Bangui windmills [SWF]

My first reaction when I saw these windmills was:  Whoa, these were built by aliens!  Then I kept thinking about Transformers (the movie). :p 

Bangui windmills, the first power-generating windmill farm in the Philippines---a must-see when you're in Ilocos Norte.  These gigantic wind turbines along the shores of Bangui Bay, Ilocos Norte, face the South China Sea and are considered the biggest in Southeast Asia.  The turbines hub height is 70 meters, each blade is 41 meters long, and the base of a turbine is 6 meters in diameter.


"...As yet, the wind is an untamed,an unharnessed force; and quite possibly one of the greatest discoveries hereafter to be made, will be the taming, and harnessing of it."


                   - Abraham Lincoln, 1860

Bangui is 553 kilometers north of Manila, and 66 kilometers from Laoag City, the provincial capital.

This post is linked to Sky-Watch, Friday

Think Green Thursday: uprooted trees

It's amazing these trees are still alive---but not for long. And yes, the oceans are rising! These uprooted trees by the coastline of Cagbalete Island are evidence of global warming resulting to shoreline retreat in many smaller islands across the country. Fisher folks In Cagbalete told me that their coastline used to be thriving with lush vegetation and a couple of meters away from the current shoreline. In the past few years, however, waves have been surging the elevated coastline during high tide, causing soil erosion, uprooting trees and slowly swallowing the beach-front. Clearly, a low-lying island like Cagbelete is at risk of being submerged by rising sea level.

Living in an archipelago of 7,100 plus islands, I was alarmed when I read the WWF report a couple of years ago that about 1,000 islands in the Philippines may sink because of global warming. Although the government has been calling for tougher goals in fighting global warming, everyone should do his/her share, or we'd end up losing one third of the archipelago and become environmental refugees. If we don't take this seriously, then we'd better start looking for another island, in case the one we're in would be written off the map in the next few years.

Posted for Think Green Thursday

Ruby Tuesday: parasol

A bamboo pole as a makeshift stand for an umbrella. An ingenious way to create a shade for father and son while they soak in the cool waters of Dumacaa River.

Taken in Tayabas on Black Saturday.

Posted for Ruby Tuesday

Green Initiatives

For the very first time, the Philippines hosted the Eco-Products International Fair on March 19-22 at the SMX Convention Center. In the past years, the fair was held in Hanoi, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Singapore. The fair featured everything related to the environment---from the latest environmental technologies to manufactured goods, equipment, systems and services. Organized by Asian Productivity Organization, Development Academy of the Philippines and Philippine Business for the Environment, and supported by the Japan Foundation Manila, various embassies, government and private institutions.

One of the most interesting booths at the fair was the DTi-Bayong Development Project. This project focuses on the good ol' bayong, a traditional market bag made of natural leaves such as pandan, buri, sabutan, abaca and romblon which are abundant in the countryside. It re-introduces bayong for a win-win benefit of creating livelihood opportunities and contributing to preserving the environment. Instead of non-biodegradable packaging, why not use bayong? According to DTI, there are indications that bayong could spark a whole new export industry. Hmmmn...it could even be reinvented to become a fashion statement of green-minded shopaholics! Picture this: Paris Hilton shopping at Rodeo Drive with her signature bayong! Pwede!

bayong weaving demo

organic rice at Go Organic!

I also lingered at the Go Organic! booth. They're promoting organic farming as a way of life to improve the income of Filipino farmers, secure the availability of affordable food for Filipinos, better health for consumers, restore and prevent the deterioration of the environment. I tried switching to organic brown rice about 2 years ago but it felt like eating horse food (you'd probably wonder how I know what darak tastes like...I was a horse in my past life, that's why! :-P). Anyway, I possibly bought an inferior brand or an old stock, but I'm willing to try again.

And there's this cute electric car from EVnnovations. This is the first commercially-available electric car in the Philippines to be introduced by Ramcar Group. I hope this would answer the growing concerns over high oil prices and global warming. It's high time that we seriously look into alternative solutions that are economically and ecologically friendly. I'm excited to see e-cars on the road, and e-jeepneys as well---air of better quality is finally possible in the near future!

REVAi, an electric car
electric jeepney

And speaking of e-jeepneys---I spotted this electric jeepney at the National Trade Show in early March, also held at the SMX. The iconic Pinoy jeepney has also turned electric. It was launched in 2007, I think, but so far, I haven't seen it on the streets. I remember e-jeepneys were road tested in Makati 2 years ago, and I wonder if they're still rolling on the streets of the business district.

stone cast

Stonecast products from Cebu...patented and sold in the world market. These are handmade from natural crushed stone, dry-stamped into a mold simulating how the earth makes limestone. The material looks and feels like cut limestone, and it can be used for indoor and outdoor.

