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| ON THE OTHER HAND |
| Wayang in Bali
By Antonio C. Abaya Written on Dec. 17, 2007 For the Standard Today, December 18 issue Amid all the media hype and hoopla that attended the recently concluded conference on climate change in Bali , Indonesia , about the only concrete achievement of the meeting of 188 countries and territories was convincing the United States to join the global warming bandwagon. Finally. And the American delegation was apparently shamed into joining by the scathing comment of one delegate from, of all places, Papua New Guinea, that �if you cannot lead, please get out of the way.� But exactly how and what the American participation will entail is as vague and unclear as the conference itself. There were no targets in gas emission reductions that the delegations took home with them for their governments to meet or ignore. The delegates merely agreed to meet and talk again, in Copenhagen in 2009. I leave it to statisticians to calculate how many million tons of carbon dioxide, methane and other greenhouse gases will be spewed into the atmosphere in the next two years, as if Bali never happened at all. It was all one big Wayang shadow play, the traditional kampong theatre of Bali and Java in which all the action is hidden from direct view, behind a bed sheet, and all that the audience sees are shadows cast by cardboard-thin marionettes, manipulated by puppeteers in front of a light source. There is a narrative of confrontation between Good and Evil, but there is really no substance, in more ways than one. One can even say that Bali was a Wayang shadow play performed on the deck of the Titanic, and many in the audience are convinced that the iceberg is just somewhere off the starboard bow. Or is it to port? And they think they can avoid the collision by peeing over the railings in an effort to raise the ocean temperature and melt the iceberg. The only numbers that I could glean from the media coverage that could be mistaken for a specific goal was a European Union proposal to lower gas emissions by the year 2020 to 25-40% of the level in 1990. (2020? According to a United Nations report, by 2020 Bangkok and much of Bangladesh will be under water. Thousands of inhabited islands and kilometers of coastal areas around the world, including many of our own islands and some island-states in the South Pacific will shrink or disappear completely.) This is a totally unrealistic target. In 1990, neither China nor India nor Brazil nor much of the rest of the world was at half of their level of development in 2007, let alone in 2020. Is it really acceptable to any country, developed or developing, to reduce their economic activities to less than half their present rates? I do not recall how many motor vehicles there were in Metro Manila in 1990, but they must have been less than half of what they now are, about one million. The Philippine automotive industry � actually, mere assemblers of imported components - expect to sell more than 100,000 units in 2007, some 70% of which will certainly wind up in Metro Manila. Air pollution in Metro Manila is said to be caused 70% by motor vehicles, 30% by industries. To meet the wishfully conceived target of reducing air pollution to 25-40% of 1990 level, we would have to junk more than half a million vehicles now on the road in the metro, and agree to reduce the number of new vehicles to 25,000 a year. What would happen to the hundreds of thousands of drivers and auto workers who will lose their jobs if these targets were taken seriously? That, on a much larger scale, is what inhibits the US � as well as China and India � from fully embracing the crusade against greenhouse gases. One of the proposals that has been kicked around, even before Bali , is the concept of carbon capture or carbon sequestration. Under this concept, polluting industries � such as giant steel works � will be required to capture their gas emissions and force the noxious gases into underground caverns hundreds of meters below the surface of the earth. Has anyone bothered to calculate how much additional energy these polluting industries will be forced to consume just to build up the enormous pressure needed to force these hot gases underground? And how does one capture and sequester the gas emissions of 600 million � and counting - motor vehicles currently operating around the world? Another fashionable buzz word that has gained currency is �bio-fuels� as a substitute for fossil fuels. Even politicians are singing paeans to bio-fuels. We are told that this would be a cleaner alternative to petroleum and its derivatives. True. But what we are not told is that bio-fuels � from jetropha trees, sugar cane, rape seeds, corn, etc � are all made up of carbon compounds (cellulose, sugar, starch, carbohydrates) and when burned will still result in carbon dioxide emission. What we are also not told is that the shift of some agricultural producers from food crops to higher-paying fuel crops is reducing the land area planted to food crops, decreasing food supply, and thus raising prices. The world price for wheat, for example, has gone up 22% and explains why our pan-de-sal now costs fifty centavos more per piece. For the same reasons, the world price for corn as food has gone up 34%, raising the cost of animal feed (in which corn is a major component) and with it the price of pork, beef and chicken. Everywhere, not just here. And then there is the ultimate comfort concept, the carbon footprint, which assures us that if we would only calculate the carbon footprint of our daily activities, we can save the planet. That means we should compute the carbon costs in our decision to vacation in Boracay or Hong Kong , to cook our food with LPG or with uling and kalan, to use our private cars or jeepneys and the MRT to bring the children to and from school, etc. Soon someone will come up with handy carbon counters that one can use to quickly calculate the carbon footprint of everything we do. Similar to the calorie counters that were in