Blogs
By Luis Miguel Esguerra, Veritas Catholic School, Philippines
Perspectives, what one may view as being shaped a circle another may view it as a flat shadow, that is how we view things, given that we are human beings and what we see is sometimes what we do not perceive, what is there versus what we think we see.
It is said that the human brain only works when faced with a problem, and when it does work it ends up producing conclusions, multiply these brains and we’ll be getting different conclusions from the same problem.
So, climate change, a large problem of our generation, and just so happens to have people concluding differently about it; some concludes it is not true, some concludes it is a big problem and they are being affected by it, while some conclude that it is not a big problem but it is true.
And with conclusions come politics, with some parties - both political and not political ones- agreeing to disagree on the severity of climate change, and thus the problem of climate change becomes much more complicated, with some people in power with vested interest on some industries stopping any efforts to stop climate change.
What’s more is that Climate change has got to be the most unfair problem I have ever read of, imagine it as this way, the top producers of carbon dioxide and pollution are the rich and industrialized countries that are in no way affected much by the rising seas, however those who are affected are islanders and those within the pacific region including my own country, the Philippines.
From our point of view here in this part of the world, and from my experience, is that the climate has been changing somewhat dramatically; whereas December had always been a month of cold and relief from the tropical heat, now it has been getting a bit more warmer, and then there’s also the issue of typhoons, the increasing severity of each typhoon that strikes us and the numbers of these strong and/or rainy typhoons.
There are three unbiased and undiscrimnatory things on this world, and they are death, sickness, and the weather, with the weather having the capability of causing the other two, most especially extreme weather events such as Typhoons. Case in point would be Typhoon Haiyan that struck my country in 2013, it caused so many deaths and so many issues, and it may only be a warning shot for the shape of things to come.
And this issue is not just isolated to the cities and coastal town, while the capital city of the Philippines is suffering hot weather, also too the cold and somewhat frigid mountainous north have began thawing. Baguio City is a city located in that cool north, a place with which I spent my Summer vacation in recently, had been somewhat warmer than normal, the worst part is that Baguio City is our refuge from the summer heat. Should climate change continue, there would be no refuge from heat and a windy and stormy death.
While we are living in the age of information, and to mention some of my fellow participants in the COP 23 of what they pointed out in their blog posts, where all information and evidences are at the tip of our finger tips, Isaac Asimov - the great Science Fiction author - had once imagined a world library where everything can be accessed anywhere by anyone, it is exactly what the Internet is today.
Yet, there are some of those who disagree, and i will suspect that it is economically driven rather than just thought driven, and sometimes wealth and status are what separates views on climate change; whereas those poor (and maybe some rich) people living in the coastal areas which are being affected by climate change would have the opinion that Climate Change is a problem than , say, a person living in a place that is not being immediately affected by climate change.
We also have to consider their background, to some degree; what is their family background? Are they rich? What is their religion? Where did they live and used to live? Where did they grow up, what environment? In general, everything about them and their surroundings.
So, when it comes to discussing climate change, it is nearly imperative for everyone to take into account the differing perspectives from each students and persons, and we have to tackle and address these perspectives.
What is your vision for a sustainable world?
A world that can adapt to any problem and solve said problems efficiently and without causing other problems is, in my opinion, what a sustainable world should be, but in order for that to be possible, we would have to learn to start working for stability; political stability, climate stability, stable peace, food stability, job stability, and acceptance of sustainable technologies. In other words, an efficient world is a sustainable one.
To be more specific, imagine a city - let’s use this city as an example, a glimpse of the sustainable world beyond its borders - where energy is provided for by advanced and highly efficient reusable and sustainable sources of power such as solar panels and wind farms. When you go out of your home and look outside, you’ll see greenery and grey in a balance, one not dominating the other. When you take a deep breath, you feel energized for the air is clean and fossil fuel has long been disused.
That’s just on the technological side, let us not forget the political side, the humanities, us. In my vision of a sustainable world, there is no space for corruption or policies that are harmful to anyone or the environment, there is no space for hatred or any form of bigotry, and there is no space - I hope - for greed.
Above all, we also have to focus on education, specifically education on sustainability and climate change, the children are our future after all and what better way to forge our future by educating the future custodians of our world.
What are you planning to do to make this vision a reality?
I am only one person, but anyone can find someone else and form a group of like minded people to bring about change. What I can do is just that, find other people that can help me in becoming an influencer and a force of change. But one thing I can do, and everyone else must do, is to never bow down and break by giving up in achieving our dream and vision for a sustainable world, a world that will last for generations without any negative effects.
What impact has colonization had on our journey to a sustainable planet?
As a person who is interested in all things about history, I would say that colonization had formed us to who and what we are today, and as for our journey to becoming a sustainable planet, it has a great impact because it formed us, our society, our present culture, and even our current religion, in other words, colonization - as much as we hate the sound of it - has formed either a part or nearly entirety of our identity.
Colonization has also shown us the integrity and stubbornness of the human being, many diseases have been spread by colonization and many blood were spilled when wars were fought, but yet we remain and move forward, that is how much determination we human beings have.
My vision, picture, of a sustainable world.
