MISAMIS OCCIDENTAL (PIA) –“Everyone is part of taking care of the environment; even as a buyer or consumer, given that responsibility to take care of the environment, the answer is yes!”
Environmental Sustainability Officer, La Salle University, Ozamiz City, Engr. Esmael O. Larubis, shared in Let’s Talk MisOcc, a media forum hosted by PIA Misamis Occidental, says, “We are living in a common home, and we are breathing that same air in the environment.”
According to NASA, since the 1980s baseline temperature, the earth’s temperature has increased from 0.86 to 0.9 degrees Celsius in 2022.
“It’s getting hotter,” Larubis said.
Although humans can actually adapt, such as by using air-conditioning units to cool, there are aspects of the environment that adapt to create harm to the environment.
The adaptation of each organism is a big factor in the change in temperature.
“Before, dengue cases were just in the lowlands, but now these cases can also be found in the uplands and in the mountains; further, there is a rise in different species of dengue virus,” the engineer explained.
The second point can be raised about the resources that people have, said Larubis.
There is an early depletion of fossil fuels.
“I had a professor in 2003 at MSU-IIT who said that by 2050, we will be depleting our fossil fuels; most scientists say now we are running out of fossil fuels,” he said.
There are three classes of fossil fuels: the first is natural gas, used in LPG, which will deplete by around 2060; the other is commonly used in cars, particularly gasoline; and the third is kerosene, known as petroleum, which, based on the analysis of scientists, will deplete by 2053.
The last one is the one that powers coal power plants. Based on the analysis by the scientists, this will be depleted by 2070.
Fossil fuels are precious resources, said Larubis.
“They are the resources where we derive the medicines; we derive the common basic necessities in life. If we cannot take care of these depleting resources, then the tendency is that they will never sustain the next generation,” he explained.
Larubis shared that everyone is interconnected and everyone deserves to have a healthy ecology in accordance with the rhythm and harmony of nature.
“What you do can affect others. In case the other is depleting, the tendency is that it might happen that other organisms cannot live because this one is already out,” he said. (JMOR/PIA-10/Misamis Occidental)