vogue one or two generations ago, to keep track of our daily food intakes. With the same predictable result: decades after the calorie counters became fashionable, more and more people have become fat and ugly than at any other time in history. Obesity is now a global medical problem decades after we learned to count calories. The same will happen with carbon counters. After the novelty and the status buzz wears off, everyone will follow the path of least resistance and resume polluting the planet with impunity. The bottom line is that, if the Stern Report of 2006 is to be believed, the carbon dioxide already in the atmosphere will continue to warm the planet to the year 2036, and to raise sea levels to the year 2106, even if the burning of all fossil or carbon fuels were to suddenly stop TODAY. Even assuming that the Stern Report is overstated and that the residual effect of the CO2 in the atmosphere will last for only, say, 15 years, instead of 30, it will not change anything since the burning of fossil or carbon fuels will not stop overnight, but will take several decades, if at all.. That means those 15 years will just be pushed further and further into the future, and will hold the world hostage to rising ocean levels well into the 22nd century. The global community should use the next two years to strategize what to do with the CO2 already in the atmosphere, which, as far as I know, was totally ignored in Bali . There should be an international conference on this specific issue alone, and maybe I will submit my proposal. The CO2 already in the atmosphere � more than anything else - will determine the future of the planet. At the same time, there should be a universal shift from a carbon economy to a hydrogen economy. In my article last week, I mentioned that Honda of Japan has just announced the first hydrogen fuel-cell powered car to go into production, its FCX Clarity. This week, Daimler Chrysler of Germany also announced that its first hydrogen fuel cell car will go into production in 2009-2010. Can the other car makers be far behind? This is a hopeful development that, mercifully, will soon free the planet from the malevolent clutches of the oil companies and the undeserved geopolitical clout of oil-producing countries. And this will be for real, not a Wayang shadow play. ***** Reactions to [email protected]. Other articles in www.tapatt.org and in acabaya.blogspot.com OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO Reactions to �Wayang in Bali � Drama in Bali More Reactions to �Doomsday Scenarios� More Reactions to �Anatomy of Failure� More Reactions to �Divine Intervention� More Reactions to �Pauperized by Politicians� Philippine-like Situation in Uganda ? Hi Tony, Is that hydrogen economy the same as the research that I heard before on the invention of some Filipino engineer entrepreneur of a car run by the use of water? If so, then it is already a reality in contrast by some claiming that it cannot be done Thanks. Bert Celera, (by email), Dec. 18, 2007 (I do not know anything about this alleged Filipino invention of a car that runs on water. If it is true, why has the inventor been so shy in claiming credit for it? More likely his car runs on water vaporized by compressed air, not on electricity generated in and by a hydrogen fuel cell. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony, That�s an interesting article you wrote about global warming. There are indeed many issues about fuels derived from and involving organic reactions. I think there are many pluses and minuses in every energy source; and the net advantage to the planet approaches zero when alternatives are analyzed to infinity. I think your readers will be interested if you will also write about nuclear fuels. Nonoy Reyes, (by email), Dec. 18, 2007 (Fuel for nuclear fission reactors is pretty much confined to unstable or radioactive uranium. But there is no possibility or plausibility of having small nuclear fission reactors in trucks and automobiles. In nuclear fusion, the fuel is deuterium � also known as heavy hydrogen � but there is not a single nuclear fusion reactor in operation anywhere, even as an experimental prototype, much less small nuclear fusion reactors in trucks and automobiles. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Copy furnished) Dear all, I thought that I should share this interesting article of Manong Tony with you, knowing only too well, that due to the many readers of his weekly column and many undisclosed recipients of his articles, it needs further distribution. Happy Holidays. Jerry A. Quibilan, (by email), Dec. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, There is one very big component of Global Warming that even Al Gore would not talk about since I read somewhere that he is a Cattleman. This is the effect of a meat eating population and the commercial livestock industry that provides this lifestyle choice on the environment. I am a vegan for 3 very good reasons: 1 Animal Welfare 2 Health and 3 Environmental Issues. I am as fit as any meat eating carnivore and get as much protein and vitamins (including B group) from pulses, grains and vegetarian sources. If people are really serious about reducing Greenhouse gases, then switching to a vegan diet is far better than some of the more stupid sacrifices being proposed. For more information on the statistics behind this please visit some of the following website: http://www.goveg.com/veganism_environment.asp http://www.vegansociety.com/html/environment/ http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/news/1773357 Kind regards, Jesse, [email protected], Dec. 18, 2007 (But even Vegans exhale carbon dioxide, and their poo, when digested by bacteria, generates methane gas. What do you ride when you go to work? A cow, instead of a polluting car? But it also exhales carbon dioxide and its dung also generates methane gas. So what�s the advantage, as far as global warming is concerned? ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony, There's a group of unbelievers in the US that declares that all these warnings on the dangers of global warming are just a lot of hoopla. There's even a book written about it. I wonder to what they attribute the disasters never experienced before occurring all over the world in succession. I believe global warming is real. When the snowcaps start to melt, some islands will be inundated and disappear from the map. The damage wrought by the enormous lack of environmental responsibility is so great that our efforts now may not make much dent. It's about time the US finally joined the crusade to remedy this, considering it must be the biggest user of energy. Our planet needs saving, and I hope we're not too late. Best, Yett Montalvan, (by email), Dec. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww In Singapore the government sees that mass transportation system is set at high efficiency level. Buying a private car in Singapore ? You have to que and the cost is astronomical. The Singapore government do not want most of its population to buy private vehicles because they have a small land area. These Singaporeans are guided by practical concern rather than to show off their status. You don't have to study ideologies here, their leaders are guided not by sentimentality but by practicality. At the end of the day, they ask, is the Singaporean happy? AL Jose Leonidas, (by email), Dec. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: Those summiteers in Bali pretty much acted like King Canute of old who commanded the waves to stop. Thre is no way all of those countries present at the Balit Summit on global warming and climate change can stop the continued melting of the polar ice caps, the Greenland glaciers and other glaciers which have been melting at a dangerously rapid pace all these years. (Can you imagine one chunk of ancient glacial ice the size of the whole state of Rhode Island breaking off and floating away?) Mankind has long gone past "equinotime" as far as global warming and climate change are concerned. The damage to planet earth has already been and will continue on no matter what polluting countries will or can do to either drastically reduce or stop those carbon emissions altogether now. The temperature of the world's oceans will continue to rise and bring in their wake disastrous consequences for mankind. Northern countries will continue to be devastated by hurricanes, tornadoes, ice- and snowstorms, and floods of increasing frequency and ferocity. Southern countries will likewise continue to be smashed by typhoons, monsoon rains, floods and mudslides which will claim their heavy toll in human lives and property. Large areas of planet earth will experience droughts of historic duration and intensity, such as the drought which even now has devastated parts of Australia . Brush and forest fires will be common occurrences. Sea levels are expected to rise globally anywhere from 15 to 20 feet. Hundreds if not thousands of coastal towns and cities will go under water. Millions of people will be displaced. The time to do really something about global warming and climate change, if beneficial results were still possible, was right after the signing of the Kyoto Treaty. But not now. It is rather late in the day. Given this perspective, Bali was an exercise in futility. Mankind will reap the whirlwind. Mariano Patalinjug, (by email), Yonkers , NY , Dec. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Amigo Tony, Thanks for a year of good reading and the opportunity to feel connected to my homeland. although my cousin Gilberts news gets to me from varied sources----some not always objective. Look forward to a good 2008 and the best to you and yours, Manny Teodoro, (by email), Bogota , Colombia , Dec. 18, 2007 Hola, Manny. Feliz ano nuevo!) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, Like you, I am an avid advocate of the hydrogen economy. Just imagine a fuel whose only by-product is water vapour. Hence, hydrogen fuel will eliminate the air pollution from the exhaust of motor vehicles, as well as the carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions! Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) has gone ahead with its hydrogen-powered fuel cell ahead of Daimler Chrysler. The BMW 7-series 2008 model (equivalent of the Mercedes Benz "S" Model) already has a fuel-cell engine. So BMW is ahead of Mercedes Benz in utilizing hydrogen fuel in the luxury sedan. However, Daimler Chrysler is also ahead of BMW some models such as its vans, which were delivered to its German clients in late 2004. Hydrogen is the ultimate renewal fuel since it can be obtained from many different sources, including plain water. Other than having water vapour as its only by-product after combustion, (there is no combustion in a fuel cell, Ric. ACA) hydrogen fuel cell vehicles are significantly more efficient than the internal combustion engines (ICEs) using up to 60% of the fuel's energy. This is DOUBLE than that gasoline-fed vehicles with ICEs. Definitely, the real future of fuel is with Hydrogen - and NOT Bio-Fuel. Even the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) for buses - and now, tricycles, jeepneys and taxes from Malampaya - is just a short-term remedial measure that will be good for the next five years (2008-2012). The production of hydrogen-powered fuel cell vehicles will start coming in to the Philippines by 2010 and not later than 2012. There is already a hydrogen pump station in Washington D.C. along Benning Road that was opened by Shell in 2004. No less than D.C.'s most famous resident, President George W. Bush, visited the fuel station. Thus, there is already a fleet of hydrogen powered vehicles in America 's capital in the last three years. When I was in U.S. last year, hydrogen fuel cell vehicles were already on the road. I also read that Honda already has one model (ahead of Toyota ) running in the U.S. since 2006. In late 2004, i also read that Daimler Chrysler has a joint venture with a Chinese state-owned company for the production of buses with fuel cell engines. These buses should be running in time for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. There is really a bright future for the environment with the use hydrogen using fuel cell technology! Rick B. Ramos, (by email), Santa Rosa , Laguna, Dec. