Author: greenconvergence

The effects of land reclamation on marine ecology and the coastal environment are gaining attention and being widely studied. It has been found that reclamation may contribute to changes in flooding patterns, cause damage to marine life, and affect the stability of coastal foundations and slopes. With the current proposed and approved reclamation projects in the Philippines, what’s in store for us?

Since the invention of plastic over a hundred years ago, the synthetic material has made its way into every aspect of our life; in food, medicine, clothes, and more, plastic has made our daily tasks more convenient.

Unfortunately, the ease that comes with using plastic has a dark side, and it’s been plaguing our environment slowly but surely. Only less than 10% of all plastics are recycled while the remaining billions of tons of plastic wind up harming wildlife, marine life, and eventually, us humans.

When the state and business sector fail to secure the needs of the people, it is civil society that plays the lead role in protecting and empowering its own people. In recent years, more and more groups have come together to advocate, not just for the people’s welfare, but also for the environment.

Nature has been the inspiration behind many brilliant works of art. Whether it is through paintings, songs, films, stories, or poems, Mother Nature has been the muse behind these works of creativity.

In this month’s Kamayan Para sa Kalikasan Forum, we take a look at how some artists are giving back to the environment. What role do artists have in the care and protection of the environment? How does their work contribute to the spread of the environmental paradigm?

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 59 million Filipinos were reported to suffer from a moderate to severe lack of consistent access to food in 2019. Lack of income, unemployment, and natural disasters are just some of the many causes that lead to the growing number of food-insecure people in the country.

This was all before the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic.

What is the state of the agricultural sector amidst the ongoing pandemic? How has public access to food been affected by the months-long lockdown and quarantine protocols? What can the public and private sectors do to improve people’s access to food?

The pursuit of economic development often results in the neglect of the environment. While there are some who profit from the exploitation of nature, the whole of creation is adversely affected by the consequences of environmental abuse- increased levels of pollution, loss of biodiversity, loss of natural resources, destruction of life-sustaining ecosystems, etc.