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The film entitled “An Inconvenient Truth” by Al Gore opened my eyes to the reality of global warming. Watching the movie made me realize its disturbing effects on different nations of the world. But lately, what moved my heart into action was a documentary film shown on April 20, 2008 in Philippine television which was made by GMA7 entitled “Signos” - a GMA climate change documentary on global warming in the Philippines.

Global Warming. According to studies of scientists, the earth continually gets hotter and hotter. In fact, this last decade has been the hottest so far not just in the Philippines but also in the neighboring countries. 1998 was recorded as being the hottest year. Fossil fuel coming from coal fuel plants is the primary source of energy in the whole world. This is the source of energy that we use for our appliances to run. Every time we use our vehicles, we also use fossil fuel which releases carbon dioxide in the air. But since the industrial revolution happened in 18^th century, there was and increasing usage in fossil fuel. When this industrial revolution happened, studies in history indicates that earth’s temperature grew higher and higher. Because of this, carbon dioxide got thicker and thicker in increasing amounts in the atmosphere and along with other green house gasses, it blocks the heat of the sun that should naturally goes out or comes out of the earth which resulted in an increasing rise in our temperature which we now call global warming.

Our seas and oceans naturally absorbs carbon dioxide in our atmosphere but because of the abnormal amounts that now proliferate in the air, our seas now becomes more acidic and hotter by the day. The sea of the Philippines is tagged as the center of coral triangle. The region that has the riches marine life in the whole world but now is being endangered by the rise of temperature. Even in the places such as El Nido, a Philippine tourist spot, the effects are being felt.

Coral Bleaching. In 1998, there came a massive coral bleaching in different parts of the world due to the rise of temperature and a lot of coral reef got affected and one of them was our own El Nido Palawan. Corral reefs are important in our seas because they’re used as an indicator of the state of our natural resources. If coral bleaching occurs, the fish and other marine life won’t have enough food which will result in death of such. It would take 4 to 8 years for our coral reef to recover. This past year, coral bleaching occurred again in El Nido and if this goes on, another industry will experience crisis.

In Sorsogon, tourism is one industry that puts food on the table for a majority of inhabitants. Large fishes from other parts of the world come to visit this place like the whale sharks or “butanding”. From November to May, you can frequently see whale sharks in this place but since March, their frequency got diminished due to the distribution of food.

In Sogod Leyte, you can also see whale sharks in its waters, but this year, none has shown or have been sighted

Abnormal Climate Change. Super typhoons like “reming” & “milenyo” are results of abnormal and drastic, fast changing climates. If it’s not raining, drought comes in its place. History records its devastating toll in our nation.

Another effect of global warming to our country is the rise of our sea in abnormal levels. Places like manila, cavite, pampangga and bulacan will be affected. These places can be flooded by a level increase of 1 meter of sea water.

Apathy and irresponsibility towards taking care of our nature and environment seems to have caused these catastrophes that we now experience, definitely not an act of God but made by men weather conscious or unconscious. - Chad Atmosfera

Raise your voice. We need new laws and will power to execute such laws that will steer our nation towards the most important solutions to global warming — cleaner cars and cleaner power plants. Send a message to your elected officials, sphere of influence, and social networks, letting them know that we will be held accountable for what we do – or fail to do – about global warming.

Together, we can make a difference.

Watch SIGNOS documentary? click here

Watch Inconvinient truth? click video below…

Tags: An Inconvinient Truth, Environment, Film, Global Warming, Signos, Video

This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 22nd, 2008 at 11:51 am and is filed under Environment. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.