Change, like death and taxes, is inevitable. Millions of years in the future, the earth will die either from the sun's scorching heat as it grows old, or from the freeze when it burns out. But the current rate of climate change is alarming. For years, scientists all over the world have been warning us that the world as we know it is rapidly going down the drain, well ahead of its time. And several events of the recent past have supported that premise, but it's as if it still hasn't sunk fully into our consciousness.
If anything, Typhoon Ondoy (International name: Ketsana) lends us a more tangible and proximate wake-up call. Add to that the devastation of Northern Luzon from the fickle-minded Pepeng (Parma) and we are given front-row seats to what possibly is in our immediate future.
Climate change is a sum of effects. And while some countries certainly have greater contributions, we as individuals are not blameless. What seem like little things we do individually, like throwing out an almost-unused sheet of paper, grows exponentially when more people who have the same mentality do them as well, and do them repeatedly. Let me repeat that: little things add up to big things. That sheet of paper could add up to a whole tree wasted, and that tree would eventually become a whole forest denuded.
On the flipside, we don't have to make a big-ass gesture to save Mother Earth. The little things we do, while not much, becomes significant when we do them repeatedly and consistently and in large numbers. I'm putting here a list of what little things we can do to start off:
1. Cutting corners. Starting with my first sample, I have now been reusing scratch paper for doing my sums. Yes, even scratch paper that has print on both sides. I pick out the ones with good white spaces so I won't be distracted. The rejects, we use in the office as placemats.
2. Brown bagger. Our town of Los Baños has already eschewed the use of plastic bags and is using paper bags even in supermarkets. Boxes are also being used for bigger and bulkier purchases. Some merchants, like our local Panaderia Pantoja, even gives back 1 Peso if you don't use a paper bag for your purchase (and stow your bread in another bag). The good thing about this is that people bring the good habits developed in LB to other places, and the impact gets bigger and bigger. So whenever I can, I refuse plastic bags. I just stow my purchases in my handbag or a reuseable shopping bag if I brought one.
3. Turn it off. Not only are we wasting precious electricity when we leave appliances on, we are also increasing our carbon footprint. Yes, I am guilty of this especially when I'm waiting for Glee to finish downloading. For starters, choosing lights that expend less energy helps. And at least switch on Sleep when watching tv in the middle of the night.
4. Tumbling down. I love going to Starbucks because I save 5 Pesos when I use my tumbler for my drinks. I didn't start out bringing a tumbler everyday, and I still prefer bottled C2 over water, but as I write this I am making a mental promise to put in water in my tumbler instead so that I'll save a lot more money that I'll otherwise spend on softdrink that come in PET bottles or worse, plastic cups.
This list is not nearly enough. In fact, I found another good list here: http://edugreen.teri.res.in/explore/climate/causes.htm and I'm sure others have posted their own lists as well. I wonder, what would you put in your list?
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This is the first time I've participated in Blog Action Day. I know, I'm late. But it's still October 15th somewhere in the world, isn't it?
