earth Day 2009 by Nicole
Let’s celebrate Earth Day 2009!
April 22, is Earth Day. This year’s theme Sibol: Earth Day 2009: Nurturing a Green Generation will embark the start of the Green Generation Campaign, the focus of the 40th Anniversary of Earth Day in 2010. The celebration aims to make people take steps and partake in saving Mother Earth and play a part in the following core principles of The Green Generation: A carbon-free future based on renewable energy that will end our common dependency on fossil fuels, including coal; An individual’s commitment to responsible, sustainable consumption; Creation of a new green economy that lifts people out of poverty by creating millions of quality green jobs and transforms the global education system into a green one.
Furthermore, everyone is encouraged to participate and conduct their own activity in lieu of the celebration of Earth Day. Last year, our organization had a tree planting activity at Laguna Bay. We had 1000 seedlings and almost 50 students participated in the said activity. We are expecting to have another similar activity for this year and looks forward in having more participants.
Let us do our part for Mother Earth everyday even if it’s not Earth Day. Go extra-mile in saving our only Earth and revive its former air. Happy Earth Day everyone!

Philippines Green Movement – Are You Going or Not? by Nicole
I still remember when my friend asked me to join a marathon for a cause. Back then, I was really a busy bee and just the thought of running for several miles makes me exhausted already so I turned her invitation down. However, just when the marathon was over, I wondered how I managed to let that great opportunity pass. Then I realized that being a citizenof my country, I should have the initiative to join such movements especially if it caters to preservation of the environment. There are a lot of noble programs like the Philippines Green Movement. So if you’re having half the mind in joining these events, here are some insipirations that you might like:
You will be an earth warrior – Well, not literally, but by joining this kind of movement, you will have a deeper insight about how important it is to take care of the environment.
Interact, interact! – If you’re the timid type of person, it’s time to come out of that shell and talk with lots of people! This is one advantage that you can get if you join Philippines Green Movement, you will be able to know different people with the same passion – to save Mother Earth.
You will learn something new – Haven’t tried recycling things yet? If not, I’m sure you won’t have the slightest idea about these things. If you want to learn something valuable, joining movements for a cause can greatly help you.
Are you looking for groups that caters to the earth’s urgent needs? You can visit some websites that give some updates about Philippines Green Movement. There are some links provided that can direct you to a more useful page. If you want to have more results, you can also try looking up for several websites on the search engine.
Philippines Environmental Issues: How did the Pasig River get polluted? by Nicole
Before the 1930’s, Pasig River was a beautiful body of water that inspired poets, artists and ordinary people. Philippines national hero Jose Rizal was one of them. In the early 1900’s Pasig River was rich in aquamarine life giving sustenance to the people who were living along the riverbanks. The waters were clear and people got cool drinking water from it.

How did the Pasig River get polluted? With the industrialization of Manila, factories started to line up along the River. They started dumping their liquid wastes to the river. An oil depot was built along the Pandacan side of the River. People in Manila increased in number from a few thousand to 6 million.
Over the years, people built houses along the river mostly people who were from the provinces who trooped to the urban center for a dream of better life. Today, people who dwell along the riverbanks make the bulk of the urban poor in the Philippines. Since most of their houses don’t have access to government-supplied water, they use the river as their toilet.

People from inland Manila also started dumping their waste into the river because the government cannot keep up with the garbage collection system. As early as a decade ago, the solid and liquid waste in Pasig River have reached toxic level that it was proclaimed biologically dead.
There have been a number of projects aimed at rehabilitating the Pasig River: Piso para sa Pasig, Sagip Pasig and now Kapit Bisig sa Ilog Pasig spearheaded by the TV network giant ABS-CBN. The aim is to see Pasig River alive and supporting aquamarine and human life just like it was decades ago. Pasig River pollution is one of Philippines environmental issues that need the most urgent action.
Pasig River speaks a lot about who we are as a nation.