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww The Philippines is way, way behind as far as fuel efficient technology is concerned, but we can make a very positive step in reducing our carbon emissions. Very simple. Ban the jeepney and tricycles with 2-stroke engines. I don�t think a long explanation is needed here. Just compare the haze on major streets where the jeepney is dominant (Quiapo, CM Recto, Espana) to EDSA (where there are no jeepneys), and look at the tricycle terminals around you, and you will see what I am driving at. I would like to commend our bus companies (majority of them) who took the bold step of replacing their ageing and dilapidated Japayuki buses with new ones (the Flaming Dragon models). I for one have rediscovered the joy of riding a bus � fast, clean, comfortable, with lesser smoke emissions. If our government still hasn�t got the guts to ban the jeep, maybe they can knock some sense into the heads of these jeep federations to replace their ageing units with new ones. And can we make it a national policy to ban the importation of second hand engines (which is what our jeepneys are using)? Bong L. Alba, (by email), Dec.18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Tony, Great article! Except for the White House and Corporate America, the rest of this embarrassed Nation IS in favor of more rapid changes. Many of my friends have already begun switching into "friendlier" autos, encouraged by special tax deductions for doing so. Keep it up, Baby! Bush is already being forced to deal with the changing reality. His position now is to decide "how much" Happy Holidays, Alan (Klaum), (by email), San Francisco , CA, Dec. 18, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwl (Copy furnished) Dear Rey, I hope that the Americans will eventually join the Europeans in living up to the letter and the spirit of the U.N. Convention on Climate Change, together with its Kyoto Protocol or similarly-oriented amendments. You will certainly recall the arduous journey from Chantilly , Virginia , to New York where the Convention was approved; from New York to Berlin , for the first conference of parties; from Berlin --via Kyoto , etc.--to Bali . I hope that, with Al Gore stirring the conscience of his countrymen, the United States may effectively accept the "Polluter Pays" principle and do something about reduction of CFC emissions rather than hide behind specious arrangements to circumvent the original pledge of Annex I industrialized countries. Joe (Jose Lino Guerrero), (by email), Dec. 19, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony... Thanks again for your interesting post. I like to share with you my little knowledge about gas emissions. When government officials meet for world issues, no one seems to know about the main issue except knowing it is a problem. It would be more interesting for them to bring someone who understands the subject so they would know right off that there are solutions to the problem. (Aren�t you being presumptuous when you claim that government officials do not take technical experts with them when they attend world conferences? ACA) I like to share my little knowledge of chemistry and its application to gas emission resulting to greenhouse effect on the environment. Fossil fuels produce carbon dioxide as they undergo combustion. Gasoline, diesel fuel, coal and natural gas are all big contributors of carbon dioxide emission. Ironically, the more efficient a vehicle is, the more CO2 it produces. But carbon dioxide is heavier than air with a specific gravity of 1.52 or 1.52 times heavier than air. Carbon dioxide could easily be scrubbed out from the exhaust of vehicles using Ascarite or Chromosorb W. It could be attached in between the engine and the exhaust to capture carbon dioxide. In Canada , if the amount of CO2 in natural gas is very high, the CO2 is separated from the gas and used in soft drinks or sometimes injected into a gas or crude well to bring out the crude or natural gas. Carbon dioxide and other gases in the air have less than 0.01% by volume. In Edmonton , Canada with less than 1 million people, the amount of CO2 in the air is approximately 0.005%. I used to report the tonnage of CO2 emitted every year based on the city's natural gas consumption. The more industrialized a country is the more carbon dioxide it would have in the air. Philippines would have less carbon dioxide than countries like U.S. , Canada , and Japan . Since carbon dioxide is almost in the ground level, and they are concentrated in the traffic area or industrial part of the city we can use a huge vacuum and filter out CO2 with the substance Ascarite and Chromosorb mentioned above. There can be some other modern scrubbers known today. CO2 can later be injected into a furnace to break CO2 down into C and O2 or it can be injected into a cavern, preferrably salt cavern if available to prevent seepage. Another solution to the problem is for every man, woman and child to plant trees and shrubs. Trees use carbon dioxide as food by photosynthesis. As you mentioned already, Honda motors would implement the use of Hydrogen gas for fuel to its vehicles next year or in the near future. This is the ultimate solution to all our problems if they can modify, or retrofit the high pressure cylinder that holds hydrogen gas. The drawback is that hydrogen has much less heat energy than gasoline or natural gas so that a 2500 psig hydrogen gas could take you only to as far as 30 Km. (You are obviously under the mistaken belief that hydrogen fuel cell cars derive their motive force from internal combustion engines. They do not. Hydrogen fuel cell cars are electric cars, their electricity generated on board from the chemo-electrical reaction of hydrogen and oxygen ions in a fuel cell. ACA) For the Philippines , I think we should go back to calesa (horse drawn cart) instead of tricycles. In Cabanatuan , Nueva Ecija, there are 24,000 tricycles in the city with only 200,000 people. The pollution it emits aside from CO2 will make your eyes burn yet the politicians are ignoring the consequence of allowing too many tricycles in the city. We can start reducing carbon dioxide emission now by minimizing unnecessary trips by car, taking the bus to work, austerity in the use of electrical appliances, and substituting riding bicycle for a short trip. In Scandinavian countries, such as the city of Copenhagen , and Oslo , many people go to work by bicycle. Roman de Guzman, (by email), Edmonton , Canada , Dec. 19, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Have you read Michael Crichton's STATE OF FEAR ? It's fiction, I know, but it raises a lot of interesting issues about climate change...points the reader as well to non-fiction sources relevant to climate change... His bottomline: IT'S A LOT OF HOOPLA OVER NOTHING Fernando Lapongga, (by email), Dec. 20, 2007 (Yes, I�ve read it. But it was published in 2004. Some of his reservations may have been rendered obsolete by new empirical data. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Hi Tony, There's this interesting book, The Sceptical Environmentalist, by Bjorn Lomborg, (Cambridge University Press, 2001). He argues that "investing in a better environment is only one of the many ways we can invest in a better world, and that we must prioritize the environment as against better education, more health care and better infrastructure as well as improving conditions in the Third World ." In his view, the catastrophe from global warming lies in "spending our resources unwisely on curbing carbon emissions at high costs instead of helping the developing countries and increasing non-fossil fuel research." He would have us compare the costs and benefits of such investments to similar investments in all the other important areas of human endeavor He finds good reason to believe that our energy consumption will change towards renewable energy sources way before the end of the century! He devotes a whole chapter to the issue of global warming. I found it a fascinating read and would be glad to share the book with you if you are interested. Rex Robles, (by email), Dec. 20, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony: You have to understand the American mindset: We are to insular in terms of how large America is. Know what? The average American doesn't really care about what happens to the world as long as they can keep their social security, big cars and their vacation places. Not too many of them even know about Mexico . They probably have heard of the Mexican-American war but didn't care who won over Churrubusco, or the Alamo . After all, we are consumed with building an electronic fence at the border. Is it goodbye Kyoto and now it is "Hello Bali"? Americans are too confident that whatever the problems of the world is, their government and their scientists can fix it. What comfort for a people who are so lavished with a large country (in terms of land area), so many smart scientists and engineers, doctors, you name it, we have it. So who really cares about the world? The truth is I look at the "climate club" and look who are the willing participants: Russia , France , England , Canada ..... They all have something to sell in the end. They have their own selfish motives in terms of their own "world domination." The other poor countries are joining in the hope of some economic blessings down the pipeline. In the process, America has always been portrayed as the "bad guy" we sort of get used to that. I suppose you are based in the U.S. or if not, you have been in and out of here for a good number of times. You must have American friends too. The truth is American culture is so contagious the world hates us for that. Why, because we always feel we are free..... because we always feel we are ahead.... and we feel we are so blessed we want to influence the world about who we are and in what we believe in. However, some fundamentalists and profound enemies of freedom have capitalized on this to paint America as the bad guy. We know this and we feel bad that now we have to work twice harder to convince the world this is not true. That is why we have to work harder in Afghanistan and Iraq . But in the long run we will win because America is tried and tested. Our values have always been about freedom and technical advancement. Another truth... while the "climate club" may portray us to be the bad guy... in the end, solving the climate problem cannot be done without Americans becoming part of the solution. We will be in that team and when that happens we again rise up and declare "God Bless America ," Freddy Panes, (by email), Philadelphia , PA , Dec. 21, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, I have read your article on Bali . The emission reduction of 25-40% proposed by the EU is much to late. They should have pushed for a shorter time frame of 2010. We must force the US and others to realize that 2020 is much to late. The effects have already been manifested. The bleaching of corals the start of the marine food chain. The continues wanton destruction of our little remaining forest. We need a total logging ban and a massive reforestation program ASAP. Incentives to enhance biodiversity and carbon sinks must be established ASAP. The use of coal, oil and other fossil fuels must be stopped. We do not need new coal power plants. Our seas have heated up to the point that thousands maybe millions of species have gone extinct even before they have been discovered. There is this crazy plan to fertilize our seas. This is rubbish and must not be entertained at all. Nuclear Power is not an option. Our agriculture must go organic to combat Global Warming. (Pray tell, how does organic farming combat global warming? ACA) We are not for bio-fuels nor carbon trading. That is just passing the buck. Sustainable use is the key not development. Gone are those days. We are in the verge of