BACK in 2015, when I was recovering from a cerebral stroke, I joined the Prayer and Life Workshop. I became a Catholic charismatic.
I thought a part of my life as an environmentalist was over. Let the next generation take over the helm of the Negrense green movement.
Near the end of the 15 sessions, though, we received a petition from the Diocesan Social Action Center to support Pope Francis’s call on the worsening climate change. We adopted Laudato si, his second encyclical with the subtitle “on care for our common home.”
I reflected during my daily morning meditation that God was not yet done with me as an environmentalist.
Of course, I cannot do the same as before, climbing and trekking Negrense mountains. I am now restricted to being a deskbound green activist, pounding my laptop using social media as a platform.
In my healthier days, I managed reforestation projects and alternative livelihoods based on non-timber forest products in mountain communities of the Northern Negros and Mt Kanlaon Natural Parks. A subset of that effort was on the promotion of renewable energy on the pages of Sun Star Bacólod.
Now it seems God has clinched that in my limited capacity, I have to campaign against the danger of pollution. If governor-elect Eugenio José Lacson revokes the executive order declaring Negros Occidental a coal-free province, I have to close ranks with Romana de los Reyes of Coal-Free Negros Network.
Mother of a fellow Feaster, Romana charged Lacson with “refusing to see that coal plants are the greatest spewers of carbon dioxide that causes global warming and the consequent climate crisis we are experiencing now.”
SMC Global Power Holdings Corp. is planning to build a 300-megawatt CFB (circulating fluidized bed) coal-fired power plant in San Carlos City, in northern Negros Occidental.
So what? Solar farms in Negros Occidental have a total generation capacity of 341.5. More than the 200 MW power needs of the province. Adding more is an overkill.
The governor-elect said last week that he will consult his legal team if there is a need to revoke an executive order declaring Negros Occidental a coal-free province, if a coal-fired power plant is built in San Carlos City.
Meaning, Lacson is unconcerned about with the environmental impact that coal can use. It’s about the money. Period.
bqsanc@yahoomail.com