Climate Change

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor GUILLERMO TEJIDA III Desk Editor NANETTE L. GUADALQUIVER Busines Editor CEDELF P. TUPAS Sports Editor (On Leave) RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

Changes in our climate have been more strongly felt in recent years. Reports about global warming and the depletion of our ozone layer have filled our minds, oftentimes to the point of hysteria in some sectors of society.

Hysteria or exaggeration, however, is certainly not what people need. What people are clamoring about is a blueprint of concrete measures to be undertaken seriously before everything is too late. As the saying goes, better safe than sorry. Hence, the uproar about drastic changes in our climate should not go unnoticed.

The various discussions coming from within the sectors that have signified their involvement when things will need to be done must have paid off because in the summer, specifically, on May 9, the province of Negros Oriental is initiating an island-wide summit on climate change. This is an offshoot of a recent forum, also on climate change, held recently in one of the universities in the city and attended by top local government officials and members of the private sector who have a stake in the protection of our environment.

The island of Negros should benefit from the discussion inasmuch as both Negros Oriental and Negros Occidental share common natural resources such as mountains, flora, fauna, and rivers.

Much really needs to be done fast by our country in terms of mitigating the effects of global warming. While we are meeting to try to get our acts together, chances are other countries, especially the developed ones who may well be responsible for all the wastes that we have, may also be coming up with measures to cushion the effects of mankind’s actions on the environment.

Let not the initial discussions of a group of concerned environmentalists come to naught. Let not the well-meaning efforts of government and the private sector go to oblivion because of the nonchalance of some of our countrymen with axes to grind.

Let everyone do his part in ensuring that we can have a clean, healthy, and livable environment worth leaving as a legacy to the next generation.*