Global warming, the end game for humanity, and the Philippines
Tacloban after Typhoon Hiayan (Yolanda), November 2018 [Photo from Reuters by Romeo Ranoco]
By JoeAm
I wonder how many Filipinos consider that their children who are now in school will have to deal with drastic, life-threatening impacts of climate change before they are middle-aged. Storms will be horrifying. Not just typhoons, but freak events like raging floods or killer lightning storms. Droughts. Heat. And even man-made disasters like Marawi.
‘Zombie’ Hurricane Makes Bizarre Turn to Strike Europe: ‘I Have Never Seen Anything Like It’
The rice shortage will seem like nothing as China claims the seas and storms wipe out Philippine food production. The poor will not simply be struggling, they will be desperate. Resilience will be a thing of the past and violence the way of the present. The police and army will be the hunted, not just the hunters.
“Oh, but you exaggerate, Joe. You don’t know that.”
Well, I know first hand that Yolanda was a nasty, death-dealing monster that blasted through delivering 90 minutes of shrieking hell. I know that floods last December (Urduja) wiped out a number of bridges on Biliran Island and killed around 74 people. The counting stopped at 46 dead and 28 missing as journalists moved on to other matters. The main bridge near the largest city, Naval, remains a one directional mess, no rehab work done even after Secretary Villar paid a visit. In the meantime, Citi Hardware managed to completely build out, stock, and open a huge new store right next to the bridge.
Rice is expensive and locals hunt birds at night to find some extra meat. Dogs disappear now and then. Our electricity goes dark regularly.
People are serious. There is not a lot of joy on faces these days.
We have only 22 years to go to get to 2040, the year scientists predict a high risk of global crisis. This recent article from the New York Times cites the risk: Major Climate Report Describes a Strong Risk of Crisis as Early as 2040.
Ignorance is not a plan
Scientists have recalculated the “catastrophe now, end game ahead!” threshold. The atmospheric temperature danger threshold has been dropped from 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit to 2.7 degrees. If that warming happens by 2040, we will be living the horrors of “inundating coastlines and intensifying droughts and poverty.”
My confidence level is low that humans have the sensibility to act forthrightly. US President Donald Trump is Exhibit A, denying that climate change is an issue and promoting the economic benefits of “death in the wind”, coal. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is Exhibit B, sacrificing Philippine food resources and security to China and fiddling as Rome burns Manila stands naked before the coming onslaught. China, of course, is Exhibit C, holding that it has special rights that condemn the lesser dark-skinned natives of the outlying islands to destitution and servitude.
Not many nations are as vulnerable to natural disasters as the Philippines, and yet, here we go, year after year, dealing with petty divisive power politics, nonsense like federalism, killing our own, propaganda in lieu of competence, corrupt people, the destructive thinking of liars and trapos in government, and the punishing, amoral self-dealing of about half the Senate and 90% of the House.
What should we be doing? Here are some ideas:
- Act with purpose and urgency. Put climate change as third co-equal priority along with (1) build national prosperity, and (2) eliminate poverty.
- Reconfigure infrastructure goals entirely. Those bridges in NEDA’S plan? Scrap them unless a cost benefit examination proves them worthwhile. That high priced subway that likely won’t be completed until 2040? Scrap it. Build seawalls and flood protections, relocate highly vulnerable residents, and upgrade building codes. Start banning cars from certain areas of high density cities. Provide state-run parking structures outside the restricted areas. Get moving!
- Put agriculture in the hands of competent people and restructure the industry to build production and financial resilience. Strive for self-sufficiency and build in the flexibility to deal with blows to production coming from natural disasters.
- Increase funding for disaster response (rather than reduce it, duh!!!). Develop emergency rehabilitation programs to speed up recovery so cities like Marawi do not lie in pitiful destruction for years. Rebuild lifeline roads, electricity, water, and sanitation services immediately, not years later after funding is arranged and commissions are collected by the corrupt. Fund the rebuilds immediately. Build them back better.
- Upgrade the defense alliance with the US and insist that China stop stealing Filipino foods and destroying Philippine eco-resources. Stop the encroachment. The Philippines has no obligation to feed China.
- Obsess about getting energy self-sufficient with thermal, hydro, solar, wind, and water generation. Get aggressive on reducing our own carbon emissions and then start screaming at polluters like China. The PH has the capability and capacity to do this (Philippine conglomerate Ayala’s arm forges $83m solar JV in Vietnam).
- Demand that political candidates clearly state their position on global warming and tell us what they think needs to be done.
There are more ideas, I am sure, and you are free to offer them in the discussion section of the blog below.
I do hope you pick up one crucial idea from my commentary here:
“Get moving on this as if your children’s lives depended on it!”
Comments
218 Responses to “Global warming, the end game for humanity, and the Philippines”Trackbacks
Check out what others are saying...-
[…] blog is somewhat a carry-over of Joe’s previous article on “Global warming, the endgame for humanity and the Philippines“. The primacy here is to show what the world is doing to prevent this […]
-
[…] via Global warming, the end game for humanity, and the Philippines […]
The Society of Honor by Joe America 
Climate change is a global challenge that is staring at us in the face and yet, it is not even a priority in our government’s agenda. We are an agricultural country but we don’t focus on agriculture. Good morning JoeAm.
It is astounding. NEDA plans well, but the President does not. So infrastructure is being cared for properly but life-and-death priorities are not. It is a problem in many local communities, too, I think. Mayors react and deal with incidents, they do not plan rigorously. That is why land use is terribly managed.
LOCAL AND INTERNATIONAL IMPERATIVE: RATE THIS TOPIC 5+ STARS FOR TIMELINESS AND IMPORTANCE
Thanks for today’s topic: a very timely international topic of concern to us all. The blog puts the wake up call in clear and stark terms and offer some solutions.
As the blog indicated, it is not a case of the figurative water slowly heating up to which one adjusts and gets used to until the end, as a frog does in such situation. There are quantum jumps in climate shifts as some thresholds are breached. Scientists now confirm that the pace of Climate Change is faster than they have earlier estimated. This is not fake news. Catastrophe is now projected as a matter of a few decades (the blog indicated 22 years), not as a major fraction of a century.
Logic and the associated imperatives would have dictated that our infrastructure Build Build Build Program should contain a major fraction of projects related to Climate Change — such as food production, especially since studies upon studies cite the Philippines as among the most vulnerable to Climate Change. But the Administration and Investors/ Lenders are not attracted to such projects which in their view and scale of things are relatively unimportant and takes relatively long to bear fruits. This is now made worse by the recent go ahead given to food importation to counter inflation, to save the BBB Program — but to the detriment of the local producers and future food supplies as Climate Change will make these importations costly, if we can import at all, with other countries struggling with their food production due to the effect of climate change..
We are not waiting for a denouement here; the consequence in a few decades is clear. Indeed our current problems pale in comparison to what will happen two decades from now.
A 20 year-old today will be 42 in 2040. As they enter the mainstream of adult decision-making, I would think they would be demanding better care-taking of their future, but we don’t read anything about them making such demands.
there you go, THERE YOU GO JoeAm, KRITIKONG MERON PITONG SOLUSYON SA PROBLEMA NG KLAYMAIT TSEINGE.
Find out from Google did Climate REALLY obliterate the long ruling dynasties of Asia?
Manugang Brandon told me jokingly California will be the beaches of Arizona.
I wrote here may be more than once sige, baka maTacloban (covered) kayo.
Family dynasties are not forever, NOT eternal they are now endangered specie.
This post is not math’s true equivalents when 1.0 equals 1.0 only, absolutely,
This is subjective science like history when 1.5 is still, also equals 1.0
When History becomes causes equals effects replicating itself elsewhere.
Did not Lord Acton bravely profess: absolute power equals absolute corruption?
go, go, GO to Iceland to feel and watch how warming cracks
mountains of icebergs how the ice mass breaks and separates
to float and melt to become raging waters also among others,
of the Atlantic and the Pacific Oceans.
Never mind the Titanic sunk by a floating iceberg
Think not of successful Sodom and Gomorra in Biblical Times
when corruption turned oblivion but now not anymore
because of sophistication in modern times when absolutely
mankind’s main need is climate change to reform it’s soul.
In Pinas wait for the Jupiter effect, the earth’s pole shift
when Pampanga becomes the massive sluice gate as it
opens up to submerge and restore Central Luzon as part of Manila Bay
and when cartographers must re-draw the reduced 7,100 islands
never mind the eche bucheche of math equations and equivalents
but think less of probabilities instead chew a little more of possibilities
of what and wherefores only the next and coming generations
must heed and be afraid.
Yes, Luzon is mountainous in the interior so susceptible to flash floods that tried to wash Pampanga to the sea a couple of years ago, and the west-facing coastline cities get wonderful surfing waves that, just a little larger, will wipe out half of them. Baguio got pretty well battered by the last typhoon and floods. I think it is wrong to be so resilient as to just shrug and do nothing about the future when the handwriting is on the wall in several languages.
I wish that the Pro-Democracy and Pro-Philippines seated Politicians and Candidates reads THIS and other blogs here at TSoH. They can pick a lot of good advise/ideas in this blog for the betterment of the Philippines and its people. If a chinese “spy” and druglord(?) can be tapped by him as his adviser, VP Robredo can also get the services of Joe America who loves the Philippines more than those pro-china politicians and filipino zombies if she becomes the President.
I believe VP Robredo’s staff may follow the blog. Senator Trillanes and Senator De Lima do as well, either themselves or through staff. Mar Roxas takes a peek now and then, and others. They are not unaware of the blog.
If still alive and worth a bit more than two US cents (one peso and eight centavos)
More than Gen MCArthur’s I SHALL RETURN, Popoy shall volunteer for the
sake of future generations of Pinoys.
Now here is a diet that if practiced worldwide, as the study says, will be effective in combating climate change, among others.
Substitute meat diet with vegan equivalent diet.
The feed-related impacts of animal products also contribute to freshwater use and pressures on cropland, as well as nitrogen and phosphorus application, which over time could lead to dead zones in oceans, low-oxygen areas where few organisms can survive, according to Springmann.
For an example of how animal foods compare with plant-based foods in terms of environmental effects, consider that “beef is more than 100 times as emissions-intensive as legumes,” Springmann said. “This is because a cow needs, on average, 10 kilograms of feed, often from grains, to grow 1 kilogram of body weight, and that feed will have required water, land and fertilizer inputs to grow.”
In addition, cows emit the potent greenhouse gas methane during digestion, which makes cows and other ruminants such as sheep especially high-emitting.
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/10/18/health/plant-based-diet-climate-change-food-drayer/index.html
But tell that to hamburger-loving Trump and one who says scientists analysis of climate change is fake news.
I suspect that is something that will gain traction in 2040, but hard to get to today. I was also reading that robotic gardens are now being set up in California. I think AI will vastly change how foodstuffs are grown. Less water intensive. There will also be more urban gardens, which are also being done now.
AI and Robotics to the rescue. Science and technology: more power to you. Remember the statement that there were worries in London or New York (?) about “all the horse sh..t in the streets because of the increasing horse-driven carriage going around”? Then combustion-driven vehicles aka cars came to the rescue. But then there is nuclear bombs. And now we have Trump. Oh well…
They banned farming ( poultry and swine) in Boracay.
It maybe impactful to the anti pollution and littering initiative, but a few months ago the President threatened to put Bora in Land Reform .
Have they evicted all the farmers there?
Is this sweeping under the rug?
My reaction to substituting beef with veggies is what to do with the cows?Will we just use them as caravans? Or just turn them to leather like they do to horses in Baguio.
Eating less meat is healthier, one doesn’t have to go vegan but at least in Europe it used to be the norm that meat was eaten only on Sundays, fish on Fridays and the rest of the week was basically veggies, as meat was once a luxury.
Argentinian and South African steaks are great, but an enormous amount of space is needed for those cows to graze. Even Bavaria has had to limit cow grazing in the watershed near the river Mangfall (Munich’s freshwater supply) as they might affect water purity.
The Green Party recently got 17.5% in Bavarian state elections, a recent German national poll put them at 19% if there were to be Federal elections now. Awareness is growing. Of course I live in the greenest part of Munich, 46% Green votes, lots of the young crowd who prefer a postmaterialistic lifestyle, tend to eat highly vegetarian, bikes are very common as it is nearly impossible to park over here. Even UPS has a cargo bike over here, not a truck. Not that Upper Bavaria (Munich is 500 m above sea level) would be most affected, but still.
Much obliged.
Irineo,
Awareness is growing. But even then, the consequences are still mostly underestimated. You said that you’re probably ok because Munich is located so high. So, you are safe from sea level rise. But how about the changing weather pattern which will often result in failing crops? Or the refugees which will swarm the higher area’s? By golly, living in Munich, you are especially exposed…. Imagine, it looks like beer brewing is endangered because some ingredients’ crops will fail… Munich without beer. The world will never recover once Bavaria runs out of beer.
No, Sir, climate change will endanger us all, even the green people, because it will take a worldwide majority to make major changes within 12 years. And getting the world’s greater majority to move will prove problematic…
not MOST affected, for sure, but everyone is clearly affected. For example in this extremely hot year for Germany, harvests were relatively bad. Not that it is beyond what the EU and Germany can cover for, but one has to look at how the years will affect stocks.
The refugee situation is already bad enough now. Europe does NOT have the luxury of being on an own continent like Trump’s America. Damascus to Munich by road is less distance than Chicago to LA on the route 66, this is something most do not realize. And inspite of all measures – to bribe the Turks, to fence in the Balkans, to help North Africa so they keep them, they keep coming. I try not to think of what it will mean if rising sea levels force people upstream. Even Switzerland will have issues defending its borders by then.
