Miguel Muñiz, Philippines

Nov 7, 2020 by Miguel Muñiz

Our bilateral partner was the students from the Pimlico State Highschool of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. The first thing I noticed was how different the state Australia was experiencing compared to us here in the Philippines. They were all together in one room while we students from the Philippines were at our own homes since we are still in lockdown. It shows that there really is a difference in the capacity of a country to cope with an issue. The conversations and exchange of information that we had with the students from Pimlico State Highschool were so light and fun. We learned valuable information between our countries and also at the same time meet one another through sharing our personal information like our hobbies. I also loved it when they said that it is their responsibility to represent their neighboring countries in the Asia Pacific which are thousands of small islands to the United Nations because they are the ones who are more exposed to the threat of climate change and that they would do whatever to help them.

The issue that they presented was about the larger shale and tight gas reserves of Victoria where the Quit Coal campaign saw the production of unconventional gas as a threat to the health of the people and adds more to the issue of climate change. The short-term harmful impacts were exposure to chemicals and hazardous materials, accidents and spills, loss of landscape, and aesthetic degradation. While the long-term harmful impacts are the contribution to global warming and groundwater pollution and depletion which may result in the reduction of water volume in streams, lakes and wetland environments.  The good news is that this issue was noticed by the Victorian Government and they announced that they would introduce legislation that would permanently ban the exploration and development of unconventional gas. This helped in bringing awareness on the negative climate impacts of the production of unconventional gas which is not just an issue that would impact Australia but also the whole world.

Meanwhile here in the Philippines, the main issue that we presented was the dumping of crushed dolomite on Manila Bay as the government's way of "cleaning" and "beautifying" it. Manila bay is a famous spot here in the Philippines known for its beautiful sunset view, but as time passes and countless people going in the area, pollution becomes a major problem. The government's action towards the issue of pollution is to dump artificial white sand which is crush dolomite. But research showed that crushed dolomite won't clean Manila bay and that it would only make things worse. Crushed dolomite has many harmful impacts both on the environment and people. Residents near the dolomite mining site has suffered from respiratory issues due to their prolonged exposure to the material. At the same time, the dumping of dolomite on the Manila bay has caused aquatic pollution, marine habitat degradation, loss of globally import water site, loss of sardine spawning grounds, and loss of mangroves and wetland areas. Many officials criticized the project as a waste of money which  could have been allocated to supplement the pandemic health response of the country and include gadgets for public school students struggling with online learning. 

Both Australia and the Philippines presented two different issues, but the similarities that they had were that both issues had negative impacts on us humans and on the environment. The production of unconventional gas in Australia was harmful to humans through its exposure to harmful chemicals and was also harmful to the environment through its contribution to greenhouse gases and global warming, while the crushed dolomite in the Philippines was harmful to humans through the respiratory issues that it can cause and at the same time was harmful to the environment through aquatic pollution and its damage to marine life.

The main goal of our presentations was to voice out and bring awareness to other people about the issues that we are facing today that can have a drastic effect on our future and that it is our mission as the youth to preserve our world for future generations to come. Through technology, we are more connected with each other and more exposed to valuable information that we can use to our advantage and create a solution. Nature is depending on us humans to preserve and protect our world and it is time for action because every second counts.

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