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Action, Not Just Reaction (Asual, Escaro, Geraldez, Ronquillo, Vasco)
“Change is the only thing constant in the world” - that is arguably one of the most quoted lines ever. This quote essentially captures the essence of the undeniable reality that everything is bound to change. Nothing remains the same. However, not all forms of change are good. Thus, there is always seemingly a need to adapt to these changes in order to be in a better situation or find a way to divert this change towards a more desirable form. Now, if there is one kind of change not a single person would like, it would be climate change. According to Bill Nye, “climate change is happening, humans are causing it, and I think this is perhaps the most serious environmental issue facing us.” Have you experienced very cold winters during summertime and hot summers during what is supposedly winter time? Or how about experiencing more than 25 typhoons in a year? Climate change is a known environmental issue. It greatly affects life here on earth because of global temperature and sea level rise, extreme weather conditions, ocean acidification and shrinking ice sheets. However, do we act to respond to this or do all these recent discoveries and researches remain as ‘mere knowledge’? Are we even aware of the current state of climate change?
Last October 6, 2016, the Advanced Environmental Education Elective Class of St. Theresa’s College Q.C., answered the National Dialogue Survey. In this survey, questions regarding climate change and its effects on the country were highlighted. The impacts on the quality of life that the residents have, perspective of life and availability of numerous resources were considered in the given survey. In addition, it included the ways on how the government and other individuals respond to climate change. Moreover, the current natural disasters experienced by our country such as Typhoon Ondoy and Yolanda, were analyzed through the challenges it left for the Philippines, most especially to the Filipino community. In relation to this, the results obtained from the responses of the Advanced Environmental Education class reflect the opinions of the students on the aforementioned environmental issue. With this, the response of the class corresponds to the current consequences of climate change imposed on our country. It can be deduced from the data that the students are very much aware of the causes, effects and corresponding action to be done by everyone in order to lessen the negative impacts of climate change. Some of these actions are using energy efficient appliances, conserving water, using less, following the 3Rs and many more. Furthermore, most of the respondents agree that climate change impacts their own lives and consequently, their actions can affect the environment. Also, they are knowledgeable of the government’s contribution and role in solving the said issue. In addition, the data shows that most of the students consider climate change as an important issue and this is significant in order to promote positive change for the environment.
Since the graphs reflected questions with definite answers, no new information was obtained except for the percentage of the students who chose a particular option. The essays, on the other hand, were more relevant since it contained personal opinions and ideas of the students which was not only limited to a particular set of choices/options. This is because the responses were direct, meaningful and it served as an indicator of the students’ awareness about the environmental problem, climate change. For the essays, we observed that most of our answers are similar to one another wherein the environment is given care and protection. It is just that there are different perspectives used because each one of us is entitled to an opinion. Reading the essays, we realized the need for unity as a nation to be able to tackle this issue that affects everyone and everything. In uniting as a nation, we are posed with the challenge to gear towards a common goal, and achieving these goals through collaboration. As our current president, Rodrigo Duterte, said in his SONA last June 30, “We must have the courage to fight for what we believe in, undeterred by the fear of failing or losing. Indeed, courage knows no limits, cowardice does.” We are called to action and not just reaction. We are challenged to continue the ideas inside our minds and not just leave them there to rot and settle for “what ifs”. What can we do? In our country, the Climate Change Commission (CCC) was established that has the goal of monitoring and evaluating different programs of the government that are inclined with the environment. An example of the program they focus on is the Communities for Resilience program in which the CCC intends to promote the understanding of climate and disaster risk especially by communities identified by experts to be more vulnerable to disasters caused by climate change and strengthen the technical knowledge and capacity of LGUs in developing the Local Climate Change Action Plan (LCCAP) through a series of convergence consultations and trainings. The said program has the goal of spreading awareness to the public about climate change and its effect but it does not stop with only spreading awareness of the issue; there should be concrete solutions. This is where the Climate Change Adaptation program which was established in 2010 enters as a possible solution in which it is a way to demonstrate approaches that targets the community to adapt to the possible impacts of climate change program comes with four components that all focus on the agricultural and natural resources sectors. Generally, these organizations all aim to address the negative effects of climate change in order to conserve the resources found in the environment. With these said, there is more that we can do to contribute and take part in solving this issue. We must remember that what the world needs now is action, not just reaction.
- Jaclyn Asual, Katrina Escaro, Martha Geraldez, Andrea Ronquillo & Arianna Vasco
