EDITORIAL - Green cities

Environmental awareness around the globe has increased exponentially since 20 million Americans gathered in streets, parks and other public places on April 22, 1970 for a “national teach-in on the environment” conceptualized by a senator from Wisconsin.

The event became the first Earth Day gathering. Today the special day is observed by more than a billion people in 190 countries, with participants planting trees, cleaning up their communities and contributing in many other ways to protecting the planet from climate change and other environmental challenges.

The first Earth Day led to the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency in the US plus the passage of legislation to promote clean air and water as well as protect endangered species. Similar measures have been enacted since then in many other countries including the Philippines. But complex challenges remain, with governments often finding the need to balance the demands of economic development with preservation of the environment.

A long-term goal, adopted as the Earth Day theme this year, is to develop green cities. Philippine property developers and government officials have been incorporating this concept into new residential and mixed-use sites that have risen across the country. Urban planning has improved in recent decades as people realize the value of clean and green communities. Property developers market their communities as bird sanctuaries and tree reservations. Squirrels have been spotted in these protected spots of green.

Developing green cities, however, can be daunting for cities drowning in urban blight and with large populations of the impoverished. This is the case in the city of Manila, with its traffic-choked streets and communities that depend for their livelihood on scavenging in garbage dumps and making charcoal. The problem is emerging even in some of the country’s top tourist destinations.

Even Philippine cities with lower poverty rates have a long way to go in turning green. Weak enforcement of the Clean Air Act has resulted in continuing heavy pollution. Inefficient garbage collection is compounded by individual filthy habits and the failure to enforce laws against littering. People drink water from the tap at their own risk, with water-borne diseases that should have been eradicated years ago, such as cholera, still posing a problem. Earth Day marks a reaffirmation of the resolve to do more to create green, livable communities.