Slightly OT – Reading a historical novel now about the late 18th and 19th century in Upper Bavaria, I translate as it gives a feel for crisis:
The peasants had hardly put sparse and arduously bought seeds into the ground in March 1816 when a unusually rainy weather period started in April, that continued from May 3 until August with pause, accompanied by heavy thunderstorms, hail and cold. Grass and grains rotted. Potatoes and legumes rotted. Empty ears of corn grew. Harvest – hardly one third of the usual – was at least two months late and was mostly covered by early snow in the Prien valley. Peter Huber had nothing to mill. The bad seed of the minimal winter sowing no longer rose. Instead, snails, field mice and other pests multiplied. Weeds rose and grew over the once so healthy fields.
On October 12, Peter Huber read a critical article in the “Münchener Zeitung”: “now many former producers must become buyers themselves. Speculators without conscience are using the situation, encouraged by still hesitant government measures, to buy and to raise prices. The fear of hunger among many raises the prices even more and diminishes the stocks further. To that comes the difficulty to make sure there is a quick and sufficient import, considering the immense extent of the rise in prices over large parts of Europe, and the akwardness of our transport conditions”.
Strange – or not – that I think of NRA and bukbok rice. Or Joe’s mention of dogs disappearing.
The three-part series to that book I remember parts of well as I watched it ages ago, it has the miller pointing his gun at intruders into his barn, asking where they come from, they answer “Hungerland”. He answers “Hungerland is everywhere”.
Irineo, indeed OT. Mea Culpa. Having spend some time in Bavaria, I tried to make a point by being sarcastic and funny. It backfired. Sorry. The point I tried to make is that everybody will be affected in often unexpected manners, it is impossible to predict exactly what is going to happen. But, unpleasant things WILL happen and it WILL affect everybody if we do not all (that is: nearly 7 billion people) do our utmost to avoid disaster. Let’s start taking real and meaningful action.
No issues.. I think no beer will be the least of problems. Possibly people will all drink moonshine liquor like the people in the novel I am reading now just after the hunger is over. Or smoke a lot of cigarettes like postwar (and Communist-era Eastern) Europeans.
How do you get the entire world to move? Hard enough even in Europe, where the new rightist parties are just as stupid as Trump. The German AfD has driving diesel cars as one of its program points – exactly what many want to limit after the scandal with car fumes.
Eastern Europe? I know a Romanian who used to turn her SUV engine on while waiting for passengers, running it even 15 minutes standing. Good luck with the rest of the world. The EU countries are trying to convince in Global Climate Conferences but against the three superpowers USA, Russia, China who all don’t care, fat chance. At least Obama cared but it seems rationality is retreating. Possibly we are on the way to a new dark age with all kinds of religious fanatics, anti-vaxxers and anti-rule-of-law and democracy people. With climate change to wipe out the traces of our present civilization, so that a Renaissance some 2000 years from now can start wondering whether our ATMs were street altars that we prayed to. And will think that the icons for mens and ladies room are our hieroglyphics.
Louis Agassiz was the first to tell the scientific world that the Earth is warming up. In 1837 he presented his papers to the Swiss Society of Natural Sciences. Imagine the ridicule he received. He is laughing in his grave.
Now we blame everybody and everything including the cows, but ourselves, humans, for the mess the planet is in.
Nature is unforgiving. It has a natural way of culling specie population when things go awry. Global warming will wipe out the human race, maybe some will survive to pick up the pieces, but almost all will perish. Maybe it’s move over. humans, it’s time for the age of cockroaches.
Is this a sign of nature’s hand? :
https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/us-birth-rate-plummets-to-its-lowest-since-1920/2012/11/29/ee7e8d16-3a3f-11e2-b01f-5f55b193f58f_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.6d58c87ab027
There are many other similar reports in many other countries. Lowered fertility rates are explained off as a social phenomena of affluence. But is it really?
I posit it’s due to EMR. The age of electronics has enshrouded Earth with an electrosmog. There is no escaping. EMR is damaging humans at the cellular level. Reports of a London survey showed more than 50% of males have damaged sperms (laptops on laps, cellphones in pockets). Women damage their eggs (laptops on their laps and tummies).
Is this a culling to lower human population to prevent global warming?
The small little things individuals do won’t add up to much. Stub out the cigarettes, walk instead of drive, go vegan etc… is not going to help much.
The only thing that individual humans can do is ….. cut the damn birth rate. Planet Earth is over-populated. 6 billion is not sustainable. In any case it’s much too late. Even if we have a world-wide mandatory imposition of birth control, it will take one generation for the impact to be felt. China’s experience has showed that it can be done, but takes one generation. Way too late for 2040.
To act, we first need to look at who are the culprits. @Micha — let’s not dive emotionally and shoot at the oilmen. Let’s look at all human responsibilities, from which targeted and rational
mitigation initiatives can filter out.
Emitters are classified into :
Scope 1 emitters — these are the people/organisation that cause emissions through the use of their assets. The power generation plants, the farmers who slash and burn, the sea-going vessels.
Scope 2 emitters — indirect emission due to consumption of electricity — all of us
Scopte 3 emitters — indirect emission due to consumption of goods and services — all of us. When you take an airplane ride, you helped in the emission caused by the plane.
Scope 1 emitters are the greatest culprits. They are overwhelmingly responsible for most of the emissions. Many countries already have regulatory controls in place (Philippines is still sleeping). Under a compliance regime, quotas are placed on their emissions. So a few things are happening :
– a move out of coal into gas turbines.
– old plants can’t change much — so they go into carbon offset arrangements. This drives sustainable capitalism — capital from developed countries go to LDCs to increase sustainable projects which create the carbon credits for old plants to set-off their emissions.
– a quantum leap in production of renewable energy – old plants will gradually loose out as renewable sources take over.
Scope 2 emitters — there all all sorts of schemes and mechanisms to encourage a move into buying from renewable sources of energy, into energy efficiency initiatives. Emergence of smart building technologies to reduce grid electricity consumption, etc.. A host of new smart people have come in with services that help buildings to be built in a way that consumes less energy. Some are into services that help buildings, or industrial plants, to test check their efficiency levels and improve in the weak areas. All of these often with govt support by way of grants, or tax benefits etc.
Scope 3 emitters — at individual levels, each of us can do little. But collectively, consumers must drive the supply chains to be more environmentally responsible. This is already happening. Survey after survey after studies, from people like Nielsens to Mckinseys, and FMCGs like Unuilevers, are showing that consumers want their vendors to have environmentally sustainable practices and products. Supply chains are reacting to this, because its what their customers want. When reports show 80% of customers want it that way, corporations have to listen. So as consumers, we have to sustain this pressure. Don’t book your airticket with the airline that don’t have good sustainbility practices (eg one airline uses brown energy, the other uses green — go for the green one). Similarly check into a hotel which shows they are using solar energy. Etc, etc… One great example — don’t buy Volswagen — they tweaked their software so their vehicles pass emissions test, but they actually emit 40 times more than what their software shows. The point is not to screw Volkswagen, although they deserve it, but the other 100 brands will understand the lesson.
@chemrock
I think @Micha’s point is that the Scope 1 emitters (the “greatest culprits” as you put it) are also the ones with the most political power and influence—and that is a concern.
Can the foxes be trusted to guard the hen-house? That is the question.
I am no expert on climate change or efforts to combat climate change—but I think that there are some fundamental flaws in a market-driven solution towards climate change; flaws that should be reckoned with.
As Micha has pointed out: “capitalism” is fundamentally built on a model of assuming limitless growth, and all the major players have an incentive to maximize their gains from such a model especially in the short-term—a consequence of the capitalist model’s emphasis on margins, which while generating efficiency also presents political and normative problems, i.e. temporal myopia—lack of concern for long-term or for future generations.
(I am thinking aloud and this may be just tangential to the point above but: a solution to our overproduction of goods is trying to shift from disposable to long-lasting goods. Yet—profits of many consumer goods are built on being disposable, replacable, upgradable? Can our current capitalist system cope with such a transition sufficiently or quick enough?)
Another problem (the reason I wrote this comment) is the problem of inequality in power. Policies like carbon taxes, etc. are important—but I think that, even when looking at these policies which are reforms to make the capitalist system more “green,” more responsive to environmental concerns, one cannot still avoid a pressing issue raised by the Left: the subject of power.
The “Environmental Problem” is not just a problem with a clear, simple set of technocratic and technological solutions. It is a complex problem—with a dimension of power dynamics at play; what I mean is—the “Environmental Problem” will affect citizens of the First World differently from citizens of the Third World, will affect ordinary citizens themselves from the one percent, will affect small and medium enterprises differently from multinationals, etc.
And a huge chunk of that difference, the Left will argue—will be the result of who has more “power” in the system. Those with more “power” will have the “transition” favoring them more, the discourse of “transition” paying them disproportionately more attention.
I mean no offense—but take for instance, the focus on “overpopulation.”
I am not saying that “overpopulation” IS NOT a problem. It is part of the problem—but it is worth noting the moral hazard at play; actors in the system like economics elites would have a clear incentive (whether consciously or unconsciously) to push (more or prefer for solutions to the “Environmental Problem” which focus the responsibility more on the general public rather than themselves.
And “economic elites” are not doing that because they are bad people—but because they’re humans. It is natural for humans to act in their rational self-interest and if you already have enough power in the system…
Which is why it is much easier for campaigns which focus on Section 3 emitters to gain traction in the mainstream. Much easier to say consumer is the problem and solution.
Already—you are seeing people like Musk (or if Musk just too much of a charlatan at this point—even a serious figure like Bezos) talk about going to space to help solve (or side-step) aspects of the “Environmental Problem,” i.e. problem of finite resources.
But who can afford to go to space? Certainly not me—or my descendants? Certainly not anyone here or anyone’s descendants?
We cannot take the “politics” even out of something as systemic, as universal as the “Environmental Problem.” One may disagree with the Left’s constructive solutions—but I think that even those who would disagree with such, should nevertheless pay attention to the Left’s critique of the current system.
Politics is sobering.
Addendum:
This is a bit pedantic, but when I said “the Left’s constructive solutions,” I meant “constructive” in the descriptive (not normative) sense.
That is, “constructive solutions” as proactive policies—as opposed to reactive critique (alternative policies as opposed to exposing flaws of system).
Even the most ambitious and the most expensive planned zero carbon, zero waste city have been going on in the UAE since 2006 and won’t be finished until a decade or more.
It had many problems some led to innovative solutions like burying metal in a salt water drenched desert underground then adding cement and that is just the foundation part which took years
For our Philippines we have such plans in the reclamation area, and the Eastern seaboard, both have been conceived since the 90s, the problem is there are a lot of zeros involved, not just in the check, but also zero cooperation and acceptance from many stake holders.
Both examples are limited to certain areas and not holistic.
Abu Dhabi has no plans in disrupting the status quo in the existing cities, they have to let the proponents find an empty space in the desert.
Here we can reclaim land with thinking that the rest will come automatic.
In the case of Aurora/Quezon even if there was a presidential proclamation or two giving its thumbs up, it ended up being just a drawing, a drawing written in air.
Then we have clean air act, solid waste management, clean water, we have it all.
The problem is the laws are not future proof and innovation friendly.
When someone mentioned clean coal- Cause oriented groups found a cause to counter it, then even before that plasma gasification – the COGs said it is the same with incineration.
Then the DOE and DENR set an energy mix requirements so that one day we would go with renewable energy.
Back to my previous rants, we ask to recycle
Our recycle strategy led to artwork completions like best recycled plastic boat, best this and that, the thing is it is just to get viral on social media, but after a while people forget about, then when you share it again after a few months or years, people treat it as old news.
So many nice initiatives without following through which is ningas kugon in the vernacular.
To make it large scale make use of land fills and plan to have an acceptable wte within the area, and recycling and manufacturing. If we worry about Intekectual property then do licensed manufacturing like what we have been doing ever since.Then scratch your head because Nalua can not be approved with all many laws that overlap.
We have a lot of overlapping laws.
END Chapter One
“The problem is the laws are not future proof and innovation friendly.” Yes, laws are built to empower people rather than run the nation effectively. Building codes require national legislation. That’s great if the nation is a barangay, but it is not. Laws need to delegate better. Good point.
Waste disposal here is very slapdash. Sachets are a huge penalty on the environment. The Philippines is not the only nation with a huge problem. I guess Japan is having a hard time with plastics in the ocean since China stopped accepting waste materials from overseas. So Japan has its lack of discipline as well as some people now just dump trash in the ocean.
I was typing another comment for a longtime so I only read this now.
Yes Japan has discipline in throwing at the right place, but what to do afterwards is evidenced in the ocean, I don’t know if they will blame the immigrants who help the aging population, it has been a perennial problem ever since plastic was invented surprisingly only before or after World War Two.
Wiki says its 1907 so it’s before World War I.
The sachet was or is heavily marketed for its affordability,
Now oversize is being marketed by the same brands for savings.
Marketing is always in segments.
As far as plastic disposal are concerned the difference is only the time and frequency of disposal, but the problem is you hoard, recycycle, reuse and repurpose you are still going to throw it later, or someone else will throw it for you.
Then the proper disposal and the improper collection happens here and like Joe mentioned Japan.
Some or many residents actually segregate but it is still gets mixed up somehow.
It could be not all in the house segregates only the mother for instance who can only scratch her head and scream at her self because nobody would listen or it is all mixed up in the garbage truck.
Then all the landfills and dumps are about to close, the mayors always asks for extension and leave it to the next mayor.
@joeam, @karl
we have enough good laws
and actually—enough good legislators in Congress and Senate to come up with passable legislation.
the more neglected problem has always been follow-through, implementation. simply put—we do not have a world-class bureaucracy. now bureaucracies (as a virtual rule) are all pretty inefficient by definition, but there is a tangible difference between bureaucracies where the bureaucrats are fully aware that the survival of their nation is at stake (am reminded of east asia, i.e. S. Korea, Japan, Singapore, etc.) and bureaucracies where…bureaucrats remain content to simply pass time and live by the status quo.
give me a motivated, strong and (this is an opinion which may vary depending on who you ask) independent bureaucracy—and regardless of whether a nation is democratic or authoritarian, that nation will prosper.
of course, democracy is like preservative. it preserves flavor. madaling masira ang bunga kapag walang checks and balances.
