Blogs
James Andrew Baltazar,Philippines
Our Bilateral partner is from the Pimlico High Townsville ,Queensland Australia our meeting came out to be pretty awesome! Because they were very enthusiastic and they are full of energy ,they even shared some pretty unusual but pretty fascinating facts about there country like the sheeps population in there country is three times larger than the human population in their country , they were very open about there country. Honestly after the meeting ended I just want to explore more about Australia, because for me Australia is very fascinating and wonderful country.
As our meeting commence the Australian students discussed about their climate crisis which is about the production of unconventional gases ,Unconventional gases can pose a great threat to our lives and can contribute to green house emissions.
What I also like about Australia is that the minorities there are acknowledged by the government like the government gave back some the land to the natives that was originally taken by the colonizers back then. Us students here in the Philippines wish that our government would listen to our voices and be heard because like my fellow delegate Britinah Perez "a few of us are being heard" by the government. We have an issue here in the Philippines ,it's about the Manila Bay beautification they used crushed dolomite to be the artificial white sand on Manila Bay. Our government didn't even consult to some experts about what can the dolomite cause to our marine life and to human life. Due to continous mining of dolomite ,The residents from the surrounding villages suffered some respiratory issues. were trying to be acknowledged by signing petitions. W e also got some ideas to lessen our carbon footprint such as converting our energy to clean energy and urban gardening, Hopefully our government could support us this time.
what differs us from the Australians is that the lack of government support because they are not setting there priorities properly unlike the Australian government are fighting the threat of climate change their government ban the use of unconventional gas. As for the philippines they still continue the dolomite dumping even though this very expensive and unsustainable. I hope our government will support unprofitable organizations that fight against climate change or set their priorities straight and because of that Philippines would be united to fight the urgent threat of climate change. Because I know for a fact Filipinos are always finding new ways to fight against this threat.
Post comment
4 Comment(s)
hey James, I am very happy to hear about your interest in our country it is a pretty beautiful place. Unfortunately I was not able to make it to the conference but I still heard lots of great stories about your country. I am glad that our schools could learn a few more things about climate issues and I hope you can come to an agreement with your government soon. Best of luck :)
Hi James, although our county has been moving in the right direction for some aspects, like encouraging recycling and stopping thing like unconventional gas mining there are still many issues we have. One of these changes that have been implemented incorrectly in my opinion is the tax on electric vehicles being put into place this early. Roughly 2300 electric vehicles were sold in 2017 with 1.2 million new vehicles being registered. At this point I think the government should be trying to get people to drive electric cars, and incorporate a road tax later that max up for the gas tax of regular cars.
Hi James, I am happy to learn about your great interest in Australia after our bilateral conference, unfortunately I wasn't at the conference but I have learned that from that conference that we both learned about each others climate issues, it is unfortunate to hear that your government is not helping you in your fight against climate change.
Hi I am Kiana from Calgary, Alberta
I loved reading your blog post. I loved reading what the Philippines and what issues are going on there. From reading your blog your goverement does not listening to you and what issues you are wanting to change. Maybe what I suggest is to write your goverement a letter and explain what issues you want changed and what you want them to do. If you want to take it a two furthure you can do a protest mere the goverement building on the issue you want changed. Also you can write about the impacts it is having on you and everyone else like the air quality is bad. Lastltly, I think that your solution by reducing your carbon is great as well.
katie behrendorff
Nov 18, 2020