Cebu Green Economy Series II

Today we started a two-day workshop for the city on environment. We were expecting that the mayor would come and do the welcoming remarks but unfortunately he was unavailable due to his busy schedule. So the group gave the task to me to do the welcoming remarks for the activity. I would just like to share this because in my opinion it is addressed to everyone.

"Welcome: Cebu Green Economy Series II - Convergence of Communities for Sustainable Cities

Honored guest and friends of environment, Welcome.

Every moment you expose yourself to the environment it only takes a little of common sense to know that the environment has changed.

Our natural resources now are ever being threatened by ever grown human activity which contributes to a large portion to environmental degradation.

The ever changing landscape, disappearing forest, extinctions, changing biodiversity, pollution are just some of the concerns among countless others.

Even our children can no longer determine how genuine some of our trees are. Some of our children today do not even know how endemic trees like the Catmon, Tugas, Santol and countless others look like.

The environment has change but that does not mean its all about adaptation, but is it also about cultural and social biodiversity.

Human activity has change this landscape, but the question is how far do we want this change to go? How far will we say that enough change has been brought into the environment? How far do we go in terms of development?

Initiatives like these challenges the brilliant minds of our ever grown abundant human capital to make hard and painful decision to ensure our future, our survival.

Friends of environment, let this be a challenge to all of us to come into a full circle. To use less, to conserve more and to protect more.

With that, in behalf of the Cebu City Government, The Cebu City Environment and Natural Resources Office which I represent, I would like again to say Welcome to the 2nd Cebu Green Economy Series."

Alliances

Some alliances are just to good to be true. Others are shrouded in mystery and lies. Others are made in heaven and while others last even beyond our lifetime.

Same is true with all forms of emotions like love, happiness, joy, hate and still holds true with relationship and friendship. But the end of some alliances can foster also the beginning of new ones.

We always learn from our mistakes which has brought man this far. The strongest foundations on earth were built from the mistakes and learnings of the past. Only time can tell on how far we will go and how far civilization will take us into the future.

Again, I have always been telling people this, "Our greatest responsibility is to pass on the wisdom, knowledge, the skill and good experiences that we have to the next generation". We are just stewards of this earth and that what we pass on to the next generation is our greatest gift to them.

Environmental Program

Today I had a taste of my first radio interview. It went quite well. The program was one hour. The discussion were more on environmental programs of the city. When I was with ICT, I was just at the back burner. No media interview, no nothing. This time, I get to interact with the public more. ;-)

This new job seems to be getting more and more interesting everyday. And it's true, one does not have to be a scientist to be an environmentalist. You just have to have a lot of common sense.

I will be writing about other activities here in the coming days related to Environment and hot ICT an a tool can enable better efficiency in preventing loss of life and property. Being close to environment has its advantages. I have more articles to write about and discovery and learn new things. ;-)