(and good, productive authoritarian rule is probably only possible w/ east asians where there confucian influence and a preference for collective/consensus-rule may grant a certain immunity to the most stupid variant of authoritarian rule—strongman rule. but i digress.)
Rather than say, that is what I said in a way, I will just give you a high five. Appear!
“we do not have a world-class bureaucracy.” Agree, the problem is not laws, it is competence. I swear agency heads run things as if they have never managed anything in their lives. It is why I argue for businessmen in charge of government agencies. Man, pay them a ton of money because the benefits will get multiplied a thousandfold. The good ones know how to organize priorities and manage people to get results.
Businessmen running the government agencies? In the UK, it is evident that it does not work. Trains have become incredibly expensive and unreliable, the mail is going from bad to worse. Carrilion showed the problem clearly. In the US, the privatised education system is rather broken, the medical support a disaster (in the eyes of spoiled Europeans). Businessmen optimize profit, hopefully within the context of the frameworks set by government agencies. Do you think that the top 100 companies, responsible for 71% of the emissions are suddenly going to cut their businesses in order to limit emissions? The oil companies tried to run solar companies and sold their companies eventually. A giant electrical power company will certainly not design a distributed power generation system where energy use is minimized, they would engineer themselves out of business. On the contrary, power companies have done their utmost to prevent people to generate their own power, I have seen them sabotaging individuals erecting windmills by charging ridiculous prices for hooking them up to the net. No Sir, on the contrary. The smart businessmen already have most politicians in their pockets and are scheming to minimize their damage. Which is completely understandable. It is part of any succesfull business to maximise profit. Even when today, some companies (pretend to) go environmentally responsible.
What is needed is an independent and strong government, minimum ties to businesses. That does not mean that everything should be nationalised.. Once a clear need is defined, businesses will develop efficient processes and products. Ofcourse it never is black&white. E.g. the old mail system indeed was inefficient as was the telephone system. But every farm had its landline connection while now, the phone companies try to deploy 4G, 5G as fast as possible to the most profitable area’s (The cities) while the countryside is struggling to get an Internet at the speed of my good old 1994 modem and therefore whole chunks of the population here is internet ignorant and won’t stanf a chance to develop itself as a whole. And those businesspeople who have mismanaged the power systems and are still building coal power plants are supposed to save us from the oncoming onslaught?
Sorry, but here, I think you are on the wrong track. Our only hope are the younger people (are you listening Francis?) who should kick out the old rulers (politicians and businesspeople alike) and take charge of our future. In a democracy like Philippines, this could be a realistic option. But avoid the route which gave us the NPA, learn from past failures please. Mobilize teachers and universities, they can and should play a leading role. Our future is in their hands, the old generation (Mea culpa) failed to behave responsibly.
Perhaps I am on the wrong track. What seem to be missing are simple competencies of planning (looking ahead), disciplined work (versus politics and favors), ability to be forthright (versus blames/excuses), and ethics (versus cheating and corruption). Those are skills that good businessmen possess, and there are some good businessmen in the Philippines. But if there are other ways, bring them on . . .
Funny you mention those skills: planning, achieving v.s. favouritism, corruption etc. etc.
That is just what I tried to do, after many years in Operation and Engineering, I thought some planning and Engineering could well be used. After a year of hard work, I had to retreat to my hideout as the politicians and officials refused to make (and imement) their own plans. However, in the process I met many Filipinos who would be able to do a good job (mainly young ones), but they were on a leash held by the older politicians and officials who were only scheming for short term profits while they were in function. It does not need businessmen to get out of this impasse. Hence my call for the young generation to take control. (Are you still listening Francis?) I see that as the only realistic solution to minimize the collateral damage, because that nasty things are going to happen seems to be the common denominator of this forum.
However, lack of information in the province, the lack of training in critical thinking and especially the dumbing TV and radio programming leaves only a small part of the younger population capable of effective action. But what other realistic options are there?
Roger that. You make good sense. The old dogs are morally diseased, many of the young ones are busy playing android games. But there are some young tigers.
1) “we do not have a world-class bureacracy”. How? It seems that there is no lifetime guaranteed employment for most government employees, that they fear every admin change. Two thing guarantee loyalty and good performace over here in Germany:
1a) lifetime tenure and 1b) excellent pensions. Salaries are low compared to private sector, but the Church and the German government know that delayed gratification is a motivator, not immediate gratification. But a German official’s reward is in old age and not in heaven. Corporations also use bonuses are motivators – quarterly or yearly. Human nature is what it is. I wonder if I would stay honest if I knew I might be thrown out after six years, new admin. While working honestly in German government means a lifetime job and a nice retirement.
Not only lifetime job, but medical insurance that pays for everything, including if one’s wife or children get sick. Zero incentive to be corrupt, major punishment (loss of comfortable life and of great retirement) for doing wrong. People ARE selfish by nature, let’s face it.
2) for the most part, Philippine bureacracy meets 1930s requirements, the time when it was established, first by the Insular Government (1920s) and the Commonwealth (1930s). The only major reform was in the 1970s, by Marcos who divided the Philippines into regions. Thus, every Department has regional offices, which makes sense. But nobody else really dared to put his sword upon the Gordian knot of hidebound Philippine bureacracy.
Sure, ex-CJ Sereno tried to speed up courts using IT, but “King Midas” made hell hot for her because she tried to change things. Even my few years helping the Philippine Embassy in Bonn, Germany, gave me a view of an apparatus that hates change, nearly as bad as they describe the late Chinese Imperial bureacracy maybe, even if DFA is one of the more efficient and modern parts of the bureacracy. A lot of issues in the Philippines I think might hardly be the fault of the highest leadership, but more that of the government apparatus. Whether it is the mishaps in Mamasapano (incompatible walkie-talkies, shoddy supplies) or DOTR taking forever to order a few MRT wagons, or the Supreme Court plantilla.. whew.
Reclaimed area’s in Philippines? Really? Look at the Namria maps and get an impression how deep the water will be there in a storm in 2040… You better move up several meters if you want to keep your feet dry.
Yes ,I guess the Philiipine Estates Authority has a lot of rethinking to do again.
why did they scrap project NOAH?
It was good until it lasted.
while it lasted
@Pablo
I guess you would not approve of this Manila Bay Coastline defense that includes reclamation and more highways.
The Malabon-Navotas areas have been floodprone eversince, to add to that it is also in a fault line( multiple whammies)
But floods can be mitigated at least.
http://www.dpwh.gov.ph/dpwh/PPP/projs/MFCDE
I agree that we need mass transportationn and less cars.
The modernized jeepney will hopefully evolve to an electric one soon, and the eletrcc tricycles too.
But again you are correct that batteries are pollutants too.
Bicycles- A Few years ago they had bike lanes in EDSA the problem is it is in the sidewalks and it is only short so it went pfft.
.
Floods can be mitigated? There is not enough money to build climate-change proof defences nor is there enough time to build anything decent. I am afraid we are just making the problem much bigger.
poor choice of words?
Better than burying your heads under the sand.
Relocation or even evacuation is the hardest thing to do.
Poppy suggested we go the way of Venice, because that is how he envisioned Metro Manila to be.
Here is Popoy’s piece on Asia’s Venice.
https://joeam.com/2015/09/17/mar-roxas-can-start-asven-asias-venice/
Mr Picasso este Mr Pablo
if I may suggest
think not of true equivalents
think I beseech thee
of the ages when Venice
defied possibilities
how their canals embraced
the slaps of oceans
go munch to cogitate
the time
when the conquering English
across the channel and the sea
swallowed pride and expertise
to consult and rely on the Dutch
of picturesque windmills
of Holland home of Holstein Friesian
to solve their problem of sea reclamation.
True or not in 1968 that’s
what I heard in England.
And so I clicked on the link . . . .
to refresh cobwebbed memory:
Bert says:
September 17, 2015 at 5:08 pm
Mary’s LLED is in the planning stage already while Popoy’s ASVEN is still a dream.
Dream is free so let’s dream on.
Reply
edgar lores says:
September 17, 2015 at 5:14 pm
*******
Why not dream bigger?
Why not carve a new Philippine Capital City in the center of the islands? Like Masbate or Sibuyan.
Then we will not have an imperial Manila and the outlying regions will be given attention.
The multiplier effect will be enormous.
*****
my take in the present
Given that link for that ASVEN bruhah-hahic item written three years ago, I was lured to revisit and think straight what was inputted to that free dream to continue to dream on, paying or paid nothing.
Let me say now. what’s BEHIND that ASVEN Dream was quite shorter years part of my LONG 81 going 82: Four years of agriculture sciences In Los Banos; One year of soil and water engineering post graduate studies in England chosen (instead of Development Economics studies in Wisconsin), in P. Faura and Diliman: two years of Masterate Studies in Public Administration, One year of doctoral studies in Public Administration , another One Year of doctoral (environmental) studies in Urban and Regional Planning, One year of Advance Management studies in Australia, (WB grant for PhD Sociology not accepted by U of Austin in Texas for reasons of obstinacy, refusing to take English Language Test), UN seminar in management of family planning programs in Hongkong and Japan, development administration UN seminars in Malaysia and India, and may be etc. Zero courses (self-study) in the arts of painting and writing.
I was a Jack of many studies and a master of none which made me a nobody and an incoherent writer to intellectual many. What I did almost for free for UP and my country will be about ten pages, that’s why may be WHERE I AM NOW with no GSIS pension (my bad really NOT being TOO MUCH interested in money), me and my beloved remains tax exempt or tax free. Like ASVEN maybe I am free to dream. Please forgive the yabang and the ego of an octogenarian. But believe you me I am still wisdom free.
Popoy’s ASVEN should be revisited; else all we have is a big OPPORTUNITY LOSS item worthy of our national trash bin. On my second read, the urgency is of DEFCON quality. If the TSH can sound a clarion call and the righteous “dynasties” are in fact watching and listening to what is being written here in the blog, then the country must go on DEFCON-5 at the very least. IMO, ASVEN-like mobilization at strategic sites in the islands is appropriate and doable. And yes, we must think already of DEFCON-4.
I am reading it again, picking up some more gems.
My golly, some parts of the plan could operationalize the inter-agency responsible for climate change.
May your tribe increase Popoy.
ASVEN simply reverses the mistakes of the postwar period, where numerous esteros of Manila were covered, some even became roads. But water in floods finds its old way again.
Just like mistakes were made in Europe, walling in rivers, canalizing them instead of leaving them their natural flood plains, which are there for the water that comes in spring or during autumn storms. Walled in rivers means all the water goes downstream and destroys cities. Possibly the Marikina river already lacks its old floodplains – and of course squatters are living on them, but even in Europe used to be the poorest parts of town were near the river. Dampness is bad even in the tropics, but in cold countries it can mean rheumatism etc.
Karl in ASVEN there’s another TEMPORARY lost dream. Did you get the name? He might yet make a come back to nudge and wake up the millions of snoozers in Noodle land.
“Why did they scrap project NOAH?” I watched in pain as Dr. Mahar Lagmay, whom I know personally, tried to please the present admin but still failed as everything from PNoy is suspect to Duterte. BTW same pained watching with Xiao Chua and his Xiao Time on PTV.
Although it is often a Filipino phenomenon that not-from-this-admin is scrapped, it was quite smart of PNoy not to scrap 4Ps even if it came from Arroyo, or her economic measures. Unlike Cory who abolished Metro Manila Commission which was what the metro needed.
Another reason I see is the totally anti-science attitude of the Duterte admin, see Dengvaxia. Unfortunately for Datu Lapu-Lapu II (Digong Duterte), 1521 is almost 500 years ago and there are no balanghais for 100 million people (200 times as many as 1521) to just leave.
It is good that he did not veto the Balikpapan-scientist Law, now I hope he will support its implementation.
http://www.dost.gov.ph/knowledge-resources/news/49-2018/1414-president-duterte-signs-balik-scientist-law.html
Recycled politicians? Have a look at the names of candidates now and you might be tempted to think that most Filipino politicians are biodegradable who needs total incineration to be useful recycles. Karl, you might need gallons and gallons of Saudi Arabia petrol.
Have a look at that as wannabe verse:
Recycled politicians?
Have a look at the names
of candidates now and
you might be tempted
to think that most Filipino politicians
are biodegradable who need
total incineration
to be useful recycles.
Karl, you might need gallons
and gallons of Saudi Arabia petrol.
Roger that to the prose and to the poem as well.
I got Infected, because sometimes I press enter after every period. Otherwise, I type run-on sentences .
On second thought, I do not want it to be literal only poetic.
Karl, when sentences are
like islands or oceans:
in the middle of an island,
in the middle of an ocean
lies wannabe poetry
so goes the twist
of a ditty
of the fifties and that’s
where you sink the ships
and cut the trees.
Most cedars of Lebanon
fell for Phoenician ships
Easter Islanders cleared forests
to make war on each other
The status of their Lodis remain
they had no more boats to flee
Nice one IBRS. I am a captive of distant memories.
In Ampthill Park in Bedfordshire where we practiced
irrigation design by plane surveying, Prof Hudson
told us pointing to very old oak trees, In this park
was where the English got the OAK trees to build the
ships that defeated and destroyed the reputation
of the Spanish Armada. In Scotland I was told
one hundred year old houses in the isles are
really not that old. Philippines is never old to do
a Reformation and Renaissance.
PAYAPANG
HIMAGSIKAN
SIGAW NG BAYAN.
How? how how the carabao?
Read and cogitate
it is here in TSoH.
SO MANY REASONS WHY DUTERTE IS NOT FOR THE PRESIDENCY
1. “Ayaw ko ng dynasty,pero wala ako magawa.”
2. “Wala akong alam sa economics.”
3. ” Suko talaga ako sa corruption.”
Pang mayor lang talaga.
4. ” Naiyak ako kasi inaapi ako” (on UN HR comments)
Ano kaya sabi nung mga batang napatay sa drug war at pamilya nila?
I am willing to bet Calida and Duterte are having the papers of that K9 dog who did his job detecting the drugs in the magnetic lifters checked for loopholes.
