Golf for environment slated at Intramuros

MANILA, Philippines - The first Earthly Environmental Magazine Invitational golf tournament, a Philippine-based website project aimed at raising awareness on environmental protection, will be held Sept. 11 at the Intramuros golf course.

Vice President Noli De Castro, Thai Ambassador Kulkumut Singhara Na Ayudhaya, Environment and Natural Resources Secretary Lito Atienza, Undersecretary Chavit Singson of the National Security Council, and members of the diplomatic press corps have been invited to the event.

Sammy Julian, spokesman for Earthly Environmental Magazine, said the website will serve as a venue to explain to the public basic environmental concepts as they relate to current and everyday matters.

Julian explained that through the portal, access to information about the state of the local environment will expand involvement and give people tools to protect their families and their communities as they see fit.

He added that an information exchange among scientists, public health officials, businesses, citizens, and all levels of government, will foster greater knowledge about the environment and what can be done to protect it.

“For us, nothing short of a complete overhaul of our political, economic and industrial systems is required. An environmental ethic of at least some sort is so urgently needed in all quarters,” said Julian.

The portal, he added, will be characterized by meticulous research and a poetic evocation.

“Issues surrounding the quality of the environment are big issues and they call for big solutions. For us, merely complying with laws and regulations designed to stop environmentally damaging practices is not enough,” he said.

The portal, Julian said, will invest time and resources in the development of innovative ideas that stop, and possibly help reverse, environmental damaging practices.