Lvestock producers in the Davao Region are also into efforts in promoting a cleaner environment which currently feeling the noticeable effects of global warming brought about by greenhouse effect. They are partnering with financial institutions to put up facilities that will convert solid waste to energy that is needed for lighting and other requirements in operating the farm.
Teresita Pascual, general manager of Cecilia Stock Farm and past president of Hog Raisers Association of the Davao Region said the move is in support to the campaign of reducing emission of greenhouse gases.
Realizing that livestock wastes contribute to greenhouse effect, Pascual said the business sector is into addressing the problem even before the advocacy campaign was launched in Davao City.
She said a livestock farm with a population of a thousand heads is good enough to supply the farm’s energy requirement.
Their farm, Pascual said with a population 15,000 could produce 300 kilowatts daily of which their need is only about 200. They are still studying how to pass on the excess to be utilized by others.
She said the business sector joins the Davao Climate Change Action Network (Davao CCAN) on the awareness campaign so the people in Davao City know about climate change.
Councilor Leo Avila III, council committee chair on environment said Davao City is reach out to various publics to campaign for reduction of emission of greenhouse gases among them carbon dioxide and methane as by-products of their daily lives.
“We must act now or else our city will be submerged by a 3-5 meter rise of sea water 10 years from,” he said.
Davao CCAN is behind the recent passage of a city council resolution declaring the period December 8 to 15, 2007 as climate change awareness week in Davao City.
Avila bared that while world leaders are meeting in Bali, Indonesia on climate change it seems that highly industrial countries are not keen on supporting the Kyoto Protocol.
He said 80 percent of the world’s emission comes from 25 countries while Philippines and other smaller nations contributes only about five percent.
“Filipinos have to act fast because we are vulnerable of its effect where 80 percent of the population lives along 50 kilometers coastline,” he said.
Betty Cabazares, executive director of Kinaiyahan Foundation Incorporated (KFI) said human activities sine 1800s are altering the climate of Planet Earth due to massive use of coal and other fossil fuels creating carbon dioxide.
Barog Kalikupan Dabaw (Barkada) president Ricky Jimenez said in less than two centuries, the total amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increased by 25 percent.
Carbon dioxide is responsible for the 50 percent of the greenhouse effect, a condition in which excessive heat is trapped by carbon dioxide and is prevented from escaping to outer space.
Each year people add six billion tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere. The United States shares 1.5 billion tons.
The Davao CCAN proposes strategies to address climate change by pushing advocacy through education, mitigation, sequestration, solid waste management, and adaptation.
South Phils Business 