Perhaps he did not really attend obedience school? Or smell detection classes? Or should we lose his papers?
X-rays of the containers evidently also showed the presence of drugs. So if the President says there were no drugs, it means x-ray machines and dogs are issuing fake news and destabilizing the nation.
Hahaha — that is a good one!
Or issues a caveat like he will decide after a thorough investigation.
Tell that to Gordon or the next blue ribbon chair.
”Tell that to Gordon or the next blue ribbon chair”
That’s the problem…He will not listen because he never stop talking
Another problem, he is not the only one.
But a listening Gordon could do wonders.
Mr. A8 as I read many quotes and quotations here, I became hypothetical at best theoretical.
I hypothesize quotations to be emblematic of deep but straight thinking, diagnostic of comedic but shallow and troubled thinking and of course rarely I encounter prognostic and outside-the-box thinking. That’s why fishers of men in this blog thrives best regardless of shallow or deep waters.
Of course, I won’t have this comment re-arranged into wannabe verse.
At FB,
I Continued my discussion of the rice shortage with Chemrock, and Irineo he reiterated the no water or less water tech in rice planting by Israel, which Californa is about to implement or is already implementing, then Cha requested NLUA be blogged in TSH.
I believe Joe has done it several times, we need to learn by rote, I guess.
Moving on
The rising sea levels is true.
Antartica is Already colored green in some areas, soon it will be green not to the delight of Green Peace.
Find a way to remove all the green house gases it he atmosphere, remove the space junk, that are already in the ocean I don’t know why they usually drop in South of Australia, and more.
Give Boyan Slat the benefit of the doubt about the Ocean Cleanup.
Banned aerosol and other banned chemicals remain in the ocean after decades of banning them, no ocean cleanup proposal for that yet.
We don’t need a Geostorm implementation to solve this.
The US with the of the world built a space station to be manned by this planet’s best scientists and engineers( what a brain drain) then they control the climate and the weather until a madman decided to weaponize it.
The actual proposals of the rich guys is living on the moon and Mars.
First ,we must find dentures to our toothless world summits, it maybe full concensus and cooperation or something else, no it is only concensus and lots of zeroes in terns of money, then…
We adjust each nations regulation and legislation to fit the immediate futures needs, then the rest is up to…….
I woke up this morning to see a Joeam piece that’s close to my heart. I am currently a channel partner for an electricity retailer and I have determined my niche is in promoting on-grid solar energy. My sales pitch is “Capture business values while addressing climate change with solar energy”. The primer here is that there are tremendous business values for corporations that embrace environmental sustainability goals. For example, neutral energy claims is a great brand differentiator that builds customer loyalty, strengthens employee retention, and investor preference.
The Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement have galvanised world action and made much headways in models, mechanisms, laws, organisational structures, etc for global warming mitigation initiatives. The UN Intergovernmental Panel for Climate Control’s recent report suggests that what the world is doing is not good enough. It is basically game over by 2040 if we do not make a paradigm and drastic change NOW in the way we live and work.
For Philippines, the Nationally Determined Commitment 2030 goal is 70% reduction CO2 equivalent reduction. This means making 2005 as base and making a BAU projection to 2030 to see what the emissions will be, and then a 70% reduction of the derived projection. I don’t know what the 2030 BAU emission figure is, but Philippines current emission is about 120 million metric tons CO2 equivalent. This is just a voluntary commitment, not a treaty obligation. So if Philippines has the Marcos mentality of signing the forms is all that matters and not the tasks required of it, be prepared for the worse.
What I can tell you is this. NDC 2030 requires tremendous amount of preparation. Joeam is indeed correct that it ought to have the kind of priority he suggested. There are massive laws and regulations that need to be in place. Being such a legalistic country, it will require 3 times the time that it take other countries to get all these in place through Congress and the Senate.
The UNFCCC (UN Framework for Climate Change Control) leads the charge. Every country sets up an NCCC (National Climate Change Control ) Secretariat to co-ordinate with the UNFCCC. In Philippines, this task is under the Inter-Agency Committee for Climate Change chaired by the Sec of DENR. The IACCC is inter-agency, meaning the usual brick bats and territory fights. In contrast for example, Singapore’s NCCC is directly under the PMO (Prime Minister’s Office).
To get a sense of perspective of the national importance of the existential threat of climate change, the following are agencies attached to the President’s Office :
Authority of the Freeport Area of Bataan (AFAB)
Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA)
Cagayan Special Economic Zone (CSEZ)
Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO)
Commission on Higher Education (CHED)
Commission on the Filipino Language
Cultural Center of the Philippines (CCP)
Dangerous Drugs Board (DDB)
National Economic and Development Authority (NEDA)
Film Development Council of the Philippines (FDCP)
National Historical Commission of the Philippines (NHCP)
Housing and Urban Development Coordinating Council (HUDCC)
Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA)
Mindanao Development Authority (MinDA)
Movie and Television Review and Classification Board (MTRCB)
National Anti-Poverty Commission (NAPC)
National Archives of the Philippines (NAP)
National Commission for Culture and the Arts (NCCA)
National Council on Disability Affairs (NCDA)
National Intelligence Coordinating Agency (NICA)
National Museum of the Philippines
National Security Council (NSC)
National Youth Commission (NYC)
Optical Media Board (OMB)
Pasig River Rehabilitation Commission
Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO)
Philippine Coconut Authority (PHILCOA)
Philippine Commission on Women
Philippine Competition Commission (PCC)
Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA)
Philippine Postal Corporation (PHLPost)
Philippine Sports Commission (PSC)
Presidential Security Group (PSG)
Sentro Rizal
Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority (SBMA)
What is Philippines roadmap to NDC 2030? There is scant info. In many countries that’s seriously pursuing this, there is tremendous public hype. Because it involves the whole community. Scandinavian countries lead by example in this. In Spore we have our fair share of publicity in this. It’s constantly being talked about in public spaces. Every green project is a great story to tell and inspire.
As Joe said, there are many many things that ought to be done with high urgency and priority. Being in the business, I would say electricity industry liberalisation ought to be pursued. That will improve competition and efficiency and innovation. In Spore the electricity industry was deregulated in 2001, we have implemented demand response data analytics and moved out of coal. 95% of total energy comes from natural gas, the rest from mix of coal, solar and biomas. Our NDC 2030 goal is for solar to contribute 25% of the energy pool despite the fact that we have great space constraints for solar. Philippines today still relies very much on coal while blessed with huge potential for wind and thermal energy.
There is a whole new way of doing things with the advent of carbon credits and carbon offsetting but this is hardly making any impact in Philippines. This is a bit complicated to explain here, but the gist is that it is driving capital from advanced countries to invest in projects in LDCs (less developed countries) in order to tap the credits (CERs, VERs, RECs) which they require to meet either compliance emission targets, or voluntary emission targets of their corporations back home.. Why LDCs? Because these are countries where lack of capital has prevented them from many developments. In advanced countries, their infras are all matured so there are limitations on how much they can change to reduce emissions. That is one of the drivers of many projects in places like China and India. Philippines is missing out on all these because of the political situation. FDIs are giving the country a pass.
Carbon credit trading has seen an explosive growth and has been projected to be the biggest market in the world. Many countries are fighting for a share of this. There are lots of work required in here. Like standards, platforms, tracking and trading systems, registers, legal framework, etc etc. I don’t see anything happening in Philippines.
Sorry for the lenghtie Joe. I hope your blog is not hinting a presidential role for Legarda. That’s not a face that will drive a million solar panels to come to Philippines. Much as she sure hope it goes to her son.
Thank you, @Chemrock for the very informative comment.
It is sad that environmental policy seems like an afterthought (an “add-on”) rather than the centerpiece of policy in the PH.
An axiom, especially in the Philippines: political needs trump real-life existential imperatives, considering that the catastrophe is two decades ahead.
Empire of the son?
Thanks for this Chemrock,too many vehicles and drivers/backseat drivers on the road with no roadmaps. They all already know (claim) where they are going to, until someone sings Do you know…….
@chempo
The science of global warming had been around for at least over two decades but was severely attacked by denialists from global corporations and the fossil fuel industry.
Even with the latest UN report, oil industry lobbyists in the US are still insisting for zero regulations and the state-corporate power is hell bent to protect its profit making ventures regardless of severe consequences for the rest of humanity and the world.
Being a non-industrialized country, the Philippines has minuscule contribution to AGW and yet is in the forefront of reaping its destructive effects. Your proposal for a solar grid and carbon capture is a little too late even as we continue to operate those coal fired power plants and the streets of the Metro are soaked with noxious fumes from cars and jeepneys.
There is no market solution for global warming. Corporations and the extractive industries don’t know the limits of perpetual growth.
The science has been around for a while, but the technology has improved and today’s big data analysis certainly has made immense strike in the knowledge base. There is more precision and confidence in projections.
Climate change skeptics there always will be. Being the biggest emitters of green house gas, the US is obviously in a bad place and hence their reluctance to support. The leadership role has gone to Europe. The US is a signatory f the Paris Accord, but they have yet to confirm. I think 2020 is the deadline. No confirmation means they are automatically out.
Whilst the US official position is non-supportive, many states are. There are two ways of regulatory control for CO2 emissions reduction — a compliance regime and a voluntary regime. Many states have in place compliance regimes called cap and trade. Basically placing a quota on emissions, beyond which they get taxed unless they arrange carbon set-offs. Carbon credits are quoted on certain exchanges.
“There is no market solution for global warming. Corporations and the extractive industries don’t know the limits of perpetual growth.”
It is a powerful understatement. Yet we are witnessing a worldwide shift in thinking. Market, government, NGO and investor pressures are impacting CEOs big and small to implement and pursue sustainability goals. Huge corporations all over are doing this. The rest needs to keep pace. Because pressures will flow out to the supply chains. This sustainability drive is a tsunami of the good type. And it’s unstoppable. Some may be driven by real moral and social responsibilities, some probably by market pressure. Green is what the market wants, and the market gets what it wants. But I have to say, it has not yeached the shores of corporate Philippines.
The shift in thinking is, again, a little too late. We are, figuratively, already in the event horizon.
Consumers might want to turn green but it’s what the corporations are doing that you should be concerned about; for it was the corporations who lobbied relentlessly for deregulation and they came out fiercely to discredit the science involved, notably the pioneering work of Michael Mann.
Corporations are in the driver’s seat of humanity’s train heading towards the black hole.
There might be small efforts here and there to somehow (futilely, I suppose) mitigate the anthropogenic part but it’s the big polluters that we should be looking at.
Thank you for the very enlightening read, chemrock. I learned a lot. You should put this into your own article to give it visibility, if you have the time and inclination.
Legarda is one of the last people I would want in charge of anything.
That climate change is under DENR, rather than a national priority, ought to be a wake-up call on its own. Movies and sports get presidential attention, but not a budding catastrophe. Color the nation blind, deaf, and dumb.
I’ve caught the Francis bug — an addendum here.
Not all is doom and gloom in Philippines.
Puerta Princessa has been declared a zero energy city, one of a very few in the world. And Palwanians intend to make the whole island zero energy. BE PROUD, guys.
See what one man Haggedorn can do. The city to the east is a shiny star, while the city in the south is a kill zone.
And there were those that were sure going green is bad for business, Palawan inbound green tourists swell by a huge percentage. I don’t have the numbers, but it was a hugely welcome surprise.
I am sick and tired of Davao and Mindanao hogging the limelight that they don’t deserve.
High time we focus and support Palawan for the good things happening there. Things that Filipinos can be proud for once.
Wow. Again—that’s pretty cool information to hear. I did not know Puerto Princesa was a zero energy city.
And not exactly a small-scale example. Puerto Princesa is an a categorized as a First Class HUC (Highly Urbanized City) with a population of roughly 250,000 people.
Zero energy city?
Sorry, can’t help but laugh at the phrase. If it’s gone zero energy, does that mean it has totally succumbed to entropy?
In climate change area, there exists great numbers of acronyms and terminologies.
Zero energy building or city or company simply denotes they energy used are fully renewables — from solar, thermal, wind, biomas, waves, etc
Yes, it seems odd, but it is the new language that suggests chemrock is correct, there is a major push toward net-zero buildings and cities. Carbon neutral is another goal. Time to update the thesaurus.
@chempo and JoeAm
It is not only odd, it is also inaccurate.
Why not just call it green city or green apartment or green mall?
Zero energy denotes a dying or lifeless city full of zombies.
Welcome to Halloween city?
🙂
It is such a small point to quibble on, seems to me, rather like grammar police. The larger point is that there are a growing numbers of nations and cities and buildings that are striving for sustainable energy and a reduced carbon footprint. We should cheer them, I think, not ridicule their language.
The bigger point is that a growing number of nations and cities and buildings striving for sustainable energy are not large enough to make any difference at this point as long as you do not touch the oil industry and their varied tentacles of corporate enablers.
Wow too, zero net energy city means their energy consumption approximates the renewable energy created on site.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/travel/destinations/asia/bhutan/carbon-negative-country-sustainability/
At first when I heard zero energy, I thought all the people there were depressed, then I read about the only carbon negative country in the world, man do they not exhale at all?
*******
Chemrock has the floor and the mike.
He may have dropped it.
*****
When hills of waterlilies clog
the polluted Pasig is like
When corrupt bureaucracies
govern the polity
Ask Max Weber German father
of the Theory of Bureaucracy
Popoy agrees indifferently
the best governed
is the least governed
by so many bureaucratic agencies.
People’s money spent
by these numerous agencies
is like the mountains of moolah
pork barrels of Kongresistas.
Never this time so needed
sigaw ng bayan,
SIGAW NG BIYENAN
kay Juan watot ni Marsha
“Kaya ikaw John
MAGSUMIKAP KA” .
chemp,
this is good stuff!!! any chance you can expand this to a full article? are you speaking about mini- and micro- grids? where in the Philippines would this be applicable?
Here i’m looking at best location as the Olympic peninsula in Washington state.
