Think about it
US, China are the world’s worst polluters
By Jun Velasco
WE are sad witnesses to the conceits among governments of the different countries while dealing with climate change.
The document that the world leaders hammered out in Copenhagen to promote a safe world environment has suffered a snag because the world powers – US and China – could not see eye to eye. They are the worst polluters, and it should be incumbent upon all nations in the world environment summit to expect their leaders come forward and fashion an “orderly world order,” so to speak.
The critical value of the Copenhagen summit lies in the obvious fact that climate change and global warming have succeeded in making the world unsafe. If nothing is done about the continued degradation of our environment, then those who have raised the fear of a sinking world are correct. Worse, our world leaders who should be on the forefront to arrest the progressive fall of the world are behaving like spoiled brats.
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We have yet to hear our leaders including those aspiring to get elected in this and that position mount a serious platform on environment given the sure fall that Mother Earth is going through due to environmental abuse.
It may be true that the Philippines is a puny voice in Copenhagen, but if our people speak up in unison — and with grave urgency — we shall be able to make a dent in that international forum.
It looks like Filipinos really have short memories, forgetting their sufferings during the last two killer Typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. Today, they are embroiled in the political circus behaving as if they never had excruciating pains in the last typhoons. A couple of months back, they were begging for help and crying on the rooftops of their houses. They were full of lung power on TV and the radio calling action to the ineptness of managers responsible for the deaths and sufferings of thousands from the floods.
As we write this piece, Mayon Volcano is on the threshold of a deadly eruption. Probably because we don’t live in the area, we treat the imminent disaster cavalierly.
Let us talk.
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Sorry to miss the media night at the Capitol last Tuesday.
Close to a thousand, we were told, attended the party.
Governor Amado “Spines” Espino Jr., must have seen the huge crowd, which doubled that of last year’s, as a sign of his increasing popularity.
Ramon Santillan observed that all the nasty stories his detractors associate with the diminutive governor as “militaristic” and hard- to- reach have been more than compensated by the dramatic presentation of his achievements. RS calls it “to see is to believe.”
Let’s hear from come backing governor Victor Agbayani who points to his less dramatic feats in the rural areas as more meaningful.
The pertinent question probably would be, are you better off today than before?
Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!
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