With Great Blog Comes Great Responsibility

This December, world leaders are meeting in Copenhagen, Denmark to draft a new global climate treaty - one that has the potential to turn the tide on global warming and get our planet back on a brighter path.

The problem:
Most world leaders, their negotiators and businessmen aren't getting it. They’re not planning to do enough to avert the climate crisis.

My little contribution

Aside from participating in the Blog Action Day, I am also supporting the International Day of Climate Action organized by 350.org and the Copenhagen Seal the Deal Campaign.   

I know as a blogger, I can help in raising awareness about this important issue. I am not able to attend direct action activities of Greenpeace due to hectic schedule (sorry guys!), so I’m just writing related posts to draw new people into this global grassroots movement and somehow help change the course of climate history.   

A personal experience

  

This is also my personal response to what happened to our house due to typhoon “Ondoy.” Climate change affects us all. 

I strongly believe that that disaster is climate related. 

More frequent floods, storms, landslides and earthquake affect thousands of Filipino’s lives. They are blaming the dams, the clogged waterways, corruption and lack of political will. Yes, they maybe right and even if we are lucky to solve this problems we are still facing Climate Change, the greatest threat which can instantly undo what we achieved.

Blogger’s Power

I believe awareness is power! I encourage all bloggers, especially those with great and famous blogs, that it is of high importance that we inform the world, Seal the Deal in Copenhagen this year. 

Let’s show them our power to wire a truly global awareness campaign – because Mother Earth is our responsibility.

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Post Addendum : as of 23 October 2009

Quick Facts: UN Climate Change Conference-Copenhagen

As per request of my reader Rishi and DMJapan, I am adding these quick facts to this post for an overview of what the Copenhagen Deal is. Thanks also to PeenkFrik for the first comment.

The Convention and the Protocol

Over a decade ago, most countries joined an international treaty -- the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) -- to begin to consider what can be done to reduce global warming and to cope with whatever temperature increases are inevitable. More recently, a number of nations approved an addition to the treaty: the Kyoto Protocol, which has more powerful (and legally binding) measures.

World leaders have called for a comprehensive, ambitious and fair international climate change deal to be clinched at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP 15) in Copenhagen, 7-18 December 2009.

The process leading to Copenhagen was launched in Bali, December 2007, when all Parties agreed on the Bali Action Plan - a two-year process leading to an agreed outcome on climate change action in Copenhagen.

Agreement Essentials

Yvo de Boer, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), in an interview with Environment & Energy Publishing (E&E), clarifies that the four essentials calling for an international agreement in Copenhagen are:

1. How much are the industrialized countries willing to reduce their emissions of greenhouse gases?
 
2. How much are major developing countries such as China and India willing to do to limit the growth of their emissions?
 
3. How is the help needed by developing countries to engage in reducing their emissions and adapting to the impacts of climate change going to be financed?
 
4. How is that money going to be managed?

This new climate treaty will be replacing the Kyoto Protocol, which was adopted in Kyoto, Japan, in December 1997 and entered into force on 16 February 2005.

They need pressure

We can now see that it will be a political thriller on an international scale, and it is not sure whether a future agreement can be reached.

That is why we can now see a lot of actions and campaigns around the world, including bloggers, launching an awareness campaign to tell their own leaders, businessmen and politicians to support and participate in the Copenhagen Conference.

What we can do is to put pressure to our leaders for them to participate, act and sign a new fair treaty. 

A Gear Shift Inside Me: Blog Action Day

“You look at the river gently flowing by. You notice the leaves rustling with the wind. You hear the birds; you hear the tree frogs. In the distance, you hear the cow. You feel the grass. The mud gives a little bit on the riverbank. It is quiet; it is peaceful. And all of the sudden, it’s a gear shift inside you. And it’s like taking a deep breath and going, “Oh yeah, I forgot about this.”

-Al Gore in the opening monologue of An Inconvenient Truth-

The gear shift

When I finished watching the documentary, I really felt that “gear shift” inside me. There is an undeniable truth in it that forced me to consider the future generation. Of course I will not be there when the worst predictions in this documentary happens – I hope so. However, something inside me is telling me that I have to do my share, not for myself but for the future generation and for our beloved planet. It is a gift and it is very heartwarming to know that I’ve done my share to protect it.

Don’t look for the written facts – the signs are everywhere.

We cannot deny the fact that we are now experiencing some of the effects of global warming in the Philippines. We experienced the terrible effects of El Niño during summer and the unusual floods during rainy season and yet we simply do nothing. After I watched the documentary, I realized that something is wrong. It clearly opened my eyes on the issue of global warming and climate change, which I have not thought of before. I heard this issues being mentioned in the news many times, and do not care about it. I thought it is just another prediction or some sort of theory but after carefully considering the facts presented in the documentary, and opening my heart to the message it wants to convey, I realized that it is an issue that must be solve by everyone.

Doing My Share

We have different priorities, different values, and different way of thinking. Nevertheless, we all live in this planet. Al Gore points out that all of human history has happened on this planet, which is our only home. We must act now for the future generation.

It’s really a gearshift inside me, and in my own little way, I must do my share.

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This is a quick note I submitted after we watched the documentary “An Inconvenient Truth” during our MIT-502 Tech. Change (Grad. School class) last year under Prof. Enrico R. Hilario. I am doing a disk clean up of my laptop and came across this file. 