Will try. Just thinking of how it can fit into a discussion on Philippines, otherwise what’s the point.
It is relevant to the Philippines. Don’t worry about that.
In my first comment, I made the case to build upon Filipino strengths: resilience, small farms. Reading various comments later, I would like to suggest 2 things additional:
1. Distributed power.
There were discussions about changing the power mix, changing coal, caseload, renewables etc. I would like to make a case for small power systems, managed by local groups. WHY? Well, if you actually see what you are doing, you start to minimize and optimize. The member of a windmill cooperation in Holland increase their power consumption when the wind is blowing (E.g. do the laundry and heat the water in the boiler) and minimize it when the wind is down. Another example: I used 225 kWh last year (And yes, we do have tv, cold beer a freezer and a washing machine), but as we are on solar, we optimize and minimize where possible. So, small groups can work out the best ways to use their power. BUT: they need technical support. Currently, I see the opposite taking place as small hydro-electric stations are replaced with links to the (coal fired) grid (at more profit for the plant operator). Instead of modernizing and educating the users to allow them to use this 100%green energy. You have seen those mountains of rice husk? It should be used to generate power (gassifying plants) and produce natural fertilizer. And so there are many more idea’s for small power generation. Once you release the powers of imagination in local groups, the idea’s will come by themselves. WHY is this such a critical issue? First of all, people will reduce their power consumption to match availability and if done halfway decent, the energy mix they consume is green. But more important: most people in this blog which Joe started are sceptical if this world can totally change and prevent an ecological disaster. If local communities have their own power generation systems (And a working small farm agricultural system for their food supply), Philippines could actually be one of the countries where the climate change blow can be softened.
2. Disaster management.
Joe and I had the interesting observation that after a disaster, focus is on getting things back to normal, maybe build a little bit stronger, but people do not like a change. But a disaster is the ideal time to make rigurous changes. WHY build shelters with a design life of 3 years after Yolanda? Would this not have been the ideal opportunity to start people on high efficiency stoves (Instead of those charcoal burners) and solar energy in their house and maybe even a central wastewater system where the gas is used to generate electricity in the evening when the sun is down. Those NHS housing compounds were build to “help” the Yolanda victims, but there is no phantasy in there, just a cheap heap of …… without power nor water nor waste recovery nor school nor work.
Instead, prepare for quick development of a zero-energy settlement. Something which sets the scene. But also can give victims of the next flood/storm/vulcano/whatever a quick develop settlement. A bit like a pre-fab town, but then one where we can show how zero-energy is really possible. An ideal opportunity to try out optimized concepts. This IS Philippines-》 The next disaster will come sooner rather than later, so let’s prepare to build something better than the “interesting” settlements which evolved after e.g. Yolanda. Every new settlement it’s own utility systems so it not only is a zero-energy settlement but also climate-change proof.
I really like that concept of “better” not being limited to “stronger”, but more organized, thoughtful, efficient, cleaner, and well connected.
This is the plan.
DOE STUDYING SHIFT IN ENERGY MIX TO 50% BASELOAD
THE Department of Energy (DoE) is studying a shift in its energy mix policy in favor of sourcing 50% of the country’s requirements from baseload power plants and 40% from flexible facilities, an official of the agency said on Wednesday.
“[The shift] is based on current trends as far as demand is concerned and also based on the technologies that are coming in,” Energy Undersecretary Felix William B. Fuentebella told participants of a forum hosted by General Electric Philippines, Inc. at Shangri-La at the Fort in Bonifacio Global City.
He said members the DoE’s power bureau are considering “scenarios on how to come out with the proper energy mix.”
“By looking at the data, initially from a 70% baseload, 20% medium range, 10% peaking, we are looking at a shift — around 50% baseload and 40% flexible plants,” he said during the forum.
The 70-20-10 mix is the DoE’s take on what the system requires — that is, the bulk of demand is best supplied by baseload plants or those that continuously run on a 24/7 basis. The 20% medium or mid-merit plants can be quickly switched on and off as required by the system, while the 10% peaking plants address the spike in demand, say, at around noon when power usage is at its highest in Luzon.
The energy mix under the current administration is a revision of the previous tack of the previous leadership, which looked at a 30-30-30-10 distribution for coal, natural gas, renewable energy and oil-fired power plants. Power generation companies use the policy maker’s energy mix direction in guiding their plans to put up new plants.”
https://www.doe.gov.ph/energist/doe-studying-shift-energy-mix-50-baseload
What is base load? ( aside from it being 24/7)
“The baseload[1] (also base load) on a grid is the minimum level of demand on an electrical grid over a span of time, for example, one week. This demand can be met by unvarying power plants,[2] dispatchable generation,[3] or by a collection of smaller intermittent energy sources,[4] depending on which approach has the best mix of low cost, availability and high reliability in any particular market. The remainder of demand, varying throughout a day, is met by dispatchable generation, load following power plants, and peaking power plants, which can be turned up or down quickly, operating reserve, demand response and energy storage.”
SOURCE wiki
MY Conclusion: if you can’t make the goal, move the goal posts.
Genco investment is a tough cookie. The capex is immense, project development is long and payback is even longer. In the Philippines, the goals and policy changing with each Executive admin presents a nightmarish political risk for investors.
Agreed.
The idea is right, but getting there is another story.
Yes because roadmaps always get updated like a socmed status.
You said it best Joe.
“I long ago learned that the goal is not the meaning, the path is.”
Nice one Karl because I remember in teaching Strategic Planning it is like yours: the VISION is the meaning while the MISSION is the path. What I hammered into the ears of bouncing walls is Your VISION is WHERE you want to go and your MISSION is HOW to get there. BUT if you don’t know where you are you cannot go anywhere. GOALS are never attained, only OBJECTIVES are if the targets are clear and quantifiable.
Thanks Prof, but credit goes to Joe, he said that in one of his exchanges here. Thanks for synthesizing it.
The global nervous system had been sounding the alarm about the destructive effects of global warming but the virus of corporate greed are trying its best to disregard the impending disaster.
This is going to be a Darwinian hell ride.
O.T. Duterte changed the climate for sure……..scandal….
Duterte uses frigate issue as segue to Go endorsement. As is typical in many of his speeches when he brings up the frigates controversy, Duterte used the topic to express support for Go’s Senate bid.
He said the Senate hearings on the frigate controversy was the perfect platform for Go to gain nationwide attention so he could run for senator. (READ: Cabinet in full force at Senate probe to support Bong Go)
“So ipinatawag nila lahat, ipinatawag si Bong. Sabi ko, ‘Punta ka, Bong.’ And sinabi ng mga sena – ah executive session… Sabi ko, ‘No, no, no. You demand a full proceeding in public.’ O, di nakita mo ngayon si Bong Go senador na,” said Duterte.
(So everyone was called, Bong was called. I said, ‘You go, Bong.’ The senators suggested holding an executive session…I said, ‘No, no, no. You demand a full proceeding in public.’ Now look, Bong Go is a senator.)
“He will win. He will win. Kita mo (You see). Nakita mo (See) how fate play – destiny of men are played,” added Duterte.
https://www.rappler.com/nation/214676-duterte-admits-role-philippine-navy-bong-go-frigate-issue?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1539929576
Yes indeed. Climate Shift in the 2019 Senate with Go and Manong Enrile there at 95 come February.
During that time they know already Go is running for senate…Same trick with Duterte his ”last moment” Presidential race……liars…..
If Bong Go and Enrile wins it’s time to abandon the freaking zombie country. That place is beyond redemption.
*******
Add Estrada, Revilla, and Imee.
*****
SIGAW NG BAYAN
Halalan gawing
PAYAPANG HIMAGSIKAN
MGA SURUT AT TONGAW, IBAGSAK.
BERDENG BERDE ANG KULAY
NG PAGMAMAHAL SA BAYAN.
Where does one move that promises a rose garden, and will open its doors to Filipinos? Oh, sure, a few educated people who are well off can escape, and millions work abroad, some with the ability to stay. But I’d guess maybe 90 million plus are locked into the Philippines and it seems somehow unkind to sneer at them so cavalierly.
I would add that my blog is not Get Real Post, and I will resist efforts to demean Filipinos as a solution to anything. It does not teach anyone anything constructive, I think, and it discourages people who are here working diligently to educate and improve the thinking in the Philippines. Karl lectured LCX about it a few days ago, regarding one of his postings. I agree with Karl.
Joe, I know I’m under moderation right now. But I feel this little jab is really under-handed.
“I will resist efforts to demean Filipinos as a solution to anything.”
I have never intentionally demeaned anyone here. Yes , I do speak bluntly and direct, but if we talk patterns in postings, I’d probably be the furthest from one who demeans (ie. insults, belittles, patronize, etc.) anyone. I’m very polite and professional.
karl has never lectured me regarding demeaning Filipinos, edgar though has accused me of being racist, but karl is the epitome of fair here. And that’s the reason I always feel obliged to square it away with him if any misunderstanding arise (i owe him at least that).
Of late, the closest of something akin to a lecture would be my half debate with karl rehashing social media vs. 2016 Philippine election there (which got me under moderation)– w/ karl initiating;
the other closest thing would be my attempt at clarification of Sup’s “LKY” quote, which I thought was not only dubious but unfair to LKY himself and what he represents, so I went searching for the source of said dubious quote and shared– me initiating.
but karl never accused me or lectured me of being demeaning. Can you clarify to which of karl’s posts you are referring to, if not any of the 2 above, then which one , Joe? thanks.
as for the current subject of the blog…
https://joeam.com/2016/07/14/do-not-go-gentle-into-that-good-night/
“The Philippines can kill the fossil fuel industry by encouraging China’s ability to scale-up production of clean energy technologies — the US seems determined not to lead this charge.”
even in my actual articles , on top of my commentary here, I’ve always expected more from the Philippines, not less; many here though have expressed the opposite sentiments to mine. And I’m the one demeaning Filipinos???
please clear this one up, Joe.
Lectured was a poor choice of words on my part. Karl said he didn’t appreciate one of your photos in the comment section (Lee Kuan Yew quote??), and you explained that you had not posted it with the intention of disparaging. From my vantage point, I notice these things, and Micha’s sharp remarks, and also know how easy it is, because the Philippines struggles so, to blame Filipinos for not being up to the task. Whatever that task is supposed to be. That pattern, if repeated, risks becoming disparagement. Get Real Post lives on it. My view is that there are no blames, only ways to do better. People get where they are by way of paths we don’t live, but which are as legitimate as our own. So we should respect them.
Thank you for clearing up your own viewpoint. I’ve explained mine. We can move on from here.
LcX,
I had no plans to school anyone, but I was just telling you how I felt.
I guess it was the latest about the LKY link.
The post had quotes based on LKY’s booth, but the web site had pictures depicting stupid Filipinos showing a picture of Erap and Pnoy.
That made me think it was lifted from GRP, or it was one of GRP’s websites.
plus we have the original lines from the GRP mainman himself like pwede na.
I used to read GRP myself, but the demeaning stuff is no longer tough love.
Though on the other hand some of the opposition isn’t put the blame is always on the 16 M for voting Duterte, I am not totally sold to that either, but you. all I could to is disagree.
I know you hate the agree to disagree thing, but that is the best stress reliever in socmed or blog commentary threads that I know of.
I forgot to thank you about the most fair part, but the title belong to Snow White.
J/k, I had my misunderstanding not only with you, some only time healed it, I still learn,thanks again that is a reason to strive to be better.
Fair enough , Joe.
@Joe
Congratulations for holding on.
Your “end game for humanity and the Philippines” post though doesn’t sound encouraging.
Well, headlines are a wake up call, and the article points toward some solutions and the need for a sense of urgency. These ideas become a part of the dialogue. Who knows how one gets to enlightenment. I long ago learned that the goal is not the meaning, the path is. Just because there are snakes and bandits along the path is no reason to run home and pull a blanket over my head or move back to Colorado and become a vegetable.
There’s also a sense of urgency in the UN report but look at the response of the big polluters. Even shifting to 100% renewable energy at this point might already be too late. Land based glacial melting is irreversible and when they’re gone it will take hundreds of years to replace. The odds doesn’t look pretty.
What’s the chance that at least 50% of cars on the road will be electricity powered or that at least 50% of homes will be using renewable energy within 10 years?
Doable yes, but there are actual people with political power who doesn’t want that to happen.
You’d think that moving coastal people to higher grounds wouldn’t involve major social disruptions? What about the possible outbreak of deadly epidemics? Competition for potable water?
The response requires enormous collective effort but policy makers from big polluting countries aren’t moving an inch, they are dragging along in millimeters.
Well, I’m pessimistic actually, so I plan on teaching my son to forage for food in the jungle as one skill, another to become a cold-blooded assassin, and finally, to train up for the Mars habitation project. He keeps saying he will play NBA basketball or be a paleontologist, so I have my work cut out for me.
I think Enrile is a spent force. His son didn’t cut it in the last election.
Vanity. Searching for relevance at the end of a storied career that did not meet his expectations, I presume.
This is a subject very close to my heart and I have seen no traction. Whereas the Maldives is taking action, Europe is awakening, parts of the US at least is taking action (in spite of Trump) and even China is going solar and wind at breakneck speed, I have felt complete apathy during my time in the local government. People seem to think that a seawall here or there will solve all their worries. My parents were survivors of the 1953 flood disaster in Holland that made me watch and learn about the forces of nature. Just look at the gigantic dikes the Dutch made since. Philippines does not stand a chance to replicate this. Only our municipaliy already has a coastline as long as the Dutch water defences, but ofcourse we do not have nearly a fraction of the budget needed to build reliable dikes and canals and pumping stations.
But Philippines has other characteristics. There are hills and mountains. These come with landslides and wind funnelling. Philippines also has lots of little farmers. I call it a distributed farming system. And Filipinos are very resilient. Add these things together and you see opportunities. Forget about serious support after disasters. It ain’t going to happen. The world will be busy fighting their own battles against nature and probably turn upon each other for water control or food scavenging. There will be very little interest for support of flood victims in Philippines when New York just got flooded. Or London. Or any other low lying area. Don’t forget that it took the Dutch 70years to complete (nearly) their defences, there is no possibility at all to build defences for the endangered area’s in the US and elsewhere, so disaster WILL strike there.