an ecological disaster that will affect humankind and the planet. Poverty will rise as our biodiversity is destroyed. Carbon sinks such as forest must be done at a rapid pace. We must stop all mining and extractive industries as they will destroy our already fragile environment. (But if we were to stop all mining, where will we get the metals for ships, airplanes, cars and buses, trains and locomotives, railroad tracks and catenary wires, electrical machinery, motors and engines, turbines, wind mills, fuel cells, electric generators, power pylons, tractors and other agricultural machinery, rocket ships and satellites, x-ray and other medical equipment, ball bearings, shipping containers, CNG carriers, telecom equipment, copper and aluminum wires, office equipment, steel girders for bridges and buildings, chalices and other religious vessels, CDs and DVDs, silverware and cutlery, refrigerators and washing machines, door knobs and hinges, GI roofing material, gas and electric ranges, LPG cylinders, welding equipment, etc. You want to go back to the Stone Age? Fine. But I don�t think you can get most of the rest of us to go with you. ACA) A new economic order must surface to save Planet earth. The World Bank and all other lending institutions must lead the way and give grants to those that go for renewable energy, enhance biodiversity and stop the use of fossil fuels. A healthy biodiversity is good economics. We must reduce our carbon footprint and ACT NOW. Why wait for another conference. They have the technology. They have had it for years. The greed in them just makes them talk. They must walk their talk and walk faster. For we are all citizens of planet earth. We must save her and humankind. If not then we deserve the effects of global warming and climate change.Already ecosystems have started to collapse. This will be exponential and no amount of reduction scheme of GHG will help. We cannot eat gold and drink toxic waste. A glass of water is worth more than its weight in gold. It is our responsibility to pressure governments and corporations to act. It is their corporate social responsibility to do so. Keep up the good work. We need to involve everyone. Best, Antonio M. Claparols, (by email), Makati City , Dec. 22, 2007 President, Ecological Society of the Philippines 53 Tamarind Road, Forbes Park , Makati City wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww It is intriguing how the US has become almost everybody's favorite whipping boy including it's own so called left leaning intellectuals. The constant droning coming from other countries and reinforced by the equally culpable American press to blame everything bad happening in the whole world as due to the USA is getting tiresome. The time when the US has been taking all this abuse without reacting and dismissing it as potshots from a disgruntled boy and benevolently apologizing for having incurred its ire are gone. In the past when the US contributed over 25% of the world's economy, they can shrug off economic treaties inherently harmful to the bottom line. Globalization has changed the realities and opened the eyes of the Americans to these inequalities. While almost every friendly nation is accorded most favored status so they can export to the US with impunity, the US finds artificial hurdles to do the same. It would not have been bad when most of our necessities were manufactured in the US and no need to import. Today, they are mostly foreign made and jobs have migrated to China India and the Pacific rim countries of Asia resulting in unending rising trade deficits which is unsustainable. Is it any wonder that the US government is finally demanding EQUAL TREATMENT!! While the US walk out at the Kyoto Protocol is widely reported, they don't explain the reasons why. While the provisions of the Protocol call for the US and other advanced countries to abide by the goals of reducing greenhouse emissions, it did not require China, India, Brazil, Russia and the third world countries to reduce their own. All that is required is for them to MONITOR and REPORT their emissions. By the year 2008, China will be number one in greenhouse emissions surpassing all the increase in greenhouse gases of the rest of the industrialized world combined! As I have mentioned above, the US can no longer afford to compete with one hand tied to the back. These nations are now COMPETITORS. The cost of reducing the gas house emissions will run into billions, if not trillions of dollars, if the loss of jobs are included. While the goals are admirable and makes sense, the economics has gotten in the way of a solution. While the participants are interested in the glowing press admiration for the effort, the results will probably evaporate into the ozone layers without any appreciable reduction in the foreseeable future. Notwithstanding his Oscar and Nobel Peace Price awards, Gore the Ozone man, is as guilty as the factories polluting the atmosphere with his polemics and not contributing to the cause. Justifying his use of private jets and a large mansion consuming large amount of electricity by saying he is energy neutral because he buys carbon credits is stupidity in itself. Profiting in trading carbon credits in Wall Street without diminishing one atom of emission illustrates the cynicism and greed in the so called spokesman for Ecology. The sad part of it is that the so called well informed media and glitterati had become part of the kabuki dance spectacle. I wonder how do you explain the ice age cycles with melting glaciers and reforming ice before humans inhabited the earth. I guess the immense dinosaur emissions of methane fouled up the atmosphere. That will explain their disappearance after one massive collective fart that shook the world. H Cruz MD, (by email), Dec. 23, 2007 (As a medical doctor, surely you know that dinosaurs exhaled carbon dioxide, not methane. Their feces, when digested by bacteria, generated methane gas. Dinosaurs are said to have gone extinct about 65 million years ago when a large meteor hit Planet Earth, near what is now known as the Yucatan Peninsula ( Mexico ). The resulting cloud dust is said to have covered the sun for several years, wiping out most plants because of their inability to photosynthesize without sunshine, thus depriving the giant herbivorous dinosaurs of their food source. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Awesome article. Just wish the DENR would act and think more like you... But then again the Philippine national government seems to put environment as the least in its priorities... Fe P. Koons, (by email), Carson City , CA , Dec. 23, 2007 President, Philippine Action Group for the Environment (PAGE) 1631 Balard St. Carson City , CA 90745 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww (Forwarded to Tapatt by John Craige, Malaysia ) Drama in Bali By Pete Fehrenbach Drama in Bali: News accounts of this past weekend�s wrap-up of the two-week U.N. climate talks in Bali , Indonesia , make interesting reading, to say the least. An exchange that took place during the conference�s closing hours Saturday has set the online news world abuzz. In fact, the reports that came out Sunday almost make the incident sound too pat, too Hollywood-scripted. But all the accounts I�ve read thus far sum it up the same way: The U.S. delegation backed down amid a flurry of criticism after the United States� lead negotiator, Paula Dobriansky, objected to a proposed amendment from India�s representative that would require wealthy nations to provide more aid to poor nations to help them adapt to the impacts of climate change. The straw that broke the camel�s back came when Papua New Guinea�s negotiator, Kevin Conrad, spoke. Aiming his comments at the U.S. delegation, Conrad said, "We seek your leadership. ... But if for some reason you are not willing to lead, leave it to the rest of us. ... Please get out of the way." That brought an explosion of applause, and the U.S. abruptly reversed course. "We want success here in Bali ," Dobriansky said. "We will go forward and join consensus." Imagine the thunderclap this must have set off in La-La Land . Imagine the big-shot Hollywood producers� phone lines burning up today. "David just nailed Goliath again. Get me what�s-his-name, the guy who wrote �Erin Brockovich� -- pronto. This is money in the bank if we get to him first. And it has Oscar written all over it. Hurry." The gist of the news stories about the Bali conference -- of which there are dozens if not hundreds available on the Internet -- is that the U.S. has been painted into a corner regarding how best to alleviate global warming. Most of the world�s nations insist that the only effective way to fight climate change is to set concrete, externally monitored emission caps; while the U.S. maintains that climate change must be fought with voluntary emission controls because mandatory caps would cause grave damage to the world�s economies. That impasse may be broken soon. The agreement reached in Bali sets forth a two-year timetable to create a new international climate treaty that will supplant the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012. And this time around, three of the world�s biggest greenhouse gas emitters that were not involved in the Kyoto treaty -- the U.S. , China and India � have given every indiciation that they plan to take part. Another factor that will play into this process -- some would say the most crucial factor -- is that U.S. voters will be headed to the polls next November to install a new administration in Washington . That election is sure to play a major role in laying the path for future international climate talks to follow. For those of us whose business revolves around the environment, 2008 and 2009 will be pivotal years, here and everywhere. Pete Fehrenbach is managing editor of Waste News. Past installments of this column are collected in the Inbox archive. wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reactions to Doomsday Scenarios� (Dec. 13, 2007) Dear Mr. Abaya, I agree with Ulrich Bosse 's statement "For those who can't see the fact that we are already far too many for the resource base that our planet offers and refuse to intelligently control our runaway populations, I have news: If we as a species won't control our numbers, then our environment will do that for us. But then again, we can always claim that it was the lack of prayer that has brought the wrath of god onto us. What an idiotic, self-fulfilling prophecy. " Ulrich Bosse, Antipolo, Rizal, Dec. 14, 2007 By e-mail from Australia " I might add, to quote a priest second hand, "religion is what man does to God!" That being said, there is one pollution situation people are not yet much informed about. Not just international poaching by fisheries into a nation's waters, or one-ton fish nets that scour the ocean bottom that are effecting the ocean food chain. According to a recent article from the New York Times last week, scientists with submersible equipment are monitoring to the depth of 7,000 ft. and 700 miles off the coast of Seattle , Washington . They have announced a recent and alarming discovery that the article said may be irreversible! The ocean is becoming more and more acidic. Carried deep by ocean channels from the Atlantic Ocean , the acidic water finally wells up in the Pacific before submerging again to continue on its deep journey. Their report stated that the ocean is now 30% more acidic than at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and is predicted to reach 150% by the end of the century. The report went on to say that this is already probably irreversible and would devastate reefs and also everything in the ocean food-chain eventually from the microscopic krill and pteropods all the way up to the whales! From 500,000 million to one billion people in the world depend on fish consumption! Were scientists to find an effective way to attempt to reverse the acidity, it may already be too late! Of course we don't have any solution and America , with its military industrial complex as well as big corporations as "soft-fascist" bedfellows, would