Today is the last day for submission of blog post “Blog Action Day 09: Climate Change” and thought of quickly posting this as my share. You may also want to sign up as volunteer for GreenPeace. 

Image Source: UNICEF

My Indecision is Final

This is fuck*** weird; today is a busy-toxic Monday… I must be dreaming; this whole day seems to be just a recurrent dream. I’ve done this before. I’ve been here before. I perfectly remember… must be a damn déjà vu. It was like I was dying. There was so much in this damn job I have to do still. I’m turning 29 this October. I can’t disappoint my family and myself. Sometimes I just don’t know where I’m going in this life.

I used to believe that life was a journey that grows the self. Have I fucking grown? I don’t know. Sometimes, I’m having this hollow feeling that I don’t even know who I am anymore. All I know, all I believe is that there’s something I have to do.

Nevertheless, I know there were lots of good things that came out of this journey: funny friends, loving family, education, job. Yet, previous chapters of this chronicle was not totally the way I wanted it written – it is full of lost opportunities, regrets, regrets… hundreds of it and there’s always this urge to do something.

But what is it?

Should I change career? Should I go abroad? Should I finish my thesis? Should I resign?

Damn it’s pathetic holding on to a promise that were never made.

I looked at the same watch. It’s 8 in the evening. A few hours from now, I’ll be sleeping, feeling like this day never happened – or just a duplicate of all those previous crazy Mondays.

I suddenly realize, I must remember those best times I have felt in my life, think back of a time when I were my happiest; for me to find the answers…

…and make this day, the day of my final indecision.

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Image Credit : Pat Kumicich, "Indecision"

Where Does Personal Responsibility Ends?

The story of my brother

My brother called me last night, asking if he can borrow some money. He said he finally got a job and needed to rent a room in Manila but he does not have enough money yet for the advance payment and for his daily expenses.

“What work is it this time?” I inquired like a growling dog.

I stressed “this time” because he previously worked as a data encoder, he finds it boring so he resigned and became a tambay. Then he worked as a “bagger” in SM supermarket, he said he loves the job but SM doesn’t renew contracts, so he became a full time tambay again.

“Sales staff in a Dunkin Donuts shop somewhere in Sta. Mesa,” he simply said, trying not to show his bitten feelings, but I felt it.

I know I hurt him. Unspoken feelings behind a casual question can really hurt.

I ignore my brother. Saying that I’m broke too, which is true. I am saving for my thesis and for whatever reasons our mid-year bonus wasn’t released yet, so I have no extra money for him.

Later in the day, I texted him asking how much does he need and asked him to meet me at my boarding house. I know the feeling of being on that helpless situation. He is still my goddamn brother anyway.

My older sister and I supported my brother during his college days. My sister paid for the costly tuition and I gave him his daily allowance. Like most of the families in the province, it is an unwritten rule – to support your younger brother or sister after you finished college. My brother first took up Political Science and after a few semesters, he finds it boring so he shifted to I.T. We agreed, and painstakingly paid the expenses, always hoping that he will finish the course.
Six years passed by and, “Jesus H. Christ!” he was still in third year – irregular student. He said algebra is too tiring, he didn’t like the schedule and other obnoxious alibis.

I quit. That is too much! We told him if he really wants to finish college, he should work. Maybe that way, he will understand the value of hard work, but he chooses not to finish it, believing that not all successful people have college degree.

Our efforts and hard work was not given importance. It really hurts. My sister cried hard. I am very disappointed. We all felt that feeling of failure – we failed ourselves and we failed him. We sacrificed some of our happiness and comfort for nothing. Maybe that is how “family” works; we just hope our small brother is right but despite that, we still love him.

I tried overcoming my disappointment by thinking that being in a position of giving help is better than the one receiving it. At least we tried and did our part, or that is what we think.

Where does personal responsibility ends?

I believe that having a sense of personal responsibility over something, a person or a situation is base on our sense of morality and acquired values. Morality is subjective and therefore sense of responsibility is subjective. It is perceived and phenomenal, always affected by personal views, experiences and family background.

Maybe I am wrong in doing my responsibility as an older brother because in doing so, I am teaching my brother to become over dependent thus depriving him to learn the value of self-reliance and perseverance.

Maybe Jose Rizal is wrong in doing his responsibility to our mother land to the point of sacrificing his very own life because nowadays, we Filipinos, are always searching and waiting for another martyr, another hero to unite us. Maybe the Filipino’s natural instinct of unity and patriotism was unconsciously frozen and crystallized by this event over a hundred years, making us wait for another hero to thaw our sleeping senses and unite us once again.

Maybe our government is wrong in continuously promoting and marketing the Filipino talents abroad for the sake of dollar remittances to help the economy because it violates the very basic principle of a healthy community, which starts with a complete family. Maybe the Philippines, in further endorsing and supporting work migration, in fulfilling its responsibility to sustain the economy, is actually worsening it by dividing Filipino families.

Maybe some OFWs are wrong in leaving their families for the sole purpose of comfortable living and better education, or maybe they are right because when we make big decisions we gamble on our personal relationships. We are not always sure if we will receive resentment, indignation, hurt feelings, anger, gratitude, reciprocal love or forgiveness particularly from our loved ones when we make big decisions, especially if it means leaving them for the sake of personal responsibility.

Personal responsibility, then is a burden for the over-critical and reactive and for those who require love in return. Nevertheless, it is a blessing for the compassionate.

So where does personal responsibility ends?

Maybe in the end, love is all that matters.