RENEWABLE ENERGY SUMMIT 2017

MR BUILDING, UNIVERSITY OF SAN CARLOS – TALAMBAN CAMPUS

JUNE 29, 2017

A Reaction Paper

The forum we attended was all about how to save the Earth through sustainable
energy consumption. It started with an invocation by an SVD priest, specifically pointing
out how ironic the theme was with the way the event itself started – it was one hour late,
so it meant an hour of wasted electrical energy poured in the entire hall. We only had
half of the day to attend because we needed to study for class recitations in the
afternoon. Despite the time constraint, it was well-spent because we have heard from at
least three significant forerunners of the environmental advocacy in the Philippines
namely, Rodney Galicia of Real Climate Philippines, Macy Taico of ERA Solar, and
Gina Lopez, the controversial (in a good way) environmentalist and former Secretary of
the Department of the Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) in ad interim, who
boldly megaphoned, among many others, her passionate objection to mining in the
Philippines. The morning agenda was generally about presentations of the current
status of climate change, global warming and environmental effects of daily human
activity brought about by the need for survival. Unfortunately and expectedly, the
outcomes have come to worst by far because of the inevitable effects of technological
advancement – that is not to totally brand technology as a negative thing, though,
because it has also become part of the basic human needs today and we can’t deny
that. But what societies and the rest of the world must come to realize more is the fact
that the way to true progress in the different aspects of life is through sustainable
development – that is, we have to include the environment and incorporate its
development in virtually all aspects of our daily living, as we consider that we only have
one planet and if anything, humans are the direct recipients of whatever happens to it.
We cannot have true development in all other aspects of life, if we have an unhealthy
environment to start with.

What struck me most was Gina Lopez’s Rehabilitation Model: Pasig River
Cleanup. It was one of her major projects in line with her advocacy to clean up the then
garbage-filled Pasig River, together with the residents and local government of Pasig
city. It encompassed the virtual clean-up of the whole river and planting on the soil
beneath it. There were before-and-after pictures shown as proof of the success of the
project, and a graphic chart showing a statistics of the positive characteristics that the
said project has generated to those who participated in it.