Recycling Facts about Aluminum by Nicole
I have a friend from college whom I noticed was always keeping the aluminum pull tabs of the softdrink cans she’s drinking. I asked her once why she was doing that and she answered that the pull-tabs are made into wheel chairs. I asked her if the wheel chairs can support the weight of a person if they are made of Coke pull-tabs. I forgot her answer.
I remember that incident with my friend today because of the recycling facts about aluminum that I was researching. I didn’t know that the Coke pull-tabs are not actually glued together to make wheel chairs. They are instead melted and recycled. I really didn’t know that all things that are made from aluminum can be recycled.
This information is amazing. How come I didn’t know that? I didn’t know that softdrink cans can be recycled for indefinite number of times and the quality will not decrease. But even so, why do companies of softdrinks still manufacture new beverage cans? Why don’t they just recycle them all?
It’s very easy to say but here in the Philippines where college graduates like me who don’t know that aluminum cans are recyclable, it can be difficult to put into action. How can we act if we didn’t know we had to act on it? We really need more people to educate us on greening. But I think there are a lot of Filipinos who have already initiated aluminum recycling programs in the country. One is the program being supported by my friend that makes wheel chairs out of the aluminum pull tabs of softdrink cans.
I didn’t know that we can make not only wheel chairs but also cookware, bicycles, cars and even airplanes (whattt!!!) from recycled aluminums. Recycling just ONE aluminum can can save energy which can power a television for 3 hours (what!!!). If we recycle all the aluminum cans of the softdrinks that we consume, the energy saved can power the fluorescent bulbs of millions of homes every year. These recycling facts are just astounding.
I wonder if there are other initiatives in the Philippines that promote the recycling of aluminum cans and other aluminum products. If I had known this, I would’ve collected all the aluminum cans that I, my family and friends have been drinking. If I had started collecting aluminum cans since college, I would’ve already made hundreds of elders and disabled people in my country happy.
It’s just so amazing how one little thing (collecting aluminum cans and recycling) can make a big difference. It’s just amazing. But amazement is just the start. What can I do about it? What can we do about it? Where do we go if we have collected all those aluminum cans? Where are the recycling centers of aluminum cans in the Philippines?
Questions can start a revolution. Green revolution I mean.

Why is Recycling Important? by Nicole

Even if going green is the path most people are going to today, there are still others who ask, “Why is recycling important?” They say that the earth is very big and it can take care of all our wastes, so why do we have to recycle? They say that it’s a waste of time to separate wastes. The only thing that is important is that the garbage gets out of their homes and then the government can deal with the garbage problem.
Recycling is important because sooner or later the garbage that you threw away will return back to you in the form of contaminated underground water, floods, high cost of fuel and risks to your health.
Recycling is done to reduce the amount of waste in our landfills. These landfills emit chemicals that leak into our water systems underground. Recycling will help us prevent having toxic water coming out of our shower or our faucets.
Lands that used to be forests are converted into landfills because we throw out a lot of garbage. The trees that prevent flash floods are being cut down to accommodate our garbage. Every year hundreds of thousands of people are affected by flash floods all over the world. We can reduce that number by reducing our waste by recycling.
If we don’t recycle and put recyclable garbage to the landfills, the factories will use up fuel to manufacture new stuff. We know the law of supply and demand—as demand increases, the supply and price increases. If we recycle, we will reduce our national demand for fuel and this will help keep the fuel costs down.
The garbage may be out of our house but they can still pose serious bad effects to our health. The garbage in the landfills increases the release of toxic gases into the air that we breathe. If we recycle and reduce our waste, we will have less harmful chemicals in our air.
One of the simples and most important in our effort to go green is recycling. Recycling is important because it reduce the wastes that go to our landfills. Reduced waste means less floods and less pollution. If we recycle stuff, we conserve energy by not having to manufacture new stuff and we help reduce the cost of our fuels. Why is recycling important? Recycling is important because it can help ensure our survival in this planet.
Milk for Worse Health by Nicole
How do you know that the milk you’re putting in your cereals or coffee is not harmful to you? This may sound like a stupid question because milk is supposed to be good for our health giving us our daily calcium and protein requirement and many other nutrients. When we were young, our parents tell us to drink our milk. Our commercials today bombard us with the messages that adults should not stop drinking milk to avoid osteoporosis. How can milk be bad for us?
Recently, two news stories helped in ruining my cereal breakfast routine: the melamine scare and the discovery of growth hormone injection in cows. Melamine is a toxic chemical that is used in making plastics. It has recently been discovered that many milk manufacturers in China add melamine to milk to increase the milk’s protein content. Thousands of babies who consumed melamine-tainted milk died due to kidney malfunction.
Officials have also cautioned the public in consuming milk that are from cows injected with bovine growth hormone (BGH). Milking cows are injected with BGH to increase the production of milk. Scientists are concerned of this because they believe that consuming milk from a cow that was injected with growth hormone can cause hormone-related cancer to humans.
How can milk be bad for us? It can be bad for us if things that are not supposed to be in our milk are added to our milk suck as melamine and BGH. What is supposed to be healthy can now be the source of illness and even death. Blame both of these with too much desire for big profits. We may notice the increase of the number of milk products in our groceries’ store these last few years but this may not be good news for our health. What the solution to this problem? Go green. Buy organic milk.

