the climate, others say that excess dust will reflect sunlight and cool the earth.

To deflect whatever greenhouse gas may cause, however, specially the negative effects, our education sector is bent on making school children aware of the phenomenon of climate change and teaching them their possible contributions to save Mother Earth. Hence, many projects were launched decades ago to address the ill- effects of ecological imbalance in our climate. There were the Sagip-Pasig Movement, Clean and Green Campaign, Proper Garbage Disposal Management, Tree Planting, Adopt-a-Tree Program, and a lot more. The government has been acting on bills passed to protect the environment that have something to do with illegal logging, reforestation, pollution, and other sorts of earth-saving programs..

I, for one, suspects that the disasters that recently devastated a big portion of our country from north to south, are results of climate change and human negligence combined.Too many wind-related disasters like typhoons, tornadoes, hurricanes, cyclones, and storms happening the world over are probable proofs that the world's wind system has changed. Floods that cause landslides and other land falls are possible evidences also of either too much rainfall or a rise in sea water level due to melting ice caps in the high seas and oceans or the two circumstances combined. People in government, those manning the weather forecasts, and those who are identified with dam operations have much to explain why typhoons of Pepeng's nature caught them with their pants down. The damage has been done. They must refrain from this finger-pointing. But they must retrace their policies and their future actions must redeem their negligences or incapacities for the people's sake.

Whatever happened to all those high-fallotin' government programs and projects? Are they just the "ningas-kugon" types now relegated to the backseats? I saw on TV the Senate inquiry directed to the officials of the San Roque Dam here in Pangasinan over their celebrated oversight or negligence in their procedure of releasing excess rain waters that destroyed infrastructures such as concrete dikes and bridges, washed away houses, cost many lives, destroyed plantation and production, overflowed fishponds, caused landslides or landfalls. After all, the people in the neighboring towns who strongly rejected the construction of the dam were right. Why the project was mothballed for sometime due to pressures and construction pushed through after a lull, is to me very suspicious. Now everybody is pointing fingers to everybody but themselves.

We are doomed forever here in Pangasinan, one of the so-called flood plains. Lingayen, my hometown, will eternally become a downstream spillway to Lingayen Beach. Disasters in the future like this first of its kind flooding will irreversibly be blamed to climate change aggravated by heavy rainfalls, never by human errors in government and the NAPOCOR who operates the dams. And before the damage to lives and properties are justifiably rectified, if ever it happens, people will have no more use of their lands. Those who probably can afford to leave their place will relocate and be saved from their nightmares but the least among them, those without money to buy land in safer place, those who are only able to put up houses of light materials, shanties from scraps , on a land probably inherited from their parents, will wait for their own destiny- an obscure one. Life to them is a daily survival from the elements , courtesy of climate change and corruption in government.

Photo by ItzaFineDay

OBAMA'S TOO EARLY PEACE AWARD

US President Barack Obama had no choice but to humble himself amidst global reactions of "too early", "gasps of surprises", "cries of too much too soon", "mere intentions", "hasty" and other sorts of condemnation as a result of the recent news about his winning a slot in the prestigious Nobel Peace Award for 2010 last October 9, 2009. The breaking news literally caught his detractors off guard and his allies grinning wide. He now goes down in American history as the fourth president to win this peace award, a neophyte president of barely 2 years in office. The other three past American presidents who were given this accolade were :Theodore Roosevelt in 1906, Woodrow Wilson in 1919, Jimmy Carter in 2002.

There's nothing wrong about winning the peace award. If there is anything wrong perhaps for President Obama's "too early" nomination that led him to his garnering the award, is that there seems to me a break, say a complete reverse from the traditional manner of selecting winners with widely proven testimonies and concrete proofs as having the most humanitarian accomplishments and registering the best work for fostering fraternity of nations, the reduction if not the abolition of nuclear weapons and active involvement in peace congresses. There is not enough that President Obama had accomplished yet. His young administration is barely 2 years and is at an early stage of mapping out actions to implement his well- intended policies.

The 5-member Norwegian Nobel Committee was quick in rationalizing that President Obama won because the judges believed in his promise of disarmament and his diplomacy that are too good to be ignored. In several fora he attended in the international communities it was observed that he outwardly pledged to work an end to the war in Iraq that is hurting America and her allies in Afghanistan. His effort to reach out to the Arab world after years of failed negotiations of peace, if any, by his predecessors and the unsolved raging hostilities obviously lead to his "wonderful recognition"as the one president of this time who can muster global support to the very same intentions of the Nobel Peace award. But he had not brought home yet a good number of American soldiers fighting in those war-torn nations, the way he promised at his campaign speeches. He is accused of having blood-soaked hands because of continued failure to withdraw his government's military forces and end the blood-shed in Afghanistan.

President Obama is being accused of winning due to "mere intentions" still bereft with resulting actions. Optimistically, this may be accepted as true, but again, his allies concur that given his kind of resolve, they believe and trust that he can deliver what he intends to achieve. The opportunity to respond to the pressing world problems is never too early, in fact, it is said that 3 years from now, we may find it too late to stir into action. What is asked from all of us is cooperation.

The Philippines, my country, which is just a dot in the world map, stands to benefit if only our own government officials open their eyes to the intentions of powers that be in the international arena. President Obama's call to reduced nuclear weapons and armies in foreign countries, his plea for international respond to global climate change are two of the most important reasons why I want to react. Is the Visiting Forces Agreement (VFA) between US and the Philippines really beneficial to both or is just one-sided, with the US benefited most? The Muslims in Mindanao, are the Afghans and the Arabs in our country. When will the business of rearming the Muslims in the guise of fighting off terrorists end? If they aren't the terrorists themselves, then who are they really? How will the hostilities among brother Filipinos end?

The presence of a large number of big American firms and companies that unload so much pollution in the air are hurting the climate. Is the Philippines warming up or cooling off?The recent disasters that are like omen to this country, are strong indications that we are not spared from the wrath of nature's revenge. Why do we allow such rapine in our own ecology for a promise of the green bucks that only line the pockets of the few in government?

I don't claim to know much about the above issues but if climate change and a nuclear-free world must definitely become a global concern, then everybody must consider everybody's good. Peace congresses must not remain mere lip services, they must stir everyone's imagination as to what will happen to this world if we continue harping about "too early" things rather than think about what will happen if today we will continue arguing and refuse to cooperate. I am but a small voice, but I want change. We have only one Earth. Let's protect its occupants, the Earthmen.

Photo by Violentz