A model "Green Home" was also showcased, an eco-labeling program, eco-tourism, car-makers (with a car prototype that runs on vegetable oil!), electronics manufacturers, a photo exhibit, solar panels, eco-friendly furniture, recycling market, herbal generics, organic foods and lots of Japanese companies. I enjoyed my time at the fair...especially tasting different blends of organic coffee and catching some parts of featured films. They were showing "Brutus: Ang Paglalakbay"---about the environmental degradation of Mindoro from the eyes of two Mangyan teenagers; "Donsol", a town in Sorsogon and the home of the butanding (whaleshark); "Abong/Small Home" and "Kadin (The Goat)". There was also a Joey Ayala concert (but I didn't come back for that). President Arroyo graced the fair and I tried to take her photo--- but as expected, she was surrounded by aides, executives and diplomats and all I got was a photo of the back of her head between two giant aides.:-P

A global warning

Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was aired on HBO last night, to coincide with Earth Day, I suppose. The documentary is a global warning about global warming. Very scary and very real. The awesome glaciers are melting, seas are getting warmer, storms have become more powerful, wildlife is immigrating to new habitats, species are driven to extinction, bush fires are everywhere, and diseases are evolving. The footage where a panicked polar bear was trying to hold on to a melting ice is heart-breaking. Imagine a drowned polar bear!

And I couldn’t shake off the image in my head of a fleet of boats beached on sand that used to be a river. The pictures of drying rivers and lakes, rising oceans are terrifying. Even a partial melting of Greenland's ice sheet would cause a one-meter rise in sea levels which would submerge low-lying islands, cities, countries even.

But Greenland, the North Pole, the Alps, or Siberia are so far away from here---it's almost inconceivable that what happens on the other side of the planet could affect us. So here's one that is closer to home: the shoreline at my mother’s hometown in Negros has been retreating for years. The beach that used to be our playground in the 70’s is now a stretch of cement with a 10-foot concrete sea-wall. In another coastal town near my grandfather’s house, the barangay road and houses near the beach are gone and it’s now a shoreline. The wet land where our neighbors used to grow kangkong (swamp cabbage), where my brothers and the other boys fished native catfish (hito), is now an arid piece of land. Even the small stream in my grandfather's property has dried up. I was surprised to learn during my vacation last month that the huge Chico tree in my mother's backyard was no longer there…the leaves turned brown and fell one by one, what was left of the tree are its brittle branches and dead trunk. It was due to the heat, an uncle told me. The tree shaded a bamboo bench where we hang out during hot summer afternoons, eating halo-halo.

The threat to every inhabitant of this planet is very real. We are causing global warming and the effects are devastating. And don’t say that we can only pray because there is something for every one to do---small things, big things. From managing our garbage to searching for alternative energy sources.

When you pray, move your feet.
~ An old African proverb

Simple things we can do to help stop global warming:

Change a light
Replacing one regular light bulb with a compact fluorescent light bulb will save 150 pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Drive less
Walk, bike, carpool or take mass transit more often. You’ll save one pound of carbon dioxide for every mile you don’t drive!

Recycle more
You can save 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide per year by recycling just half of your household waste.

Check your tires
Keeping your tires inflated properly can improve gas mileage by more than 3%. Every gallon of gasoline saved keeps 20 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere!

Use less hot water
It takes a lot of energy to heat water. Use less hot water by installing a low flow showerhead (350 pounds of CO2 saved per year) and washing your clothes in cold or warm water (500 pounds saved per year).

Avoid products with a lot of packaging
You can save 1,200 pounds of carbon dioxide if you cut down your garbage by 10%.

Plant a tree
A single tree will absorb one ton of carbon dioxide over its lifetime.

Turn off electronic devices
Simply turning off your TV, DVD player, stereo, and computer when you’re not using them will save you thousands of pounds of carbon dioxide a year.

Source: http://www.climatecrisis.net/takeaction/

Let’s do our share in healing our planet, our only home. It’s a small way of giving thanks to the Creator who "granted us dominion over all things."

Do you not see that God has subjected to your use all things in the heavens and on earth, and has made His bounties flow to you in exceeding measure, both seen and unseen?
~ Qur'an 31.20

And God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the air and over every living thing that moves upon the earth."

~ Bible, Genesis 1.28