The picture on the top is a beautiful sunset view of Quezon City, which is part of the Philippines' Metro Manila. On the bottom is a picture I took of the Quezon City Dump Site. Notice any differences? We rode there by jeepney from downtown Manila, and I could not go long without attempting to filter out the polluted air with my T-shirt. By the time we arrived at the city dump, I was sweating and my lungs and throat actually hurt from breathing the air that has now become visible having acquired a grayish-yellow tinge. The literally breathtaking view looked nothing like the picturesque scene on the left. The dump could be smelled for miles. Hundreds of squatter homes lined the edges of the dump. Dump workers scoured the garbage hilltops for a measly couple dollars a day while children played in black river nearby.
In light of our recent discussion on the environmental sustainability and the two diametric picture above, I invite you to read Dr. Sanjay Gupta's blog on Al Gore's Academy Award winning documentary, "An Inconvenient Truth". He gives a visual representation of the current environmental and health implications of global warming as we spew out carbon emissions from the use of fossil fuels at a lightning pace. Most people view the documentary as a wake-up call for an emergency crisis that has emerged as a result of our indifference and/or ignorance. Global warming already has immediate impacts in our lifetime - in fact, I experienced them first-hand in Quezon City -and they most certainly will for our future loved ones.
In case you don't get a chance to read the blog and corresponding comments, I want to at least make available what someone said in response to this global crisis:
"First off, a politician writing a film on Global warming is absolute garbage. Secondly, most physicists do not even believe in global warming. What people consider "global warming" is the +2 degrees Celsius change that we have seen over the past few years. Big deal. In a real data set, this would be considered noise. I think global warming is equivalent to religion and it's an act to try and control the masses and to tell them to do "what is right" for their planet. Which, this is easy to do given the persuasiveness of politicians and our president and the relatively low IQ level of the average human being." Posted By Ashley, Fulton, NY : 2:53 PM ET
I have no comment...
9 comments:
Cori,
It still amazes me to see how people adamantly deny the current situation. Does it make daily life easier to assume that using the entire Earth’s resources doesn’t have an impact on our well being or that not worrying about the future is ok? I guess it might, but as great as it is to live in the moment, if we don’t focus on the impacts our actions have on the environment today (something Al Gore did an amazing job getting across in his documentary) there will be no world to live in the moment in for the future.
Cori,
Interesting post. The current and future effects of global warming are just shocking--the evidence keeps mounting. I wonder what it will take? Will it really take a massive global crisis for people to start to respond to what has already gone too far?
Farah, I really think it will take a massive global crisis for the majorite to start taking action. Everyone needs "eye opening" disaster to really put things in perspective and make the matter seem urgent (althout it already is). Not many people care to make inconvenient changes unless the consequencs impact them in some direct and catastrophic way. Otherwise, it seems easier to either look the other way or wait for someone else to clean up the mess. Sad, but true.
Cori,
That quote astounds me. I cant believe people can ignore everything that is going on aroud them. I also think that it is going to take a massive global crisis for this to sink into people's heads. For some reason it doesn't register with a lot of people that there is a problem until something majorly horrible has come about.
ok really interesting I just had... realize the price hike in So Cal gasoline over the past month? Well on the news, the gas companies blame it on 2 wild animals that chewed off the electrical cables supplying the refineries--Enron anyone??
When the issue of global health went to congress last week the speaker on behalf of environmental health still argued that their is no evidence for global health - and this is a representative in Congress. This is both awful and surprising.
Cori, I like your contrasting images. Its a shame that we are not doing enough to combat global warming.
what global warming, Kat?? It's all in your mind. Afterall, spring is supposed to have cold weather similar to winter and the summer, well the sun's supposed to scorch you black. :-) I guess evidence definitely does not mean anything to many people.
in response to that quote by Ashley, clearly she has not taken a bio class in her life (or never paid attention). The 2 degree changes does not affect her, but the 2 degree rise equate to thousands of species being extinct, mostly in ocean life too. Also, many forms of bacteria now reproduce multiple times a year as opposed to once a year. There is nothing good about global warming.
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