only cause much reactive 'swift-boat' finger pointing and denial in trying to trash and bury the concern. The acidity may very well spell the end of life on this planet as humans know it. Bruce G. Dean, (by email), Eugene , Oregon , Dec. 24, 2007 Retired teacher and concerned old fossil wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Sir, Please educate me on this. Isn't that carbon dioxide constitutes less than 1% of the total elements in our atmosphere, how could that miniscule amount affect the temperature of our entire planet? Isn't CO2 essential for plant growth? Therefore why worry when it is helpful in agriculture and forestry. Also, global warming is not solely antropogenic in nature. There's global warming happening in Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto. We might be ignoring the sun that is getting hotter in the last 1,000 years. Jun Valenzuela, (by email), Naga City , Dec. 24, 2007 (Scientists are worried that the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has increased by 33% since records were started in 1832, most of the increase happening since 1970 and attributed to accelerated burning of fossil fuels. The CO2 is said to trap the heat from the sun, thus melting the polar ice-caps and Alpine and Himalayan glaciers faster and raising ocean levels to a possible flooding of coastal areas around the world. CO2 is essential for plant growth, but too much of it has deleterious effects. (I do not know what your basis is for saying that global warming is also happening in Mars, Jupiter, Neptune and Pluto, or that the Sun has been getting hotter in the last 1,000 years. Those planets are uninhabited. As for the Sun, it is bound to eventually run out of fuel (hydrogen), but it will supposedly take billions of years for that to happen. ACA) wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reactions to �Anatomy of Failure� (Dec. 11, 2007) Dear Mr. Abaya, If, after trying several times by a former coup leaders doing the same thing over and over again, a would-be coup leader introduces no changes for the next try, he will surely reap the same consequences. That is the definition of a fool. Military takeovers can not succeed if coup leaders do the same thing all over and all over again. Did they study historical coups d�etat in their institute? Methink they learned lesser subjects like changing the price tag of an expensive item in the commissary with that of a discounted item without even thinking about the live video cameras overhead. It happened within 10 days of a Filipino PMA Baron (to whom the most corrupt President of the Philippines had awarded the Presidential sword) arriving at a U.S. military academy. Nakakahiya talaga, like the attempted coup at the Manila Pen! Lionel Tierra, (by email), Sacramento , CA , Dec. 23, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Dear Tony, I believe that people like Trillanes should not take the much touted 11 million votes he got from the senatorial elections too seriously. One should have a reality check in assessing the support of people based solely on that particular poll because senatorial elections, at least in our country, runs on a unique dynamic. People choose 12 names to fill up a long list rather than a single name to choose from. Twelve is a lot!!! Assuming that all votes cast are honest votes, I feel that some names get in merely as space fillers or through name recall (or pogi points) and not really a belief in the candidates values and advocacies. The lower you are in the top 12, the more likely this can happen. Being confronted with this reality can be quite humbling. Well, the fact no one showed up in the Pen strengthens the point. I will also add that men by nature are fickle and forgetful. GMA was one of the top senatorial candidates (or was she number 1, I am not so sure now) during her time. Enough said. Merry Christmas!!! Fr. John Cordero, MMHC, (by email), Dec. 22, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww More Reactions to �Divine Intervention� (Nov. 29, 2007) Dear Tony, Seeking divine intervention is an act of hopelessness. It is a complete abandonment of action-driven hope that should always define mankind. Seeking divine intervention discards the notion that mankind could get something by doing nothing but by waiting. If something happens, it is coincidence and not obtained by design. It is a fluke, if I may say. Dr. Nestor P. Baylan, (by email), New York City , Dec. 17, 2007 wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Philippine-like Situation in Uganda? (Copy furnished) Tony Abaya will say, �I told you so�� Carlos L. Agustin, (by email), Nov. 27, 2007 President, National Defense College of the Philippines -----Original Message----- From: Charithie Joaquin [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Tuesday, November 27, 2007 7:07 PM Subject: "Philippine-like Situation" in Speech of Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni 24 Nov 2007 - Uganda's President Yoweri Kaguta Museveni spoke during the Opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM), a biennial summit meeting of the heads of government from all Commonwealth nations. In his remarks, he argued that developing human capital is primary for the transformation of Uganda and other African countries. He said that Uganda should aspire for a South Korean-like situation rather than a Philippine-like situation. He said, "Very many educated people without jobs will create a Philippines-like situation rather than a South Korean-like situation. Philippines is a much larger country and more endowed than South Korea ." "However, you find a lot of Filipinos working abroad but hardly any South Koreans working abroad except H.E. Ban Ki Moon and a few others. Where are the other South Koreans working? I guess within South Korea . Why? It was because South Korea industrialized according to her comparative advantages and competitiveness." Read full speech at : http://allafrica.com/stories/200711260067.html?viewall=1 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO |