NIGHT OWL Every time we welcome the new year, we all have our hopes and expectations for a better year ahead. And while these may be mostly personal or within our families, friends and immediate community, there has been a conscious effort in recent years to include the Earth’s health in our...
NIGHT OWL Prior to nations agreeing to transition away from fossil fuels as expressed in the historic United Arab Emirates (UAE) Consensus, the 28th climate change conference or COP28 held in Dubai already provided a milestone decision on its first day — gathering commitments of at least $700...
NIGHT OWL Recently, I had the chance to watch “Maestro” at the British Film Institute and I believe it is one great gift from Bradley Cooper, who is both the director and lead actor of this biopic that focuses on the relationship between American conductor and composer Leonard Bernstein—who...
NIGHT OWL It is projected that almost 600 million people will continue to face hunger in 2030, according to the United Nations in its State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report 2023. The number is about 119 million more than in a scenario in which neither the pandemic nor...
NIGHT OWL This year’s climate agreement can be described as the biggest step forward in addressing climate change since the Paris agreement in 2015. For the first time in almost three decades of annual climate talks, nations at the COP28 agreed to transition away from fossil fuels. This could be...
NIGHT OWL Two months into the war in Gaza, fervent calls for a ceasefire have not waned. We can only hope that our collective voices would be heard and listened to, for the sake of the many innocent lives who are caught in the middle, for the common good. The gravity of the situation is...
NIGHT OWL For the longest time, we have measured growth based on the value of the goods and services we’ve produced within a specific time — our gross domestic product (GDP). While it is a metric of a country’s economic development, it does not encapsulate the nation’s overall wellbeing. It...
NIGHT OWL One of the silver linings during the pandemic is seeing our skies smog-free. This was an occurrence observed in most of the cities around the world. If only we were able to keep it that way even post-Covid, we could also save more lives globally, at least seven million who die every year...
NIGHT OWL For many years now, the term sustainability has become a buzzword, especially since the launch of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) in 2015. We often hear and read about it in the news, it has become a staple in development policies, and even the corporate world has been embracing...
NIGHT OWL Is it really possible to have a world without violence? Can we really end violence against women and children? According to the 2022 National Demographic and Health Survey by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA), one in five women who have ever had an intimate partner have...
NIGHT OWL As we enter the last month of the year in a few days, countries who have joined the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) will once again gather for the annual climate conference, or the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the UNFCCC. This year’s COP 28 will be...
NIGHT OWL One cannot overemphasize the importance of transportation in our lives. It affects almost every aspect of it—from our access to food and basic necessities, school, work, health care, and other services, to our favorite stores being able to provide us with what we need and want. It’s...
