S.O.P. should mean 'Save Our Planet'

Doomed. Sometimes we need to feel that fear to get us into action, whether through prayers or accelerated effort.

 It was after reading about the 10-year strategic plans of the Research and Development Committee of the Baguio Country Club (BCC) that I thought, thank God we have some cause to celebrate. The BCC is focusing on alternative water resources, sources of energy, ecology preservation and improvement for the good of the City of Pines as its contribution to Mother Earth. 

Earth is the blue planet with water — one of the most plentiful natural substances in our environment. However, more than 98 percent of the world’s water is salt water and we depend on freshwater for our basic needs. Most freshwater exists in the polar ice caps! 

The scary lack of water can come about through the global population explosion, projected to expand from today’s six billion people to almost eight billion by 2025. By then more than 80 percent of the world’s population will be living in underdeveloped and developing countries. Even if we say that by that time our children will have assumed our responsibilities, still we have to try to make their future bearable. They must not run out of water.

Competition for water is real. The neglect of a coherent environmental policy can lead to a situation where 58 percent of the groundwater is contaminated by domestic and industrial waste.

Firstly, acknowledging a lack of water, the BCC realized it couldn’t depend on the Baguio City District for three reasons: a water supply that is irregular, insufficient and of poor quality. So the Club added to its own elevated and underground tanks and lagoons. More good news: Anthony de Leon and BCC president Rico Agcaoili, without inconveniencing any Baguio residents, are set to construct an additional five deep wells, two catch basins and a sewage treatment plant because Baguio will always be the Philippines’ summer capital.

How exciting it was going north in our youth, meeting up with classmates and cousins, wearing our sweaters right out of the closet smelling of mothballs, warming ourselves beside the fireplaces, smelling the pine trees, eating salads and strawberries, sliding over dried pines on cardboard sheets like they were sleighs. The fear and problem of years before still remains, though: lack of water. Baguio is constantly short of water, short 60,000 cubic meters daily for the city’s 350,000 residents. God really blessed Baguio, though. Its cool dewdrops fall on flowers watering them, the grounds and fields. There’s also bad news about Baguio. She can only supply 35,000 centimeters of water daily so scheduling the distribution to water supply areas must take place. 

For me, there’s not much worry about my daily water supply as I relax at Baguio Country Club overnight. I don’t have to open up my house, fill up water tanks, put on the heater, take out the bedsheets, pots and pans. I just pester Danny, the BCC supervisor, and check in without a care on the cleaning of the house after a night and a day’s stay.

Yet the ecological problems of the modern world are tremendous and we must face them. The lack of concern for our planet is the main reason why there are so many endangered species and why pollution can be seen in all corners of our country.

The biggest polluter of our planet remains fossil fuels: the burning of gasoline, oil and coal. What would we do without them? Alternative energy resources are used generously in rich countries to decrease their pollution levels. To make matters worse, rich countries sometimes transfer their dirty industries to poor countries that don’t have the appropriate means to plan their own ecology.

Mother Earth has become very vulnerable and her vulnerable condition makes us humans vulnerable, too, with the threat of global warming that could cause diseases, death and mass destruction. Global warming, in case you haven’t heard, is the increase in the average temperature of the earth’s atmosphere and oceans. The destruction of forests is another cause of added heat since trees absorb carbon dioxide from decomposing organic matter, usually dead plants and animals.

Carbon-based gases maintain heat within the atmosphere, keeping the sun’s energy from being reflected back to space. The scientific consensus identifies greenhouse gases as the main influence. The major natural greenhouse gases are water vapor, carbon dioxide, methane and ozone. This process of trapping radiated solar heat is called the “Greenhouse Effect.” Greenhouse gases naturally blanket the earth, warm the planet and keep us at 33 degrees Celsius — warmer than it would be without these gases in the atmosphere. What does the BCC do about all this? It avoids burning its waste. The Baguio Country Club has identified what type of waste is being discarded from each department, such as office paper, corrugated cardboard, cans, bottles, toner cartridges, glass, metal, cans, plastic containers, newspapers and magazines.

Based on the results of its waste assessment, the Club set up appropriate programs to place containers where recycling is most convenient — near the exits of each floor of the hotel and near the elevators. The management has also noted that business conferences are a major source of waste. The average conference attendee takes home up to 10 pounds of paper and is likely to throw away souvenirs after a conference. So place unwanted materials in recycling containers at the BCC’s meeting sites and you can help minimize the use of glossy paper. 

The BCC purchases and uses hundreds of kilos of assorted commercial fertilizers to maintain its gardens and its 18-hole golf course. For the Club to combat land pollution, management is converting its dependence on pesticides and herbicides to more organic practices by means of using natural compost as a fertilizer.

At our last Baguio Country Club board meeting presided over by Sylvia Ilusorio Yap and Rep. Rudy Alban, the Board of Directors’ Jojo Ozaeta, Ernie Sanchez, Carlos del Rosario, Lin Bildner and Rico Agcaoili discussed the organization’s human resource development which is the Club’s pride and the members’ joy. We set goals on achievable levels of performance, discussed savings from energy consumption and water programs, and ways to keep the tourism industry growing without threatening the environment.

Recycling is the key component of modern waste management. Remember this slogan: “Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.” Those steps allow natural bacteria to break down the waste into fertile topsoil. 

We discussed gases in the atmosphere such as carbon dioxide, water vapor, methane and nitrous oxide, which make up the so-called greenhouse gases that let light in but keep the heat from escaping. As the sunlight passes through the earth’s atmosphere, most of its heat is absorbed by the earth’s surface. Some of the heat is radiated back up to the atmosphere but much of it is trapped by greenhouse gases. The result can be destructive to nature. Floods and droughts, the increase of insect populations, sea levels rising, negative repercussions on agriculture, a reduction in the ozone layer, frequency of hurricanes, and the spread of diseases such as malaria and dengue fever can occur.

As individuals what can we do about global warming? We of the Philippine Public Safety College along with the Baguio Country could be instrumental in finding solutions to global warming, just by starting at home.

Drive less and purchase more energy-efficient cars. Landscape your homes so that trees on the south side block the summer sun (trees absorb the carbon dioxide emitted). Talk to community leaders about planting more trees and the need for walkways. It’s time to act now to save our plants, water and children!