The Inconvenient Truth: Simple Ways to Help Mother Earth

Last week, DLSU celebrated and institutionalized its first ever Environment Week as a form of its awareness campaign on how we could and should take care of our environment. There were several activities being held around the campus, including an exhibit of the solar-powered car by the College of Engineering, as well as the Lasallian Green Conference, a convention for Lasallian leaders from all over the country gathering and discussing ways on how the youth can save the environment and avoid the mistakes we have committed from the past. For our COSORES class this week, our professor showed us the film, "An Inconvenient Truth" which was about the different ways on how we are becoming harmful to the environment. It presented facts and statistics as to what is already happening to our environment--explaining how we are contributing to this endangered status our environment is already in. After watching the film, she asked us to list down some of the ways in which we can help lessen CO2 emissions. Here is my own personal list:

1.) Practice the reduce, reuse, recycle and proper waste segregation at home.

This may sound like a cliché, but more often than not, this may be one of the simplest and most practical way with which we can help reduce the CO2 emissions. We simply have to ensure that we identify the reusable materials and utilize them. At the same time, it would also be cost-efficient since you will not be purchasing anything again.

2.) Minimize the use of electricity at home whenever possible.

Turn off the lights and use sunlight in the morning, minimize the use of air conditioners, opening the windows instead of using electric fans, turning off the TV and other appliances when they are not in use, investing more on activities which require less electricity such as reading novels or playing sports. These actions may seem to be contributing very little to reducing CO2 emission, but if these are practiced by everyone, then this greatly impacts and will have a positive effect in helping out the environment.

3.) Reduce the use of plastic as much as possible.

Reducing the use of plastic will lead to less non-recyclable wastes, which will in turn lessen our trash. Plastic may be considered as one of the top non-biodegradable wastes men produce which is greatly used in various industries (packaging of food and beverage, packaging for grocery items, etc.). If we start reducing our use of plastic, then it will definitely decrease our emissions of CO2.

4.) Purchase locally-made products as much as possible.

According to Brook (2008), by supporting locally-made products, we are helping out not only our country economically, but it also has implications on the environment. Locally-made products use less CO2, since it would take less time to deliver the goods to their local customers (use of less transportation for delivery, etc.).

5.) Whenever possible, walk or ride a bicycle when going to your destination

This alternative has two good effects. First, walking or riding a bicycle would entail the use of less vehicles on the road. Less vehicles also means that there is less use of energy and gas, which is a great contributor in pollution. Second, it would also entail that there will be less traffic, and less traffic would entail that more people will get to their destinations faster, which leads again to less use of energy and gas through means of transportation (vehicles, trucks, etc.).

6.) Do online meetings and conferences if there is no need to leave your homes and go to school or work.

This alternative is related to the previous one. Utilizing online meetings and conferences when possible would entail less traffic, and thus less use of gas which would lead to less pollution, which greatly affects CO2 emissions.

7.) Buy energy-saving appliances for your home.

As mentioned earlier, buying energy-saving appliances for your home will help lessen the emission of CO2. Since the appliances are energy-saving, we can expect that it will use less electricity in our homes.

8.) Support and participate in CSR activities available—be it in the community, the school or even the office.

Corporate Social Responsibility is already a very much talked-about issue in our society. Various companies have seen the need to practice CSR not only for their own good, but also because this will affect the communities and various stakeholders they are dealing with. Due to its popular demand, they are numerous CSR programs available to us. As responsible citizens of this country, we are encouraged to support and participate in these CSR activities. There is no need to go far, in the university, several practices have been institutionalized to promote less pollution such as zero-plastic project of the USG the Scratch Paper Initiative where the use of scratch paper among students and faculty is highly encouraged.