Time Forgotten

Environment   Oct 6, 2016 by Bettina R. Quilapio

"Saving our planet, lifting people out of poverty, advancing economic growth... these are one and the same fight. We must connect the dots between climate change, water scarcity, energy shortages, global health, food security and women's empowerment. Solutions to one problem must be solutions for all."

This quote really called out to me and in this blog post I shall intricately explain how my life changed under 2 hours and how that quote made a connection with me. I had to play 2 simulations, the first one was calculating my water footprint and the second simulation was experiencing the real meaning of being a political leader. Even though these were simulations, I cannot deny the fact that they gave me a headache. In this blog post, I want to share my experience with these simulations and how it made me broaden my horizons…

Gallons used per day: 2 853

Household: 14 592

So the first activity was calculating my water footprint. I make it a point to save water since this is a very scarce resource however, looking at these results I can confidently say that I am wasting a lot of water. Obviously, these results made me very disappointed with myself. When I saw my results, I suddenly thought of this “If I’m wasting this much water on a daily basis then multiply this amount with the population inhabiting Earth…”  The bottom line is that we are wasting A LOT of water. Contrary to the past, our recent developed technological society has become indifferent to this miracle of life. Our natural heritage has been exploited, mistreated and contaminated.

The population decline of the marine and riparian life, the appearance of green algae in the rivers and the stench and slime that comes as a result of putrefaction in the water, are clear signs of the depth and extent of disruption that has been caused to this intricate ecosystem. Government bodies and water authorities will have us believe that it is 'safe' and we should not worry about this global alarm. Awareness and action lies entirely upon us, as we need to become our own educators, physicians and innovators. Socrates had once said: "An unexamined life is not worth living.” So questioning everything and anything that anyone tells you until it makes sense, is of uppermost importance. I just want to highlight that time is running out and there will come a point in our life wherein we would suddenly realize how stupid we are for taking our resources for granted. The clock would eventually chime on the twelfth hour to signalize that the Earth cannot sustain us anymore. However, we humans are the stewards of nature and we need to act now. Honestly, you don't have to be an Environmental Education student since all of us are responsible for taking care of our common home. Don't you think it's only fair to treat this place right since she gave so much for us in order to survive? We humans are always talking about how unfair life is, but I personally think that the Earth got the worst end of the bargain. How is it so hard to protect something that gave your life and supported us for our whole lives?...

The next simulation was the climate change challenge (if you want to play this game be ready for a lot of thinking and problem solving). Before I write about the horrendous experience that I have just done in this simulation, let me give you a little background. So basically, you are a European president whose goal is to reduce a certain amount of carbon dioxide emission every ten years. Easy right? Not. I also thought so at first but, you would have to take a lot of things into account such as the budget and the approval of the people with the decisions you are making as a president. If the people don't like you, you are voted out as the president. When I played the game, I thought that I would actually balance all of these 3 factors BUT it was harder than I thought. Maybe a lot of you are thinking that I may simply just suck at this game, it's possible but once you experience this game I'm telling you it's not as easy as you think…

In every turn I would have to face a lot of dilemmas and the word sacrifice would always pop into my head. At this point you might be wondering why? Well, let me enlighten you. We all know that every decision has benefits and risks however, in this situation I would have to take account the amount of carbon emissions being produced, the current state of the country and the happiness of the people. Basically, when I want to improve on one aspect of these factors, one of the other two factors would be sacrificed. For example, I want to increase production of food since there was a scarcity in this resource however, the carbon emission would become drastically higher. Throughout this game, I would experience theses kind of decisions and I realized how hard it is to become a political leader. The fact that everything lies on your hands can become very overwhelming. In the end, I was voted out of presidency since I didn’t make the people happy but the carbon emission was lessened and my economy was in a good state. 

In this simulation, it focused more on the effects in the increase of carbon emission made by my country. More carbon dioxide equates to climate change. So, here's a Food for Thought: the planet keeps getting hotter, there's no surprise there. Especially in America, where 2012 was the warmest year ever recorded, by far. Every few years, the U.S. federal government engages hundreds of experts to assess the impacts of climate change, now and in the future. This fact alone can tell us how much of a problem climate change truly is and this can bring out a lot of negative effect in our lives. Here are some of the possible effects that can be brought out by climate change:

• A Sinking Feeling

  • Aging transportation infrastructures won't mix well with extreme weather.

• Sucked Dry

  • Droughts will become more common virtually everywhere.

• Increase in Cases

  • Cases of allergies and asthma will continue to rise.

• At Water’s Edge

  • Cities could become more dangerous than suburban areas.

• The Piercing Silence
  • Ecosystems and Biodiversities would slowly disappear from the face of the Earth.

Climate change has a really huge impact on us if we wouldn't act now. We may find ourselves feeling negative about the future of humanity however, we need to look at some of the things that this era has come to achieve. Humans always have the tendency to remember the mistakes that a person has done rather than the positive changes that he/she might have done to make a rift in our world. In these anxious times, it’s easy to forget how much safer, richer, warmer, cleaner and healthier we are than previous generations. The profound risk in forgetting what we’ve accomplished is, of course, that in our ignorance, we might unconsciously lose some of what we’ve gained.

As Pinker says, “Whatever its causes, the decline of violence has profound implications. It is not a license for complacency: We enjoy the peace we find today because people in past generations were appalled by the violence in their time and worked to end it, and so we should work to end the appalling violence in our time.”

Furthermore, we should study what we’ve accomplished to see whether we can get better at it. “Man’s inhumanity to man has long been a subject for moralization.” “With the knowledge that something has driven it dramatically down, we can also treat it as a matter of cause and effect."

Still, looking at what we’ve achieved, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to think we can solve present and future challenges. We can live on this planet in a sustainable way. We can preserve its health and vitality for future generations and we can make the lives of future human beings even better than the lives we lead today — we have a track record for that kind of achievement. It might seem impossible now, but we have to remember that everything starts from the question of what if's which leads to numerous doors of possibilities. I still believe in my heart and mind that we have the power to go through that door and grab hold of the opportunity to create a better world.

-Bettina Quilapio

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