DAVAO City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said it as it is when she commented on the state of coastal areas of the City.
"Limpyo ang atong hangin pero ang atong dagat hugaw kaayo bag-o lang mi nag-launch sa bantay dagat. Grabe kadamak ang mga tao, wrapper sa noodles, wrapper sa sachet sa shampoo, wrapper sa candy tanan, naa diha sa dagat (Our air is clean but our coastal waters are very dirty. We just launched our Bantay Dagat. This habit is very disgusting, wrappers of noodles and candies, shampoo sachets, all kinds of garbage are in the sea)," she said after accepting on behalf of the city the first clean air award given by Clean Air Philippines.
The mayor was stating a fact, and it was said in disgust.
You only need to walk the beaches of Boulevard and Bucana and even Times Beach to understand the mayor. You'd even cringe at the thought of walking barefoot on the sand in these places. The beach in these parts do not bring serenity as the trash and human and animal waste everywhere make you want to retch.
Admission and recognition is the first step to solution. We can only hope that after such disparaging remark, the Dabawenyos will finally shape up and dispose of all their trash properly.
On another environmental issue, in the recently launched report "A Region at Risk: The Human Dimensions of Climate Change in Asia and the Pacific" by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, it underscores the importance of the role of Asian countries in protecting the planet from the dangers of climate change.
Hans Joachim Schellnhuber, a leading climate change researcher and founding director of the Potsdam Institute, who spoke during the report launch said:
"First of all, one needs to get a sense of what it really means. We talk about 4 to 6 degrees of warming—planetary warming, so the global average—by 2100 if we do business as usual. Think of the global mean temperature as your body temperature. If you have 2 degrees warming in your body you have fever. Six degrees warming means you are dead. That’s the metaphor to use for the planet. That means with 4 to 6 degrees warming our world would completely change. The world as we know it would disappear."
The point he made was that the world cannot continue like it was business as usual and that the Earth can continue to sustain life despite all the environmental degradation humans are subjecting it to.
"First, you have to recognize the problem. Our report is a wake-up call. If you read it you get scared. But you need to be scared because the future would be very bleak if we just do business as usual. Once you know there is a big problem, then you have to assess how the various nations and regions will be affected," he said.
Bottomline: We cannot continue to destroy our planet, we cannot continue to litter our seas because these garbage poison the water and the marine creatures. We cannot continue to pit development against environment and giving the least importance to environment when the choice is between the two.
The report shows evidence that it is more costly for businesses and humanity to disregard environment because of development prospects. Now, to get this pounded into the heads of our legislators and those who still only see the dollars in destructive industries.