Writing and reflecting on each Conference of the Parties (COP) since Paris has always been such an exercise of awareness. It is always a struggle of balancing personal frustrations and beliefs with how the process is going, while also recognizing the many complexities of multi-country negotiations...
In the discussion of the circular economy in the Philippines, where are we headed? The conversation on the circular economy in the Philippines is growing in momentum, especially in small circles. As a practitioner myself, it’s interesting to see the conversation evolve into practice. The past few...
November is declared as a month for various environment-related concerns here in the Philippines. It is the Environmental Awareness Month (Republic Act No. 9512 or National Environmental Awareness Act of 2008), the Clean Air Month Through National Vehicle Inspection and Maintenance Consciousness...
When we think of farmers, the first image that usually comes to mind is a middle-aged man who is transplanting seedlings to the field. Very little attention is given to women farmers because of age-old traditions and stereotypes in farming. Around a quarter of the agricultural workforce in the...
Dear leader, As I write to you, leaders of all kinds are at Glasgow, oceans away in the United Kingdom for the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference. It’s dubbed as “the most important climate event of the century.” COP, for the readers, stands for the “Conference of the Parties.”...
A few years ago, this statement was splashed all over newspapers, magazines, and social media: “A vegan diet is probably the single biggest way to reduce your impact on planet Earth, not just greenhouse gases, but global acidification, eutrophication, land use, and water use.” It came from...
“How are you? I’m Disaster Bot. To report flooding near you, reply using #flood.” This is the automated response Filipino users get after they tweet “baha” or “flood” and tag the @MapaKalamidad account. Aside from Twitter, the chatbot is also able to monitor certain keywords linked to...
For the past four months, the City of Gentle People has been getting more media attention than usual because of the controversial 174-hectare reclamation project that was dubbed as a “monumental ecological disaster.” It gained media coverage on July 11, 2021 after a local news outlet reported...
Farmers in the coffee capital may be fighting an enemy they never knew. Amid the rising demand for artisan coffee and other coffee products in the Metro, most of the coffee beans available to us are those coming from as far as Davao. What really happened to the country’s coffee capital—Amadeo,...
Over 18,000 national and local elective positions will be vacated next year. Aspirants who wish to fill one of these positions are now in the spotlight this week as they file their certificates of candidacy. It’s too early to tell whether or not our future leaders will have platforms to combat...
It’s been more than a century of habitat destruction, pollution, invasive species spread, overharvesting, climate change, and excessive population growth. Undeniably, human activities have really pushed millions of species to the brink of disappearing—the current extinction crisis is clearly of...
Last month, we received another wake-up call from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change through its latest assessment report. The report highlighted that climate change is undoubtedly caused by human activity, and its impacts are already happening and will become more severe with every...
