The untarnished truth of our time
The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences…”
- Winston Churchill, November 1936
My first reaction to watching “An Inconvenient Truth” is that my students — as a matter of fact, everyone — should see this. This film isn’t just an inconvenient truth. It’s the untarnished truth Pisay scholars are looking for.
I’ll ask the unit what the possibilities are for a per year level viewing at the 3rd floor audiotorium first thing tomorrow. If I get an affirmative answer, I’ll count that as a present.
Now here’s why this film is so important for me. I won’t give a detailed review since you can find that everywhere else. Allow me to highlight the most important points.
And at the end of this post, I will answer an important question, “What does the fight against global warming mean for the Philippines?”
Here are the main points from the film, as well as my insights.
- Our planet is one huge runaway train. Modern human progress (noticably starting from the Industrial Revolution) has generated too much carbon dioxide, and this in turn accelerated and aggravated the natural cycles of nature. Thus we now see the distrubances in weather patterns and sea levels.
- There are two popular misconceptions regarding global warming: (a) that there are some scientists in disagreement with the consensus that global warming is a truly pressing danger, and that (b) responding to the needs of our environment is a choice we have to make at the expense of economic development.
- The attempts to downplay the gravity of global warming have been called by parties and interest groups who are determined to reduce global warming to theory from fact. They have met some success; in the media we see the opinion that global warming is ‘natural’ and nothing new.
- There is no choice to be made between the economy and the environment? Can we actually choose not to have a planet?
- Responding to global warming will encourage the development of new, alternative and energy efficient technologies. Yes, we will definitely see a decline in demand for fossil fuels and it is this that fuels the hesitance of many nations. However, the potential for technological and scientific advancement is even greater. There is more money to be made, but also a lot more to be spent.
- Global warming is a moral issue. It requires a lifestyle shift and great changes in the choices we make. Companies and industries will only shift to ‘greener economies’ when they see there is enough demand from the people to adopt more environment friendly technologies.
- Above all, global warming requires great political will from our leaders. And political will is a renewable resource. We must support policies that support environmental preservation, but our politicians too must make the choices necessary. Spending for the environment will require more money spent; that means less for them. That, I think, is the real challenge since such choices will hurt their current interests.
So what does the fight against global warming mean for the Philippines?
For one, we should stop aspiring to be a first world country. It will never happen.
The Earth has its limits, and as of now the top 20% of the world already consume 80% of the planet’s resources. What will happen when other developing countries reach that level where they need consume more, more and more? Then nothing will be left for everyone.
Instead, we must work within our means and provide what our people need first of all. Good education, a steady supply of water, affordable food and medicine, and respectable housing — those are all within our means.
And as our economy chugs along, we must support a conscious shift towards lessening carbon dioxide emissions as mandated in the Clean Air Act of 1999. In our cities, we must push for more energy efficient vehicles and discourage the use of older and highly-polluting buses, vans and trucks.
The tragedy with the Philippines is that we have all the laws in place but lack the political will to enforce them. We must realize that this also hampers our technological and scientific advancement, and lessen our hopes for a future we can live in.
This is where we all come in. This is the untarnished truth for our time.
FURTHER READING:
“Climate change’s wrong and right fixes” by Geoff Lye and John Elkington
“Climate change is definitely man-made; download the IPCC report here!”
i’ve already watched the film, it’s cool and all, it’s just the scenes of al gore in it, like the one with his kid almost dying at 4 and stuff, he’s trying to relay to the people that he cares about the environment and that he’s willing to do stuff for them. too bad it didn’t work, though, i’d choose him over bush any day.
We discussed the movie in PopLaw because our topic for this quarter is Environmental Laws. Anyway, while discussing a presentation about Waste Managment made by one of my classmates, I don’t know if Atty. Perez was the one who wold that it should also be called “The Green Truth”. It really is a Global Warning. ~ kyla o8
Kevin, I’d rather have Al Gore as an advocate outside of Washington. As the president, he wouldn’t have the latitude he needs to really push his agenda because of all the other interested parties.
Would’ve been interesting to see how he would’ve handled 9/11 though.