Jeepneys and the air we breathe in Manila by Nicole
You’ll know you’re on the Philippine soil when you see them on the streets–the colorful and noisy jeepneys. Jeepneys are the most popular mode of transportation in the country. They are testament to the ingenuity of the Filipinos. They are actually converted WWI jeeps left by the Americans. Philippine jeepnes have solved 2 transportation in the Philippine—how to provide cheap public transportation to ordinary Filipinos and how to make cheap fare profitable enough for the drivers.
Jeepneys have been plying the streets of Manila for decades now. It can take you anywhere you want to go in Manila. They pick up passengers wherever they see them and they unload passenger wherever the passenger want to alight the jeep. They and the public buses are blamed for the very bad traffic condition in the Philippines. They just load and unload passengers wherever they want.
Jeepneys are also blamed as one of the major pollutants in the Philippines. You can see them emitting really large and black gas into the air. All you have to do is get out during the rush hour and stay in the side street. It will not take a minute before you see a jeepney blowing fumes that you wonder how people nearby can still breathe easily. And we are not talking of only a few jeepneys here. Every day there are thousands of jeepneys out on Manila street.
Many Filipino environmentalists propose to scrap all jeepneys because they predict that in a few years Manila will be too polluted that Filipinos would have to buy bottled air like they buy bottled water now. Indeed, this is not a ridiculous idea. The idea of bottled water seemed ridiculous 10 years ago, but now we see bottled water is a necessity with the Philippine because the tap water here is too polluted for drinking. It may not be far from now when we see bottled air in the Philippines.
But cannot just take them out like the plague. First, hundreds of thousands of Filipinos rely on jeepneys as their mode of transportation everyday. Second, the jeepney drivers will instantly lose job. Is there any other solution?
There is a glimmer of light though. In Makati, the financial district of Manila, there are already a number of jeepneys that are running on electricity. The vision is to slowly convert the gas-powered jeepneys to electric-powered ones. They are called e-jeeps. They are they city’s answer to the worsening air pollution. There are only a handful of them today but let’s hope that the Philippine government follows the step of New Delhi wherein all public utility vehicles are now running on electricity.
Empty Mineral Water Bottles by Nicole
What Happens to Mineral Water Bottles
When I was in college a few years back, every corner of the school has a drinking fountain. The water has a good taste, it’s cool and it’s accessible. Every 5 minutes of walk, you’ll find that stainless steel drinking fountain nearby.
Today, it seems they are doing away with these drinking fountains even in mall food courts. The only food court in Manila that I saw a drinking fountain is in Robinson’s Galleria. All the rest of the malls force you to buy softdrinks or mineral water.
Before I used to recycle mineral water bottles. I’ll put water into the bottle in the morning and use it again the next day. But my sister-in-law says that I shouldn’t recycle mineral water bottles. The plastic materials in the container leach to the water especially when the bottles were exposed to high temperatures. She said that the chemicals can cause cancer. O-oh, I have been using that bottle for months now. Scary.
So, if we are not to recycle the mineral water bottles, what happens to the empty plastic bottles? They’ll be thrown to the trashcans and landfills. In the case of the Philippines, they’ll be thrown to the roadside.
Since mineral water bottles are made of non-biodegradable materials, they will be in our landfills for thousands of years. Even if we bury them, they will stay under the ground for thousand of years.
What can we do about it? If you can do away with bottled mineral water, do so. You can buy a stainless steel drinking container as use that everyday for your drinking water. This is what I do. You can buy those in supermarkets and they can be as cheap as P150. You can use them for years and you’ll be sure that no chemicals will contaminate the water that you’re drinking.
Red Lead Paint: Environmental and Health Hazard by Nicole