AND elsewhere. So migrants will flood the surviving countries with conflicts arising without any doubt. The pressure will be enormous. Unless there is an all out conflict between China and the US, there is no chance that Philippines will get any help from “their friends” when China starts raiding its neighbours. Philippines will be on its own in a world slowly falling apart.
But Philippines COULD keep it simple and use its current strengths to prepare its people. Make small farms more efficient and organic. Ofcourse many farms will be wiped out, but in a country with distributed farming, most will survive. Philippines should finally make use of those beautifull risk maps which Namria has and prevent people settling in low lying area’s. And Philippines could finally start building properly. Even during Yolanda, most proper constructed structures survived. Driving throught the area 6 months after Yolanda, it looked as if a selection had taken place: All substandard buildings were levelled, the good buildings remained. Please no nonsense about “poor people not being able to afford proper buildings” Interestingly, the well build (and anchored) bamboo structures survived. But the flimsy ones were blown away….
Getting prepared would also mean to train the people on the amazing herbal medicines which are all around and can alleviate most problems. Ofcourse serious medical cases will face problems, but actually, in 20 years, we will be faced with a triage situation…
And then, there is the problem of Manila and other big cities in low area’s. Overpopulated and no food resources.. Hopefully most people can make it back to their families in the province where their little farms can support them.
But, ofcourse, even these simple survival measures will not happen. This is Philippines where the priority is on the lost case of the war on drugs. Still 4 years to go, at least. One third of the 12 years reaction time gone, only 8 years left to curb the emissions and prevent the disaster. The IPCC has made it very clear: if we need to survive with dignity, we need to go flat out to curb emissions. Instead, we are still talking in the rest of the world and in Philippines, I find no interest in the future beyond today. I am afraid it will be a case of the battle of the fittest.
Note: An interesting book (Ecologica, Hans Meek) by a very diversive team calculated that the capacity of this earth for sustainable living is 2 billion people. Maybe the coming 50 years will give us the correction needed. A very sobering thought. “Myxomatosis for people” (normally a disease which appears when the rabbit population is out of control). Since the Club of Rome and the speech by Dr. James Hansen in the US senate, things have only gotten worse, so why should we suddenly be enlightened as a human race? Let’s face reality and see what WE can do for our children while the world has gone crazy. But we won’t give up trying to get some sense into our communities and countrymen. You never know if, as a people, we discover the light.
Interesting read, Pablo, and I like the positive that is sprinkled with the realities. I live near Tacloban and visit frequently. The city has rebuilt right where it was wiped out before, along the main roads. It’s all about a meter above sea level, I think. The buildings are substantial, taller, stronger I hope. The airport terminal is bigger and seawalls are a little taller now, I think, but it is still vulnerable to big water. One of the main public housing relocation sites is near the river that floods frequently. I don’t really understand all this. I think it has to do with the lay of the land where commerce and jobs are in one area and it is not feasible to move them to high ground. I don’t think anyone is thinking about 2040 at all.
Joe, there you touch an interesting point. Tacloban was wiped out twice https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/philippine-daily-inquirer/20131230/282703339927086 Once in the lifetime of the parents of the living. So, nobody learned and they STILL build in the same locations. If it happens again, is it not a case of “I told you so… now it is YOUR problem…” ?????
And for a large extent the same is valid for the people who now build and live in low lying area’s. If you don’t take reasonable care of your own safety, it is unreasonable to expect support when things go belly-up.
Like in your place, here NHA housing is build in flood-prone area’s. Waste of resources and a disaster waiting to happen. Clearly incompetent (or is it uncaring?) organisations are to blame. And if big organisations don’t care, maybe we should scale down and go to the individuals and try to convince a few people at the bottom of society to keep their safety in mind.
And try to educate possible future DENR secretaries or presidents about the imminent disasters and possible mitigation.
People here use the past as their horizon, not the future, I think. So there is little comprehension that what is coming is different. My first home in the Philippines was right on the beach. My current home is several hundred feet up and away from the ocean and steep banks or rivers. The roof stayed on during Yolanda so it seems capable of handling the wind. However, my wife neglected to tell me when we purchased the property that the whole island is an active volcano. And I have no idea what plate we are riding on to find our way under California, but we get quakes now and then (more than California does). And the current murder statistics include only about one white guy per year, so there ya go. I won’t even talk about the roads. haha
In the UK, houses have to undergo Efficiency Performance Certification ( EPC) before they could be let or bought. It is one of the ways they go about monitoring energy efficiency that would be in conjunction to the European standard. This only goes to show how seriously they take the issue on global warming.
That is good to know, encouraging. I am so disappointed in the US.
The recent hurricane wiped out most of the homes in Mexico Beach and Panama City Beach, Florida. Florida is now rewriting a 2010 Florida Building Code(FBC) legislation which states that new constructions should withstand up to 185 mph winds. That is being amended to up to 250 mph winds.
Most states give rebates to homeowners who opt for solar or wind power instead of tying to the electric grid. There are a lot of solar and wind farms in the Midwest and South.
Zero energy and earthship homes are gaining popularity nationally. Gone are the days of MCmansions. A lot of Americans are opting for tiny homes and smaller homes.
There are also a lot of grassroots movements pioneering land stewardship, reforestation, organic and sustainable farming/ animal husbandry, DIY skills and self-sufficiency.
I hope that grows. I know California is trying to get ahead of the curve, having experienced fires and droughts as a wake-up call. More power to all of you who put actions to words.
The EPC is nice, the Paris protocols are nice, but the message was that all this is not nearly enough to avoid disaster. On one side we win a bit, but overall, we loose big time. In Holland, environmental organisations have taken the government to court as they think it is all going too slow and they won. The verdict was that duty of care means that the government is responsible for implementing the rules needed to avoid disaster. An interesting development because we need to go MUCH further than Kyoto or Paris. But that is a progressive country. The biggest majority does not seem to care and the train is travelling at an increasing speed towards a dead-end.
Apart from corporate denialists, there’s also the sick fatalism of the religious right. These people are basically saying bring it on. Bring on the disasters, bring on the end of the world scenario, bring on the book of revelation catastrophe – damn the torpedoes, we’re heading right towards the kingdom of God.
These are loud religiously convicted folks who also collect a lump of snow during the winter and say, what global warming?
That marriage or alliance between the religious right and the corporate lobby is what has been dragging any effective policy response on climate change.
I read that PH signed a oil drilling contract with Israel. Though it is still fossil fuel, Israel has state of the art technology that makes oil extraction less of an environmental hazard if compared to China.
Also, Gatchalian is supposed to be running on an environmental platform. Will not be surprised if he start spouting some of the wisdom and knowledge gleaned from this discussion.
My plead to Filipinos is to not make the issue of global warming as the sole responsibility of the governing body. This is a very important personal matter that the citizenry has to take to heart. The earth stewardship is everybody’s business. There is a lot that each individual could do to stave off the incoming disaster(s). Planting more trees to absorb CO2, living a mindful and sustainable lifestyle, practicing the 3 Rs (reduce, reuse, recycle), composting for soil renewal and enhancement, buying sustainable products, arming oneself with knowledge towards self-sufficiency and much more…
Our responsibility to Mother Earth and the future generations is to leave the planet a little better than when we found it. If almost everyone does their share, the cumulative effort will at least make a dent.
I agree 100% with the plea for everyone to pitch-in on the problem of climate change.
http://cnnphilippines.com/news/2018/10/18/PH-Israel-oil-exploration-deal.html
I was surprised by the signing, but it is good, it seems to me. I think China joint development is hung up on the same sticking point, the Philippines can’t proceed unless it is under Philippine law. And it didn’t help when China warned Philippine aircraft away from artificial islands in a threatening way.
Every drop of oil extracted by the Israelis will be consumed and burned producing CO2 that will add to the already pervasive green house effect. Does it really matter if it was extracted using state of the art technology?
Is it alright to continue to consume chocolate candy bars causing tooth decay if those bars were produced in a state of the art Mars factory floors?
Exactly. It does not matter where the oil comes from, if it’s burned, it produces CO2. The bigger the car, the more CO2. And owning a car is the aim of the middle class because public transport often is a nightmare. And the upper class wants many big cars in their driveway. So there are more cars on the road every day. And bigger cars. So, more CO2. Change to electric cars? Marginal difference as making the batteries and electronics is also very polluting. So, an efficient public transport system would be the answer. Yeah…… So why is build build build investing in roads? A lost case, because a public transport system costs decades to make and here we cannot even keep the available ones operating properly, although the new bus systems are rather good whereas the old ones are horribly polluting.
Another solution would be to promote the good old bicycles.. Can you imagine that here? Apart from those few health guys on a sunday, risking their lives, I cannot see the average guy/girl here on a bike.
I agree with your first statement. Not so much with the second. Yes, it matters a lot that state of the art technology and world class expertise in the industry is utilized for oil extraction because it will lessen the environmental impact.
Do you drive a car, Micha? What for? Can you live without it? Have you done something to lessen your carbon footprint without fossil fuel? Teach us how. Do not be just contrary, prescribe some solution(s) to the problem at hand.
Your last question is not applicable to me because I do not have a sweet tooth. IMHO, that depends on the individual. I am not here to condescend people’s choices. I am here to impart an alternative solution such as the substitution of fresh fruits to satisfy a craving for something sweet.
Very timely article. The challenge of climate change will make or break the Philippines, I am sure.
The usual response of Filipinos to crisis has been – scamper in all directions, sacrifice the innocent. With a real crisis this will not work anymore, at some point people will see what is happening.
Ondoy 2009 was a warning. The already common flooding in Malabon and Navotas which have sunk due to groundwater subsidence also is. Metro Manila is drawing off too much water already for it’s own good and the sea levels are rising. But Filipino short memory and short attention span..
In Northern Germany they are fortifying the dykes, people remember the water levels of “yore” – something like a few decades is “a long time” only for Filipinos, but not for typical Europeans.
Decongest Metro Manila and have plans ready to move to higher ground as the low ground is lost.
Population control via RH is essential. The topography of the country is such that even the present population hardly will have space to survive, much less feed itself as low-lying parts will go under. Many Pacific nations are already negotiating with Australia for resettlement, knowing it is over.
The barangay mind is still there, but the balanghais, the boats, are not ready to leave just in case like in days of yore. Resilience is great, but Filipinos are not yet ready to mutate into the denizens living on the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, swimming in the sea. There is a sci-fi novel on that.
http://filipinogerman.blogsport.eu/resiliency-and-readiness/ is about how it is better to be prepared than to rely only on resilience. Other countries were not as blessed with natural abundance and low population as the Philippines of 1521, so they had to develop ways to manage their resources.
As I reread Popoy’s ASVEN along with others, I am struck by the intelligence, good humor, and good will that has come to inhabit this blog for several years now. And as I look around at the Philippines and the world, and anticipate the coming catastrophe, I am both poignantly sad and immensely proud of the civility and genius that has collected here, from around the world. Thank you all so very, very much for showing the promise of what the Philippines and world could be, and perhaps is, in some parallel universe way off over there in some favorable twist of time.
Thank you Joe and the rest of TSOH!
Because Popoy’s “dreamlets”/gems are ubiquitous in the blogs, Neph, can you help me locate Popoy’s use of the words ‘hydrology’ vs ‘hydraulics,’ I so belong to the peanut gallery even as the arias are being sung in TSH. 🙂 Thanks.
“No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river and he’s not the same man.” — Heraclitus
(but then again the Jews seem to have found a solution to this Heraclitan dilemma: build a boat 🙂 )
Some Filipino generals have this solution:
they let their sarhento carry them over the river.
I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the video! Only in da pilipins. FM being doted on with his slippers in the golf course. I wonder if the Sun King of France did it too.
“Oh by the way, water up in the clouds and seas becoming typhoons is meteorology, water on Chico, Magat, Pantabangan, Angat Dams, flowing in rrigation canals is hydrology; water inside tanks and water pipes is hydraulics. For water in the brain I’ll ask a Neurologist.”
Thank you Karl for precious search-time. Yes that is the passage.
Popoy’s reference to our hydrology pointed me to the topic of the Water footprint of the PH: what it is and its importance to the country’s well-being, one more item to be added to our national inventory, a resource that should be, IMO, of much concern to the country.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_footprint
“The concept of a water footprint was coined in 2002, by Arjen Hoekstra, Professor in water management at the University of Twente, Netherlands, and co-founder and scientific director of the Water Footprint Network, whilst working at the UNESCO-IHE Institute for Water Education, as a metric to measure the amount of water consumed and polluted to produce goods and services along their full supply chain. Water footprint is one of a family of ecological footprint indicators, which also includes carbon footprint and land footprint.”
We don’t have too look far, justwithin this thread, it is full of treasures, you don’t have to search for it because you know it is an LT the moment you see the numbers.
5.4. Last night, I was reading this essay by Brandon Young, who argues that water, hydrology, is “a much more powerful driver of global heat exchanges than carbon dioxide.” He proposes the solutions of land use, “regenerative agriculture,” and the re-greening of the planet. The essay is a long read but there’s a summary at the end. Note that his arguments are not acceppets by current Science.
Another Loresian thawt.
There surely will be the time when I am no more
But what I wrote some fools will revisit
As dreamers often do
breeding a mix, an ejaculation from my mind
an amalgam construct of fundamental conduct
Of four countries Philippines, USA, UK AND CANADA
Of a proposed
Federal-Parliamentary Republican Constitution
I hope shall be revisited here in TSoH
not because it is free
but for reason of time’s need
for serendipity.
Popoy,
I almost forgot it was done by you because of Juliet’ s rendition of “Maging Sino Ka Man”
‘Tis but thy name that is my enemy;–
Thou art thyself, though not a Montague.
