DENR Sec. Reyes warns vs. global warming
Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Angelo Reyes, speaking during the Earth Day celebration in Dagupan City, warned that the country’s environment is in a very precarious situation because of global warming and climate change resulting from man’s continuous abusive practices.
Reyes called on the people to “wake up” and reconsider the unrelenting cutting down of trees, pollution of bodies of water and other activities that have a negative impact on the environment.
While in Dagupan, Reyes signed a memorandum of agreement with Dr. Gonzalo Duque, president of the Lyceum Northwestern University, enlisting all students of the university for the Green Army which will continue to plant trees on all sides of highways that was started on Aug. 25, 2006 when the country first aimed for a world record.
The LNU students will continue the work started by the group that wanted the Philippines places in the Guinness Book of World Record based on the number of people that participated in tree planting at one time numbering some 800,000.
Others who signed the MOA were Dr. Evelyn Pascua, regional director of the Commission on Higher Education in Region 1, as well as heads of various non-government organizations and other groups advocating for the protection of the environment.
Apart from the LNU students, others who will be involved in the massive tree planting program include representatives from institutions that are affiliated with the Coordinating Council for Private Education Association (COCOPEA), which is composed of 1,600 colleges and universities throughout the country.
“We are the only specie on earth (homo sapiens) that is systematically destroying our own habitats,” lamented Reyes.
“It is time to unite and be committed now to the protection the environment,” Reyes said, admitting that while it is not yet too late to address the problem, “we do not have all the time either.”
He stressed that because the Philippines is an agricultural country, climate change will severely affect crop production and food security, adding that the government and the people must take concrete, comprehensive and committed community action.
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