Saving Earth

IN THE PLACE I call work, I exercise the following on a daily basis.

One. Never switch-on the fluorescent lamp right above my head. Instead, I absorb the stray illumination from nearby lighting. To be able to accomplish this, the facilities department has provided each lamp its own pull switch for a better control, when to turn it on or shut it off. This way, I am maximizing the energy consumed and simultaneously saving some of it.

Two. Turning off the computer monitor during breaks, which accounts to as much 1 hour and 20 minutes of the total 9 hours I spend at my desk. That’s about 14.8% of monitor power saved.

Three. I usually forget my handkerchief whenever I go to work. So what I do whenever I have a trip to the rest room is used the tissue available, sparingly. I care for the trees, that’s all.

Four. Call me unhygienic but I don’t flush the cubicle after peeing. I assume that the next person after me will do that, thus, saving a considerable amount of clean water. That is hitting two birds with one stone.

Five. I have a pair of scissors in my drawer. And I see good reasons for its simple function of cutting and trimming; muscle exercise to relieve stress in the hand and arms, and transforming waste papers into tiny notes to write on.

Early this morning, the voice in the PA system has announced that today is World Environment Day. As part of its contribution to the worldwide reaction in chasing and solving global warming, it encourages everyone in the offices and elsewhere in the production to save earth from the wraths of global warming, by a collective effort of conserving energy.

And I hope that the voice of encouragement spoke to everyone who heard it and put "saving the earth" practices into a daily habit.

Finally, Rain!!!

THE RAINMAKER HAS arrived.

It's been almost a week of wet afternoon and it's not even the month of June, yet. I am so eagerly happy. Who is not?

After more than two months of summer season beginning from the month of March, the temperature was so terrible and no one is going to deny that it must be the hottest summer ever to hit this place of the earth.

The concluded Palarong Pambansa held in Koronadal City in the last week of April, has suffered the most painful of effects of the hot sun. A high school principal from Marinduque succumbed to heart attack due to the severity of the temperature which peaked at 36 degrees. Later on, another casualty was reported to have died due to shortness of breath during a parade.

Nonetheless, I guess it's time to buy a new and sturdy umbrella that will withstand the harsh that is the rain. And let us prepare for the revenge of the nimbus clouds and pray that a rebirth of another Milenyo would be aborted.

Endless Discontent

PEOPLE ALWAYS HAVE a bad word about the weather.

They always complain about the climate's inconsistencies, probably since the day they were born. I'm pretty sure infants would cry out loud when they couldn't stand the heat, or cold, manifesting their discomfort. From sun-up until darkness roam, from first day up to the 365th of the calendar, people have always said something in a form of recommendations and even curses, as to why the weather is so atrociously hot, and why it is so blistering cold. If ever these complaints are put together on paper and piled in one location, we would have warehouses constructed that could fit the entire Laguna Technopark, multiplied by three.

Last night, and several evenings before, I thought I was somewhere in between Sagada, Mountain Province and Baguio City. It was like someone has turned on a gigantic air conditioning unit in a usually hot trodden place. The wind was whistling as if it just came out of the freezer, and it was whistling hard, it chills even the most hidden and obscure part of your body.

One of my close associates has been openly vocal against the sudden drop in the temperature that lurks the entire Laguna atmosphere and most probably, the entire Luzon. She was whimpering about her right arm's muscle pain and accused the weather as the culprit behind her agony. Another was wailing upon hearing a news story on boob tube apropos of the hollywood celebrities' move to heighten global warming and bring about consciousness and alarm to everyone. It was quite ironic of a news story relating global warming delivered on a time when all the busy streets has suddenly turned empty because people were hiding behind the comfort of their shelters to avoid the biting cold.

Brad Pitt has never been this correct, or Nicole Kidman, George Clooney and the rest of the Tinseltown's. The cold temperature grappling the city is accurately associated with Earth's inevitable becoming of an oven. The icebergs in the regions where they massively exist are gradually melting, effecting the cold stream of winds in the tropics such as the Philippines. In the summer, when the sun is at its peak, it will ultimately bring shrieks to skin burns and rise in the sales of SPF 60 or 100 sun-screen lotion.

If we don't act now, we might not witness the era of Star Wars vision because we were returned back to ice age of The Day After Tomorrow. Sea level rises because the icebergs are melting, and if it will not stop, I guess Mount Everest will only be the piece of land remaining visible. I can't imagine how to put the more than 6.5 billion people there!

What we can probably do in our own perspective is stop smoking. Instead of driving your own car (err, I don't have my own car) use the public transport. If we all ride on the jeeps and buses, we will simultaneously save on gas and contribute to the deduction of CO2 emission, the number 1 rascal of ozone layer depletion. Save every bit of electricity in the house, turn off that light in the rest room, please! Save everything! Use paper bags instead of plastic. And you may also plant a tree today, it will add oxygen to the air.

Don't fret if the cold bites you, at least you are rid of the sight of a shirtless unemployed neighbor.