Saturday, July 26, 2008 Speak-out: It's worth the wait By Jeffrom Vitug Student, Ateneo de Iloilo
JUST a couple of days ago we went on a field trip to determine whether it would be a good or bad idea to use use coal-powered power plants.
Greenpeace lectured us about the cons if the project were put into motion. Side effects include heavy metal poisoning, respiratory diseases, environmental risk, and pollution. They showed us that we have more power than we actually need and when the electrical companies did maintenance check they found faulty wiring and that of course led to the very irritating blackouts occurring in different parts of Panay.
In a sense, due to recent weather changes, the wear and tear on electrical wirings must have damaged them such that the electrical flow isn't generating as much energy.
It would seem that the best choice is to use renewable, eco-friendly energy but it is never that easy nor is it simple. Why? Let me enlighten you, we live in a country that isn't really all that supportive of scientific advances; not that many people are willing to sponsor projects no matter how good these are.
Not to mention that it would take quite a long while for the proposal to be implemented. Development time and costs and, let me tell you, things like solar panels, wind generators, and the like don't come cheap, and we have to buy a large quantity of them to be truly efficient.
When you think about it, the pros of using renewable energy is a safe, clean environment, unlimited sources of energy (wind for example), no risks to human beings, and a clean green future overall. The cons are that without proper funding to fully utilize renewable energy in the Philippines, any move toward this direction will remain a pipe dream. Investors will want to invest in a place with more than enough energy but will the energy produced be sufficient to power investments. Not only that, it takes for these plants to be commissioned.
It would be a very difficult goal to achieve and the chance for it to succeed is nil.
Now let's go to the other side of the story. The coal-powered power plant has its advantages too you know. Building this type of power plant will give us more energy to fuel our city and the price of coal is cheap and not to mention we have coal here in the Philippines. We have a coal reserve enough to last us approximately 150 years more or less.
More investors may want to invest large-scale projects because we have stable electricity. It may decrease the percentage of unemployed people; some may help mine for coal and others opt to work in the factory. It may even help keep the prices of commodities at bay.
Yet all these advantages come with grim disadvantages. The environment will deteriorate over time and remember even now the environment here in Iloilo is already in pretty bad shape and opening a coal power plant of all things may make it even worse.
Next come air pollution and its primary effect. As pointed out to us, trace of heavy metals are inside the exhausts of the coal power plants and prolonged exposure to them will lead to heavy metal poisoning and may lead to respiratory diseases. If we open the coal power plant we may just be slowly killing ourselves.
To think we would be part of the reasons why global warming is becoming a threat.
When you look at each side carefully and wonder what you would choose, economic prosperity and economy will come into the equation. A tough choice I must say but I'm going to align myself with those who are anti-coal; we have to try renewable resources.
It may be a difficult journey to take but the rewards are well worth it. To have a place clean and green yet there are no power outages. I know that pursuing the goal of a clean and green environment will take a long time but I believe it's worth the wait. We must think of the welfare of the people not the amount of money we may save by ruining it.