What’s Montague? It is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? that which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet;
So Romeo would, were he not Romeo call’d,
Retain that dear perfection which he owes
Without that title:–Romeo, doff thy name;
And for that name, which is no part of thee,
Take all myself.
——-
Whether it was written by Neo,tweeto,popoy and last but not the least Andy…
You must remember this, a kiss is still a kiss……
https://joeam.com/2016/05/29/building-a-philippine-parliament-and-federalism/
When a country becomes the secret love
of patriot dreamers, the singer and the
song seem to live forever like Doris Day.
Stars and daffodils make up Spring and Summer days for me. Doris Day, what more can I say … 🙂
in ’67-’68 in three shires: Beds, Cambridge and Derby I learned the Brits’ kind of entertainment like this. Please delete if this gets in the way of serious discourse.
Did you not go to the Shire? The Ring of Power must be found and destroyed.
Did not know about that but saw Robin’s old dying oak tree in Sherwood forest of Nottinghamshire.
here’s the tree can’t find my file of my photo standing by this tree.
https://www.google.com/maps/uv?hl=en&pb=!1s0x4879bb521a31d177%3A0xb78644adda10aa35!2m22!2m2!1i80!2i80!3m1!2i20!16m16!1b1!2m2!1m1!1e1!2m2!1m1!1e3!2m2!1m1!1e5!2m2!1m1!1e4!2m2!1m1!1e6!3m1!7e115!4shttps%3A%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipP6UDiyUBRF3Sa4bcQ3MI4-fS7gb_lA1mgWA-8r%3Dw325-h218-n-k-no!5srobin%20hood%20tree%20in%20sherwood%20forest%20-%20Google%20Search&imagekey=!1e10!2sAF1QipMS1a2Po5nkpKIiCz6lwN71GaV7vJvJBbU4bFeI
*******
1. Most everything has been said.
2. Cry, the beloved planet.
3. Some years ago, I was talking with my son who is more brawn-ish than brain-ish. And I said, “I am glad you are not academic minded. I have had visions that you are leading a pack of men in the dread center of Oz at a time when civilization has collapsed and mankind has regressed to his primitive self.”
4. My inkling was that of Mad Max.
5. If AGW is true – and the scientific evidence seems irrefutable – then mankind may have brought on his own demise.
5.1. Our behavior is akin, not to hara-kiri, but to lingchi, the death with a thousand cuts. It is a lingering process. It is somewhat like voting for Duterte and Trump.
5.2. What is surprising is that there continue to be deniers… and they occupy the highest positions in the land. In America. In Oz. Even among scientists.
5.3. It may be that the explanation, the model of carbon emissions, is too simplistic.
5.4. Last night, I was reading this essay by Brandon Young, who argues that water, hydrology, is “a much more powerful driver of global heat exchanges than carbon dioxide.” He proposes the solutions of land use, “regenerative agriculture,” and the re-greening of the planet. The essay is a long read but there’s a summary at the end. Note that his arguments are not accepted by current science.
https://www.fixingthesystem.net.au/2018/07/06/boosting-natures-cooling-system/
6. Eckhart Tolle says (in paraphrase), “There are no mistakes. We eventually discover that mistakes are there for a higher purpose… and so they are not mistakes after all.”
6.1. Like Duterte (and Trump) winning because we had to discover our humanity.
6.2. Is it too late for humankind? Will we go the way of the dinosaurs? Except that instead of a climatic change caused by a colossal comet, we will have effectively trapped ourselves in a crematorium built by our own hands.
6.3. My assessment of mankind is not too flattering: as ostensibly the crowning glory of divine creation (or Evolution), we are intrepid and immoral bunglers.
6.4. Any yet… if we witness our dramatic narratives, read our poetry, listen to our music… we are – or can be — magnificent creatures.
6.5. Perhaps, in the light of the Tolle quote, Evolution has decided that the noble human experiment must draw to a close. Personally, it was a good ride.
6.6. “Wild men who caught and sang the sun in flight,
And learn, too late, they grieved it on its way,
Do not go gentle…”
*****
Thanks for the notes from Eckhart Tolle. His book “The Power of Now” was the most influential work I’ve ever read, that actually changed my whole conceptual framework on things and enjoyment of living. And I go from your 6.1 through 6.6 nodding in complete agreement.
And, in terms of enlightenment, here is another shocker, that tropical forests are now net carbon emitters, not absorbers:
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/10/tropical-forests-used-to-absorb-carbon-not-any-more
Get out and plant trees . . . that’s a contribution within the reach of anyone.
*******
Ah, I thought that new finding contradicted Brandon Young’s thesis of re-greening. But, no, it speaks of “degraded forests.”
*****
Me too, I thought forest no longer absorb CO2 so what’s the use of replanting.
Then I read it, and it meant that tropical forests are too deforested.
I googled a name and here’s the link I found but the word is PANTABANGAN not Palantangan.
https://books.google.ca/books/about/Philippines.html?id=a_NxnQAACAAJ&redir_esc=y
I learned in the project office in Carranglan, N.E. that to effectively burn young afforested trees and get away with it, is SIMPLY to light a Katol and leave it to the summer winds to finish it. Part of my farm practice in 1958 was to do small kaingin in the Tanay part of the Sierra Madre.
In the case of the Philippines, every month,I read volunteerism which I wrongly criticised that it is only part time to make a dent.
I retract that statement, rather than crticize the tree planters, ocean shore and Estero cleaners as just a temporary thing to make a difference,I guess that is a naysayers attitude, it will make a difference and it is never to late.
If you see Erap cleaning the Manila bay then one videoed throwing garbage near them , if you think that it is PR, maybe you are right,but is Manila bay garbage free that people have to be hired to throw garbage.
Every help, even those PR stuff can help in a way.
STATISTICS TO PUT CLIMATE CHANGE IN INTERNATIONAL CONTEXT
The tables below put our blog topic in international context. [Note that the column on carbon dioxide emission is 2016 data whereas the population column is 2017 data. I will leave others to do the googling for compatible years if they wish to do so.]
1. China and the US are the top two carbon dioxide emitters, with India not far behind.
2. If one deducts the top emissions from the world total of 35,753 million metric tons of CO2, emitted by the top emitters with a population of 4,566 million, one obtains 6,813 MT emitted by the rest of the world with a population of 2,964 million.
3. The Philippines is in the latter category, emitting 112 MT, with a per capita emission of 1.09
Clearly, we can do our best as a world citizen to solve the Climate Change problem, but if the top emitters do not do the same, it will come to practically nothing.
In keeping with the saying that a picture speaks a thousand words, here is the picture.
NHerrera
Attributing accountability and responsibility on per capita basis has it’s drawbacks.
E.g. let’s say Japan is the only car tyres in the world. So it is responsible for all the CO2 emissions for the tyre industry. But Philippines buy those tyres so the Japanese emission was on the behalf of the consi\umers.
I agree. Another note is the “fact” that China was and still is the manufacturer of the world — which means I suppose that it is a net trade surplus provider and thus causes part of its huge carbon emission.
Just to add a bit.
Outsourcing and offshoring distributes the responsibility when it comes to emissions.
But we can’t just always blame globalization.
Many have left for China to move to Thailand Vietnam, but another drop in a bucket case.
But I am still hopeful, this trade war will give us another lesson.
On another related note.
China has rejected others’ trash, so others export their waste to Africa or even the Philippines instead of an honest to goodness onshore circular economy, because they already off shored their manufacturing and their recycling programs are still not enough.
If I may spread my inadequacies or ignorance. Being DEDUCTIVE (probably metaphysics lover, math innocent) is to see the blue sky not the clouds in daytime, to see a night’s dark endless void and missed the million stars; to see mountains instead of hills, smell whole forests instead of seeing the trees and thereby talk about the sun and the moon instead of torches and candles, and speak less about mounds, earth fills, trees, and soil cover ie. TO BE MACRO before one can with confidence specify from what is entire.
Being INDUCTIVE is to breathe the specific before one can amplify and magnify TO BE MICRO ab initio ready to theorize and GENERALIZE.
Example of DEDUCTION: To ask a pundit or professor; In the case of global warming or climate degradation Sir. It might NOT be size of population or whatever Sir. It is POVERTY and RUNAWAY TECHNOLOGY SIR. We need to look correctly at the statistics Sir. Just guessing Sir.
———–
To make the above lengthy and wannabe poetry in appearance:
If I may spread
my inadequacies or ignorance.
Being DEDUCTIVE
(probably metaphysics lover,
math innocent) is to see the blue sky
not the clouds in daytime,
to see a night’s dark endless void
and missed the 100 million stars;
to see mountains instead of hills,
smell whole forests instead of
seeing the trees and thereby talk
about the sun and the moon
instead of torches and candles,
and speak less about mounds, earth fills,
trees, and soil cover that is simply
TO BE MACRO before one can
with confidence specify
from what is entire.
Being INDUCTIVE is to breathe
the specific before
one can amplify and magnify
TO BE MICRO ab initio ready
to theorize and GENERALIZE.
——————
Example of DEDUCTION: To ask
a pundit or professor;
In the case of global warming
or climate degradation Sir.
It might NOT be size of population
or whatever Sir. It is POVERTY
and RUNAWAY TECHNOLOGY SIR.
We need to look correctly
at the statistics Sir.
Just guessing Sir.
More? When deductive (physicist) Einstein was theorizing Relativity, he was saying ENERGY (whatever that is) is equal to MASS multiplied by SPEED (derived from speed of light?) their product squared. E = mc2 can be put to a test as I have read like:
Take Senator Enrile or ex-Pres Gloria Arroyo or incumbent Pres Duterte to measure their true political ENERGY, let them enjoy a treadmill set with the speed of just 5 miles per hour and give them just ten minutes. Read the treadmill meter how far they have traveled. Read from their sphygmo their systolic, diastolic and heart rate. Just look at them if they are still standing. Do they really have the energy to serve the public? Enough to ask a paramedic instead of a medic.
The COMELEC should require all candidates to take that treadmill 5 MPH speed and 10 minutes duration TEST.
Before every election, COMELEC senior personnel however, must be required to have a brain CT Scan or MRI. That is if AI (artificial intelligence) can already connect those tests to fluctuating honesty and integrity of public officials as more objective lie detector tests.
Sorry if I am writing like a snake oil medicine man (I might have already posted the same idea here before).
Karl could you, like Sherlock Holmes please tell us the distance traveled in kilometers walking like a US Marine at 5 MPH in just ten minutes, so our candidates can also qualify to be Philippine Marines.
Sorry popoy, 1.3401 km.
Karl, in 1961 at age 23, I walked downhill a village road (with kilometer posts) in Odiongan, Romblon, I timed my walk; it took me 11 minutes per kilometer and I was almost running. If I do that now, I will need knees replacement.
I understand prof.
That is very brisk walking in our youth, popoy. Converted to kilometers per hour, that is 5.45 km per hr. We are at the same age, deducing from your data, and my current pace is a little over 4 km per hr. I believe you can do that too and will not need knees replacement.
My doctor tells me to maintain my slim constitution and weight of 53-54 kg at my height of 163 cm. He said small people like me with that weight has an advantage compared to tall people with more weight than healthy for them. Those guys are carrying a lot of weight around, like always carrying a travel baggage with them. [Sorry for this aside, Joe; but we are talking here of Global Warming aren’t we?]
NH, there were still no jeepneys and only 3 or 4 buses that serve Tablas island at the time and I have to get back home and the office. I forgot to inform I had quadricep tendon repair on my left knee needing 28 stapler wires (instead of stitches) a few years back. I remember with a chuckle now when I thought I got even with the hospital with my scandalous loud yelling of pain when the nurse was plucking one by one the staples. In some longitudinal incisions why do they have to make stitches obsolete?
NHerrera, what about the right hand column? Does it not indicate that Saudi, Canada and Australia are the countries making the least effort to control harmful emissions? Closely followed bu the USA. China, bless them, appear to be making an effort.
That is a good observation.
Canada: 676, 37, 18.41
Saudi Arabia: 517, 33, 15.70
Australia: 415, 25, 16.87
[The corresponding numbers from the table are: million tons CO2 emissions, population in millions, and per capita emission.]
Frankly, I do not know exactly what explains this. Perhaps edgar can help in the case of Australia.
I do note — may not be relevant — that these three countries have large land areas relative to their populations which are in orders of magnitude similar. But having said that, I know large parts of those countries are not settled because of the harsh conditions in those parts. The outback of Australia is not a place to settle. Now, a conjecture: is it possible that coal plants in Australia are located near those areas, and being sparsely populated, the effect of climate change is not felt. in the mostly settled areas — which in the case of Australia are: Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide?
In Canada too the settled areas are mostly close to the US border with the far north mostly unsettled but where power plants and manufacturing plants may be located (my conjecture). Popoy may be able to help us here.
*******
AGW is a political football in Australia.
Basically, the Liberal Party (Conservative) are skeptics and the Labor Party are believers.
The Liberal Party has been in power since 2013.
o Julia Gillard, the last Labor Prime Minister, put in place a carbon reduction measure. (It was an ETS, an emissions trading scheme.)
o Tony Abbott, a Liberal, immediately repealed the measure when he won office in 2013.
o Malcolm Turnbull, who did a Brutus on Abbott in 2015, took over on the promise that he would retain Abbott’s “policy” on climate change.
o Malcolm, a personable but weak prime minister, was recently the victim of a Brutus attack.
There is no active measure on AGW right now.
o The Liberal Party is committed to an emissions reduction target of 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2030. I doubt that they have the political will.
o The Labor Party is seeking to cut emissions by 45 percent by 2030. But first, they have to win office. Elections will probably be next year.
*****
Thanks for that note. This brings to my mind a circa 2000 book — “Down Under” — written by Bill Bryson, an American writer who specialized in books about his travels done with lots of humor.
I cannot recall his exact words, but writes about being puzzled about Australian politics and Australians love for debate on political and non-political issues. But he is all praises about Australia and its people.
