Earth Hour 2017 and World Water Day

The yearly environmental event, Earth Hour, will be celebrated tomorrow, March 25, 2017 between 8:30 and 9:30 p.m. Earth Hour is a worldwide movement for the planet organized by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The event is held worldwide annually encouraging individuals, communities, households and businesses to turn off their non-essential lights for one hour, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m. towards the end of March, as a symbol for their commitment to the planet. It was famously started as a lights-off event in Sydney, Australia in 2007.

According to WWF-Philippines, Earth Hour Philippines’ main switch-off event shall be held at SM by the Bay, Mall of Asia Complex from 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM on March 25. A large focus of Earth Hour-Philippines will be on galvanizing the youth to be the climate leaders of tomorrow. The Philippines has been championing the switch-off since 2008 and has topped global participation records from 2009 to 2012 – earning it the title of Earth Hour Hero Country.

Last year’s Earth Hour achieved record participation by 178 countries and territories. There were also over 6,600 events registered on digital maps by individuals and organizations and 1.23 million individual actions taken to help change climate change. The lights out was held at over 400 iconic landmarks including the Sydney Opera House (Sydney), Big Ben and the Houses of Parliament (London), the Tokyo Tower (Tokyo), the Empire State Building (New York), Marina Bay Sands Hotel (Singapore) and the Eiffel Tower (Paris).

We encouraged everyone to switch off lights and other non-essential appliances during the Earth Hour to show our support for the environment.

***** Last Wednesday, March 22, we also celebrated World Water Day (WWD). This Event is held for us to take action to tackle the water crisis. Today, there are over 663 million people living without a safe water supply close to home, spending countless hours queuing or trekking to distant sources, and coping with the health impacts of using contaminated water. This year’s theme is “Why waste water?” This in support of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals on improving water quality and reducing, treating and reusing wastewater.

Globally, the vast majority of all the wastewater from our homes, cities, industry and agriculture flows back to nature without being treated or reused thus polluting drinking and bathing and irrigation and losing valuable nutrients and other recoverable materials. Many homes are still without septic tanks, the most basic wastewater treatment syst em.

Wastewater contains a number of pollutants and contaminants such that when discharged to freshwater bodies and marine waters without being treated, can cause water pollution that is harmful to aquatic life. When discharged on lands, wastewater can leach into underground water tables and potentially contaminate aquifers and underground water.

Consider that the operation of the CPP and the NPA, unlike for example those of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Moro National Liberation Front (MNLF) and even the Abu Sayyaf and Maute groups, are nationwide in scope. CPP organizations exist in majority of the regions in the country and all major islands in the country have NPA guerilla units. I agree that the number of NPA armed regulars have drastically been reduced since its peak in the ‘80s or during the waning years of the Marcos dictatorship. But that is being negated by the fact that it operates nationwide. The logic of this has always been to spread thin the AFP , which has been tasked to end the rebellion. Government forces may be larger, but they are spread thinly. What I am saying is that while NPA strength has weakened considerably from its heydays, it is still a force to reckon with after 48 years of existence. Its offensives can still hurt, which is probably the reason why the President, after issuing the “scorched earth” threat when he ordered the ending of the peace negotiations last month, has allowed the resumption of the talks.

That the NPA has survived government assaults for 48 years only means that the time is ripe to find other ways to end the rebellion.