It’s surprising to know that there are still people who are looking for a Red Lead paint here in the Philippines. It is a paint that is used to coat galvanized sheets and iron pipes to prevent rust.
The reason why it is surprising is because lead paint is already banned in the US for years now. Here, there are still a lot of people who don’t know that lead is toxic and can pose serious danger to our health.
The lead content in the red lead paint goes into the air making it an air pollution. When it is inhaled, the lead is easily absorbed by our bodies. Very young children who are exposed to lead are in for more danger because they have a small amount of blood. Even a small amount of lead can poison their blood.
The lead content in red lead paint can also get into our bodies of water. The lead content of water pipes that are painted with red lead paint seep into the water that goes directly to our faucets. That is why you seldom see people drinking from their faucets here in Manila.
Lead and lead pain is toxic. We should not use red lead paint. It is already banned. If there are hardware stores that still sell old stock of red lead paint, you should inform them that they are toxic and can lead to poisoning and other bad health effects.
DON’T USE RED LEAD PAINT.
Close Dump Sites by Nicole
Here in the Philippines, dump sites are the biggest cause of air and water pollution. They are big tracts of land where all the garbage collected from cities are taken. The garbage piled at the dump sites create mountain that emit a kind of gas that contributes to the warming of the atmosphere.
It is called methane gas. I researched a little bit about the methane gas and I found out that it is more destructive than carbon dioxide. In fact it is 25% more destructive to the air. Imagine what’s happening to our atmosphere with the hundreds of open dump sites in the Philippines emitting methane gas.
Most of the dump sites are located near bodies of water and so the dump sites are also cause of the water pollution in the Philippines. The plastics and toxic materials in the dump sites find their way in nearly river thus killing the fishes in the river.
Pasig River, the river that runs within Manila is already announced dead, meaning there is no living thing that can live under it. This is partly the result of open dump sites located near the banks of the river.
In small ways, think we can help in decreasing the emission of methane gas in our air by having less garbage. We can recycle all the papers and just flush out the small wet garbage into our toilets.
Papers and wet garbage are two things that produce methane gas in the dump site. By simple reducing our paper and wet garbage, we can help a lot.
Methane gas makes our makes our atmosphere hotter because they trap the sun’s rays in our atmosphere. This is a very serious matter. Al Gore says in his film “An Inconvenient Truth” that we only have a few years in this planet if we don’t act on global warming now.
Reducing our garbage is a very simple way to act against global warming. Let us reduce our garbage, close down our dump sites and avoid more world catastrophe.

No Trees by Nicole
If you look at the sky here in Manila, you’ll easily notice how bad air pollution is here. The air is grayish and if you’re walking along a busy street, you’ll find it hard to breathe. Added to the heavy soot in the air are the heavy gas emission of old buses and the pedestrians many of whom are smokers.
You just have to walk a few blocks and you’ll see what I mean. Even during the early morning, you cannot have your walk without having to inhale the smoke from the cigarettes of the people in the street.
Just this morning, I was walking along this street in Makati and I saw a group of women wearing business attire who were slumped on the steps of a building and smoking cigarettes. There are too many people smoking in this country. It is hard to find a public spot where you can enjoy your walk without inhaling nicotine.
I think another reason why air pollution here in Manila is so bad is because there are barely a tree here. We produce so much carbon dioxide with our burning of energy but there is nothing that can convert the pollutant into oxygen.
We need trees in Manila but where are we going to place the trees? Everything’s road, buildings, malls, slum areas, residential areas, golf courses here.
There must be a designated part here in Manila where nothing will be built but will only be reserved for the planting of trees. I think this is the reason why the quality of air in Japan is not yet polluted even if there are also a lot of vehicles there. They have managed not to touch their forest.
Trees are necessities in Manila. We can plant trees in our backyards and our business establishments. Here in our vicinity, a commercial area has planted trees in the middle of malls. I go there when I want to have a respite from the dirty air. Air is better there.
I wonder how we can have more trees in Manila?
Shutting down and Saving up by Nicole
I read somewhere that shutting down the computer can save more energy than leaving the computer on stand by mode or putting it in hibernate. I wonder how that is because I always thought that the main reason for the computer’s hibernation and stand by mode is basically to save on energy.
I tried to see if it will really make a difference if I turn off my computer. I don’t have the habit of turning off my computer during breaks because I find it a little bit time-consuming booting up the computer. Yeah, I realize I can be impatient. But, since I discovered the energy-saving tip, I have been turning off my computer during break time even if it will only be an hour that I’ll be away.
There are 5 of us in the office and we started a little experiment just to see if shutting down the computer can make a difference in the electricity bill. While there is not a big drop in the electricity bill, I can say there’s a slight difference. Out electricity bill lowered by more or less 5% of our regular consumption.
But think if all computers in all offices in Manila shut down all the computers during lunch time. With one office, the difference may be very minimal but think if all offices in Manila lower their energy consumption by 5% by just shutting down the computers, I think it can be a pretty big energy savings for the whole country.
I wonder how much money is saved with just a few clicks of the mouse? Well, I can’t find any info on the internet. The only thing I found is this article that says that every year, $217 million is wasted in UK because of PCs that were not shut down or were in hibernation mode over night. The whole night is longer than an hour of break but I can tell shutting down all computers in all the offices in Manila can also save millions of dollars for the country.
I should really start a drive or something encouraging the shut down of the computers during lunch breaks . . just a thought. . .