Thanks NH, I think I wrote my views already up above these comments. Any way a blast from distant past, I encountered the same challenging query. Asked by my soil and water engng Director of Studies of how can I study by experimentation more deeply soil erosion for my PG dissertation. I said I like, given the climate in my country, to know the varying thickness of water, the hot ness of water as they carry soil particles to lower areas. The Prof said, I may know about temperature but VISCOSITY is something, It’s impractical, and not doable. You may want he said, to study a raindrop, their behaviour. Do you think you can photograph raindrops with your ordinary still camera? We will talk more about it next time.
On the next consultation, I showed him one enlarged photograph. His eyes and body language were in disbelief. He said he will ask the electronics engineer in the Faculty to help me design my dissertation. Now, in this modern AI days who in the whole wide world can photograph single raindrops using an antiquated 1967 still camera? Well, admittedly that’s crude and primitive with the state of the art IPADS and Cellphones and cameras.
But recall the snake’s apple opening the libido este the eyes and minds of Adam and Eve to the vastness of knowledge, of how much much later an apple dropping dead center to the head of snoozer Galileo 32 feet per second per second? as the speed of the pull of gravity and how Steve Jobs et al concocted a contraption (Macs and whatever) to impact cybernetics, how very very recently an Apple wrist watch had caused the recording elsewhere the ALLEGED murder and dismemberment of a journalist?
God! sorry for digressing too much. But be warned, I might when I find the files and the technique, I might post my fossil raindrop photographs.
INDEED! By deeds and in thoughts how can modern man reverse or redirect way ward Climate Change.
Thanks for your note, popoy. Above, Joe wrote about AI and Robotics being of help in the fight against Global Warming.
But even if that help is not substantial, this I can say: the advances in science and technology helped us take photos and videos of scenes our predecessors struggled with the photography and filming — worrying about camera and film speed rating, lens maximum opening, subject motions and light. Now one can take videos at very low light and with subjects moving at speed. Thus, we can at least photo and video the death spiral associated with the global warming; seal this in a safe vault for future intelligent forms in the hope they will do better.
Yeah, this young geeks and nerds are taking their selfies using drones. It could be nicer if instead of star wars, there will be war of the drones, instead also of soldiers.
From Wiki
These fossil fuel power stations burn coal to power steam turbines that generate some or all of the electricity they produce. Australia’s fleet of coal fired power stations are aging and due for replacement. In early 2017, 75% of coal fired power station in the country were operating beyond their original design life.[1] The Turnbull government is developing an investment framework for energy in Australia, leading to a debate on renewable energy.[2]
The declining cost of renewable energy sources such as solar power, wind power and battery storage means it is unlikely a new coal fired power station will ever be built in Australia.[3] The Liddell Power Station is expected to be decommissioned and replaced by battery storage in 2022.
For the Philippines.
To start making a difference, Ramon Ang will convert coal power plants to biomass.
https://www.philstar.com/business/2018/10/04/1856961/smc-converting-coal-power-plants-biomass
That is impressive, and just changed the direction I will take on a blog now being drafted.
Weather genetic engineered tree farms will degrade biodiversity is still debatable.
At least it will stop the deforestation, but not the agricultural land conversion.
I still say forest rangers must have police assistance because if not they are just like tanods bringing a button to a gun fight.
But we know of the Enrile types, but he is about to ride the sunset so after a decade, if symptoms persists, it is no longer his fault.
About Ben adem in reverse- May his tribe not increase.
But abou Ben adem for those who love his fellow men and his planet.
Speaking of loving fellow men.
This paraphrased biblical passage is different, it sounds like a pro-marijuana cum anti or pro same sex marriage lobby.
For those men who love men shall be stoned.
As (since) Erap has wisely sloganned: Whether whether lang yan. Whether to be a better crook or whether to be the worst of all crooks. Whether wether lang yan Eh.
This is the estimated commitment from car makers.
http://fortune.com/2018/05/31/electric-vehicles-international-energy-agency/
125 million e- vehicles by 2030.
Now all we need is to reduce coal power plants to zero, because diesel is slowly being converted to natural gas.
Hey it still has carbon.
Chemistry 101
All organic beings are basically built from CHON, we learn that after learning about Earth,wind and fire.or FAHE
It will always be a mix.
So factories can have co2 suckers
For a larger scale :atmospheric green house gas suckers has been conceptualized.
Methane sucking.
Too late?
Don’t say that, you say son or hon go to school better be late than absent or Dad better file half day instead of a sick or vacation leave…..or something to that effect.
or wait for the budget version of the Mars colonization project.
Make that fire, air, water,earth, aether or FAWEA?
For the nth time.
Engineered wood can made from saw dust, fallen branches, fallen leaves, shredded paper,etc plus adhesives
Wood plastic composites can be from a mixture of saw dust and shredded plastics plus adhesives.
Recycled plastic from shredded plastics
they all can be turnebto chairs,furnitures, benches, floorings,etc.
plastic and saw dust can be added to cement,
Refused derive fuel can be a coal substitute for cement factories.
Plasma syngas gives you CO2 and H2O
The ideas are limitless.
Start by emptying the landfills then then continue with Zero Waste Zero carbon to have a circular economy.
Caveat :take the zero as the goal and not as an impossible dream.
Or else you just hold your breathe to reduce CO2.
And put corks in cows behind.. 🙂
https://www.forbes.com/sites/samlemonick/2017/09/29/scientists-underestimated-how-bad-cow-farts-are/
What about their belching? 😉
Cows? That’s what they call second class upperclassmen in the PMA in the late fifties.
Being a little bastos (or funny), awhile, I posted here the question (and no one cared to answer): what is in front of a woman and at the back of a cow? Heard that from laughing naughty classmates in the early fifties.
Karl knows the answer to this. How do you produce methane gas from human fecal matter,?
And this is for chemists to answer: Why is it totally wrong to say or believe: Dust thou art to dust thou shalt return?
How can a dead tree lying, decaying on the forest floor be like a a decomposing human cadaver? No, no NO, I didn’t work as embalmer before, I wasn’t a make up artist, either.
As far as I know, they still call second class cadets and cadettes cows.
Now for the rest, all biodegrable beings emit green house gases before, during and after decomposition.
Those that are not in the atmosphere become fossil fuels eventually.
I Like your answer Karl. Some young people would not like other people to know that W is what is front of a woman and at the back of a cow. It is not what pussy thinking old men have in mind.
I had just 3 units of basic swine husbandry, but Info I heard decades later is that if you have a piggery with ten or more heads, enclosed their droppings in a septic tank and install a proper outlet and lo and behold, cover your nose no more and you will have cooking gas from pig shit.
And Oh, of course, that ashes to ashes, dust to dust heaven legend, worms do it to man and animals; insects do it to dead trees and other vegetation, eventually returning everything (except the soul?) to the atmosphere as CO2, N2, H, etc.
In judging farm animals which ones has to buy in Rodeo or Ranch festivals, don’t ask me what criteria one should use in judging the appearance of a woman; in judging beauty queens? so sorry ang layong digression na naman Eh.
Karl If may use aggie jargon, If in the PMA second class persons are still considered bovines and they are co-ed or bi-sex interns, the cadets can be called bulls with short or long horns, while the cadettes can be called cows with pointed or drooping mammary glands. God,Darn, to be in second or third year in the PMA is to be cattle: a yearling, a cow or a bull.
I know my digression is taxing the patience of Joe Am. I prefer deletion than to put me in hibernation este moderation. To delete figuratively and not moderate literally might be best for some Pinoy politicians
OT
Since it is a Sunday, with a chance for those of us who can relax (with my sincere apologies to those who can’t), here is news datelined October 21, 2018, Davao. Take it how you will:
“To those of you intending to enter government now, my criteria is you must be honest and you must be competent. That’s it. If you can handle the job and if you are a decent person…” Duterte said during the inauguration of the new Gaisano Grand Citygate Mall in Buhangin district here the other night.
*******
For a moment, my Sunday peace and quiet was disturbed — shattered, really — by the quote.
But now I am laughing at the absurdity of it all.
The absurdity is heightened by the fact that, in all probability, Duterte truly believes what he is saying.
(Laughter is a defense mechanism for coping.)
*****
I read a comment somewhere that he only grasps what is in his mind at the moment, and does believe it, which is why his talks ramble incoherently from one unrelated topic to another, only to be contradicted later or explained away as a joke. I don’t know myself, but that does explain the absurdity of that quote.
With apologies to being, great or humble victims, men or women, Me? Me too, That’s no No NO, I don’t want to be like that in speaking out or in writing about others. We all have feet of clay and three fingers most times are pointing back at us in everything we say or write.
Examples? I don’t like greedy people. Bad people should be killed, You do not do your job. You are incompetent, lazy and stupid. You can not think straight. I don’t like miseducated public servants. Blah, blah, BLAH.
In the streets of Brooklyn, a hoodlum-looking guy looks at you and blurt out: Stop, stop. STOP it man. You are describing yourself Man. You sure? You want to kill yourself Man? Get and look at yourself in the mirror Man. Who are you, Mannnn?
I’m not quite grasping your point, popoy.
Well in the broad sheets like Philippine Star sometimes I read first the comments of paid for and not paid commentators I read the text of the news. In the news a person was quoted: I will kill the importers (not the exporters, take note). Believe me I will the importers. And a few comments goes: Go ahead kill your son. If you want people to be happy go ahead kill your son.
It’s not mine, go ahead look and find the news and the comments I cited. I sometimes (oftentimes?) confuse readers because my neurons are shifting from one place to another, from one time to another, INSTANTLY like poetry. That’s what old folks say of spirits or ghosts: to have the ability to levitate, to materialize; just think about it and you are there notwithstanding spatial or temporal traffic.
Hahahaha, thanks for the clarification. I thought maybe it was the TSOH editor who was on your hit list. ahahaha
At least in Police Academy (from 3:00 onwards) the reason for being distracted is clear. With Duterte one does not know if it is Fentanyl or Mocha, I mean the coffee of course.
https://www.socialzon.me/videos/watch/gOLDjLCCGiM
Just stating the obvious here.
The adage of you must practice what you preach does not apply to Duterte, even if he felt he was sincere while saying it.
Perfect example of bring consistently inconsistent.
I like logical ends.
Like I’ve been hammering here consistently, test it.
Engage any gov’t entities now, under the DU30 administration, ie. your local precinct, electric suppliers, city gov’t, etc. etc. complain or simply engage. if under the DU30 administration the gov’t is “honest and competent” now, ie. will not ask for under the table or over the table or the whole table fees (read bribe); and actually responds to whatever complaints or requests, then you’ve had tested that quote above.
There is politics and there’s the stuff of gov’t. DU30 will politick , but if the civil servants are now have become “honest and competent” and “decent” under DU30 (by force or fear), IMHO this is the best way to translate that quote.
So test it, not DU30 himself;
but ask has the civil servants corps of the Philippines become themselves honest, competent and decent??? there’s the ideal 10, 0 being Rwanda, where now under DU30 ‘s gov’t they now fall under? This is DU30’s own Daang Matuwid , he’s doing it his way (which sure yeah we can all moralize and critique), but has the Philippine gov’t fallen in line??? that’s the question everyone should be asking.
test the theory.
As for karl’s & Joe’s tree planting , I suggest lots of bamboo ; just as the Philippines was the rice center of the whole world in the 50s and 60s, now it can be the bamboo center; it’s grass it practically grows overnite!!!
Read:
OT: In this generation, called it “cringe-worthy”; why now we have some celebrities hewing to the party line in apparent imitation of the entertainers of yore who pleased Imelda Marcos during her apex. The Lopez-owned network has to appease the beast in some way in order to keep its broadcasting license or else.
Yes, I wish there were a way to attack advertisers the way it is sometimes done in the US when they back television shows that demean people. The same sense of moral correctness just does not exist here, it seems. But yeah, ABS-CBN must kiss up I suppose. Rather seems like blackmail to me, but that is the way things work in the ‘power and favor’ arena, where those who don’t kiss are declared the enemy.
I suppose if the folks at PCIJ are reading this, they should start listing down major paying advertisers of the network, asides from a who’s-who list of celebrity influencers.
That would be a good project.
BTW, Aga Mulach joins the list of “collaborators” after lashing at Trillanes for being “counterproductive”, so effectively destroying the childhoods of many fans.
We still batteries to store renewable energy.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/03/new-fuel-cell-could-help-fix-renewable-energy-storage-problem
Another “maybe”. Hopefully it will work, but development of new technology takes decades. And we ain’t got no time left for serious action.
Instead of action, things like land reclamation is discussed. Instead of massive planting of mangroves, we charcoal our trees and since the start of this item in October, I have not seen any politician here who is concerned.
Since the start of this item, I have planted 1500 mangrove trees and if you look now at the shoreline, this seems a tiny weeny little bit and then you realize HOW BIG the work for the whole of the Philippines would be. And that is just one item with many more to follow. And nobody cares.
My Lithium batteries should last 20 years, but need renewal in 2040. Ì hope the new batteries will be available by then, otherwise I will have to drink warm white wine while watching the floods taking procession of the coast.
Sorry for the sarcasm, but things are getting progressively worse.
It is ok Pablo, all hopes are semi-false hopes until full blast implementation.
It feels like partying on the Titanic, sending the lifeboats away because we don’t want to spoil the party.
Feeling sad that, like on the Titanic, we know that we will get a substantial but completely avoidable carnage.
But the band keeps playing.
Global warming is the reason why polar bears have to look for food in populated areas, the freezing of the waters got very delayed that they can’t find fish and seal. Will this be the story of the Arctic.
Russian government Aldo destroyed their habitat because of military bases buildup.
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2019/02/11/polar-bear-invasion-attack-belushya-guba-novaya-zemlya-archipelago-russia/2836171002/
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/energy/2011/08/110811-turning-carbon-emissions-into-fuel/
Capture the CO2 from coal fired power plants, bury them to the ground or find a way to combine carbon and hydrogen from CO2 and H2O to form hydrocarbons like gasoline.
There already lots of technologies like plasma gasification to create syngas, maybe it can be incorporated to that.