Friday, November 30, 2007 Councilors initiate moves v. global warming By Albert B. Lacanlale and Dante M. Fabian
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO -- The fight against global warming should be everybody's advocacy, not just government's.
This was stressed by Councilor Reden Halili as he expressed his support to the move initiated by fellow Councilor Jimmy Lazatin on the inclusion of global warming subjects in the curriculum of elementary and high school students both in private and public schools.
He said everyone should be made aware of the ill-effects of climate change and measures how to prevent further deterioration of global climate system.
Halili explained that little things like reduction in the consumption of electricity and proper garbage disposal would greatly help in the concerted effort to fight the dwindling condition of earth's climate.
"Sometimes we think that these acts are insignificant considering the large world population, but if we'll begin with ourselves and the rest of the world will do the same, then we can have something good to work for the world," Halili said.
Halili said he will also initiate tree planting activities and would sponsor legislations enjoining private firms to conduct regular tree planting programs.
"We should reciprocate the good things we derive from the earth. Even if, in the long run, we are still the one benefiting from all the efforts we do for environmental protection," he said.
In nearby Angeles City, actress-turned-Councilor Maricel Morales earlier succeeded in having the City Council approve her resolution that seeks to make the highly urbanized city participate in the worldwide efforts to stop global warming.
The council passed its resolution that will prompt the committee on environment to conduct a study on the effects of global warming.
Morales's proposal, passed as Resolution No. 5442, S-2007, indicated that the environment committee's study will also include the possible ways to prevent the climate change.
Vice Mayor Vicky Vega said the study is intended to be used in making further legislations to track the city's cooperation in efforts to reduce the effects of global warming.
Morales, serving her first term as San Fernando councilor, said scientists found in studies that the generation of the so-called greenhouse gases, primarily carbon dioxide leads to the increase of the average temperature of the earth's atmosphere leading to the climate change.
"Climate change presents very serious global risks, and it demands an urgent global response," Morales said.
An article in the New York Times disclosed that on February 2, 2007, the United Nations scientific panel declared that the evidence of a warming trend is "unequivocal."
The UN panel said human activity has "very likely" been the driving force in that change over the last 50 years.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reported in 2001 that humanity had "likely" played a role.
Studies revealed mounting scientific evidence that the release of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases has "played a central role in raising the average surface temperature of the earth by more than one degree Fahrenheit since 1900."
The climate change is attributed to emissions from smokestacks, tailpipes and burning forests.
In the US, business groups have banded together to make unprecedented calls for federal regulation of greenhouse gases.
