“YES, we think to ourselves, what a wonderful world.”

Around 221 students from various universities sang along as the last speaker, a Filipino environmentalist, rewrote the last line of the song “What a Wonderful World” to send them a message on protecting the environment.

The University of Santo Tomas and seven more universities participated in the symposium on “Rethink: What on Earth are you doing?” at the Thomas Aquinas Research Complex last July 25 aligned with the celebration of the Crisis Consciousness week.

Spearheaded by the Faculty of Arts and Letters student council (ABSC), the symposium is a campaign to educate students on changing their consumption patterns and preventing the world from experiencing more environmental problems.

“I have a set of advocacies and I wanted to really focus on those things na hindi naman taken for granted but we forget, so one of the things I see as a solution is education,” said Knicole Feliciano, ABSC Vice President for External Affairs.

Prof. Arlen A. Ancheta, Ph.D, director of Research Center for Culture, Education, and Social Issues (RCCESI), mentioned in her opening remarks that plastic sachets and plastic packaging top the list of garbage disposed in the Manila Bay.

“Today, environmental challenges like storm surges, life-threatening typhoons or increasing temperatures are far beyond anything we’d faced before. It’s potentially affecting our economy, public health and well-being,” said Dr. Ancheta, also the Vice President-Internal for Mother Earth foundation.

Earth disagrees

Dr. Eric R. Punzalan of the De La Salle University explained many people misinterpret that the earth is too big to get ruined but nature disagrees as it gets easily polluted by toxic products manufactured by none other than people, themselves.

“Are we going to be killed by the consequences of the consumption of consumer goods that we love so much?” he said.

He told students that the air they breathe is only up to the troposphere, the first layer of the atmosphere. The range of breathable atmosphere only reaches to about 10km from the summit of Mt. Everest.

“Humans can survive conveniently way below the altitude of the summit of Mt. Everest. The summit of Mt. Everest is just slightly below 10km from the surface.

Guide to green living

The consequence of people’s increasing power demand is also the increase of carbon dioxide emissions, according to Engineer Aristotle Ubando.

“41% of carbon emission ay nanggagaling sa power production –  electricity and heat,” he said.

To track the carbon emission in the environment, manufacturing companies use the Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) to measure “the global warming potential and all other environmental impact of any process service.”

These companies would gain market advantage and be aware of the risks that may be involved in their products.

He advised the audience with five tips to green living-to choose products with eco-labels, bring their own re-usable shopping bags, conserve water, unplug charges and appliances when not in use and be conscious with the effects of meat consumption.

Filipino environmentalist and human rights activist Rodne Galicha, explained the 8Rs for sustainable living: reuse, reduce, recycle, repair, refuse, rethink, rainforest and reconnect.

“Small things done are better than big things planned, always remember that,” he said.

He has been giving these talks not only in the Philippines but also globally. He tries to explain the problem of climate change that everyone could easily understand.

Before he sang, “What a Wonderful World” together with the students, he said, “You wanted to protect the environment because you love it but mind you, you wanted to protect it because you also love yourself and you also love your parents, your brothers and sisters.”

He wanted to instill in the minds of the students that the earth is beautiful and the only way to preserve that beauty is to protect it.

Non-government organizations

Engineer Maureen Grace Lebria, of the Philippines Center for Environmental Protection and Sustainable Development, Inc. (PCEPSDI), introduced the audience to the “Green Choice Philippines”.

PCEPSDI is a non-government organization whose mission is to stop the deterioration of the environment.

Lebria, the operations manager of PCEPSDI, promoted the use of products labelled with “Green Choice Philippines”, the national ecolabelling of the country.

Meanwhile, Cassandra Deluria, head of External Affairs of One Million Lights Philippines, a youth-led NGO committed to provide impoverished communities with clean, safe and affordable lights.

“23 million people live in darkness. They don’t have the luxury of having lights that they can switch on and off,” she said.

She showed a sample of their product they call “the great white light”, a durable survival light suitable for those communities struggling with the use of kerosene in their homes.

“We create long-lasting impact wherever we go because we empower our beneficiaries. We help people find their way, but most importantly, we allow their children to study,” the 18-year-old University of the Philippines – Diliman freshman said.

“With all the pollutants that we are releasing into the earth, the earth is going to get worse but the earth is going to repair itself. What we are trying to save is ourselves. The earth is not gonna die, we are,” she added.

The seven other universities which participated are Ateneo de Manila University, University of the Philippines – Diliman, University of the Philippines – Los Baños, University of the Philippines -Manila, Adamson University, De La Salle University and Technological University of Philippines.

Photo by Joshua P. Lugti