Kyla, your class is the reason why I finally watched the film. Atty. Perez was asking the unit who had a copy of it, and I offered that I can find one. True enough, I did. I’ll be giving her a copy next week. Hopefully, you guys watch it in class which I think she plans to do.
Naks! WordPress!
May binebenta na bang legit copy nito? I have a pirated version which I borrowed from Mel Cardenas, though I haven’t watched it yet heehee. Saw clips of it from a Korina Sanchez show though and from there I could say it’s really a must-see film. Would’ve scheduled a viewing of it nung YMSAT pero hindi na nasingit. We also plan to show it sa Bio1 next SY, when we have Ecology during the 1st quarter.
“The tragedy with the Philippines is that we have all the laws in place but lack the political will to enforce them. We must realize that this also hampers our technological and scientific advancement, and lessen our hopes for a future we can live in.” — This is true not only for environmental laws but also for every other damn law in this country.
I’m still waiting for a legit copy and will definitely grab one when it comes out.
Yeah, I recommend we let everyone view it. Atty. Perez will also be showing this in her Pop Law class, and I hope we could do the same for mine. YMSAT would’ve been great. Sayang!
And political will is what our country lacks. ‘Nuff said.
We have discussed in our elective (Poplaw) that the Philippines actually has well written laws on the environment. What we lack is the capacity to enforce it.
True: There is limited funding and not enough political support, but if we want things to change the way they are right now, we have to realize that all of us are major stakeholders in the sustainable development of our country. The government, businesses, and civil society are all key actors.
Our development is driven by an interplay of political, economic, cultural, environmental, and global forces. The sooner we recognize that, the sooner we can affect change.
It all boils down to political will. Always does. We have a “poverty of will” here in our country. Palaging “puwede na”.
Sadly, yeah… Narrow political interests will always hamper development.
we watched this in ensci… i can only say one thing: americans are stupid, choosing bush over al gore… and why did they back out of the kyoto protocol? they’re the main polluters… –mae & shayne–
Hi Sir Martin,
Your points and reflections on what An Inconvenient Truth means to you in the Phillipines are great. I am more familiar with the British/European and American viewpoints and reactions, but was similarly inspired by the DVD. In fact, I wrote my thoughts about taking action to combat climate change here.
And yes, it really is all about finding the political will to do something about our climate challenge. That’s where education comes in: to raise awareness and help people understand enough so as not to be swayed by the old wives tales propagated by special interests in America.
In my blog I try to help middle schoolers find climate challenge ideas easily: like global warming quiz, links to kid-approved websites as well as climate scientists and other experts in this field and images that help explain key points. You are welcome to check it out anytime.
As far as the United States being a major polluter: yes, we are. We also have extremely powerful lobbies from the oil and automobile companies to deal with, and many concerned people are making concerted efforts to address that. The tide is turning in America, however, and there are many people working full-speed-ahead to make things happen that will improve all our climate prospects.
Inel,
Thanks for the fantastic insights. Nice to hear from a fellow teacher!
I took a peek at your blog and saw your work on global warming. Really fascinating. I’ll link you up and recommend you to my own students.
Thanks again and see you around!
pinanuod namin ito sa envi sci…well, naamaze ako…
Well, I am a teacher in a funny kind of way
Actually, I am an engineer who spent many years designing and then training engineers on various aspects of communications systems and network design, and I am a parent who administers blogs on behalf of a few teachers and students, and I have also taught middle schoolers in a variety of situations. Now I am bundling all that together to see how I can help with the climate challenge.
[...] The untarnished truth of our time The era of procrastination, of half-measures, of soothing and baffling expedients, of delays, is coming to a close. In its place we are entering a period of consequences…” – Winston Churchill, November 1936 My first reaction to watching “An Inconvenient Truth” is that my students — as a matter of… [...]
gusto ko talagang panuorin to! ahhhh
[...] is a good follow to “An Inconvenient Truth” since it directly about oil, its exhausts being one of the main causes of global warming. It [...]
Sir, I haven’t watched the film yet pero di ba parang medyo contradicting yata yung sinasabi ni Michael Crichton sa State of Fear about global warming?
Gusto ko nang mapanood yung film.. X_x