Wednesday, November 5, 2008

UP ORG Medical and Dental Mission for Aetas - Call for Donations

Dear Friends,

UP ORG will once again extend medical assistance to our indigenous brothers and sisters on November 15-16. The Aetas of Baranggay Baag and the Abelling tribe of Baranggay San Pedro will be at the Tarlac Eco Camp in Lubigan San Jose, Tarlac for the 2 day free clinic. Since they will leave their homes to be at the site, we will be providing food and temporary shelter during their stay. Below is a list of items we need, in which we hope you can help us supply.

Make donating fun by doing it with your friends or officemates. Invite them to join you in this endeavor and you can decide which of the items from the list you can pledge. This way, you're sure that the one you find essential for this medical mission is covered. Infect others by sending a group email to your office (if this is allowed) and ask your officemates if they can pledge a can or two. I did this and the response is overwhelming. We are happy to pick up these items anywhere in the metro. Or let's meet up because we'd like to thank you personally for your generosity.

We also have a drop-off station at Sefali Restaurant in Krus na Ligas, UP Diliman, Quezon City on November 5, 6, 7, 10, and 11 from 8pm to 10:30pm.

FOOD LIST: 
1) 10 kgs RICE 
2) 20 cans of CORNED BEEF; 
3) 20 cans of TUNA; 
4) 30 cans of SARDINES 
5) 50 pcs INSTANT NOODLES; 
6) 50 pcs PANCIT CANTON; and 
7) 15 packs of individually WRAPPED BISCUITS/ CUPCAKE/BREAD

MEDICINE LIST: 
(For COLDS, COUGH, and FLU) 
1) 100 pcs Ambroxol Tab; 
2) 100 pcs Bromhexine HCL Tab; 
3) 100 pcs CARBOCISTEINE Cap; 
4) 100 pcs GUAIFENESIN Cap; 
5) 100 pcs PARACETAMOL+PHENYLEPRINE+ CHLORPHENIRAMINE (coldzep); 
6) 100 pcs AMOXICILLIN Cap; 
7) 100 pcs LAGUNDI Tap;


(for hyperacidity/ulcer) 
8) 100 pcs ANTACID Tab; 
9) 100 pcs  RANITIDINE Tab; 
10) 100 pcs OMEPRAZOLE;

(for amoebiasis) 
11)  100 pcs METRONIDAZOLE Tab; 
 (bulate/pampurga) 
12)  100 pcs MEBENDAZOLE Tab; 
(for diarrhea) 
13)  100 pcs HYDRITE Tab; 
(laxative/for constipation) 
14)  100 pcs BISACODYL Tab; 
(for ASTHMA) 
15)  100 pcs SALBUTAMOL Tab; 
16)  100 pcs SALBUTAMOL+GUAIFENESIN cap;

(for UTI) 
17)  100 pcs CIPROFLOXACIN; 
(allergies) 
18)  100 pcs CHLORPHERAMINE Tab; 
(other antibiotics) 
19)  100 pcs AMPICILLIN Cap; 
20)  100 pcs CEFALEXIN Cap; 
(vitamins) 
21)  100 pcs FEROUS SULFATE; 
22)  100 pcs MULTIVITAMINS+MINERAL tab;

(pain reliever) 
23)  100 pcs MEFENAMIC Cap; 
24)  100 pcs PARACETAMOL Tab; 
 

Feel free to inquire and remember, "no amount is too small."

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Calling for WWF Volunteers for Project Ecokids!

Repost from Maye's multiply:

Hello friends!

We're once again inviting volunteers for PROJECT ECOKIDS - our climate change awareness campaign for KIDS!

World Wide Fund for Nature - Philippines (WWF-Philippines), the global conservation organization, together with The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation (HSBC) has formed a partnership to increase the knowledge and awareness of students on climate change.

Together with volunteers, HSBC and WWF will conduct interactive lectures in public schools to implement 4 unique modules: (1) climate change, (2) energy efficiency and conservation and renewable energy, (3) waste management and (4) lessons learned on climate change.

There will be a 1-day training and orientation
about the project on August 22, 2008 (Friday) here at the office (JBD Plaza, Room 206, No. 65 Mindanao Avenue, Bagong Pag-asa, QC). The activity will start at 9:00am and end at around 4:00pm. Lunch and snacks will be provided.

If you are interested please contact us at the following numbers: (02) 9207923/ 26 or 31 local 12 or (0917) 3940962, or email us at mpadilla@wwf.org.ph

It would be greatly appreciated if you could pass this email to your friends as well. :)

Maraming salamat!


Maye

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Greenpeace on Unilever and the Destruction of Indonesia's Rainforests

Unilever, the makers of Dove beauty products, are buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia's rainforests. It is driving forest destruction and speeding up climate change by buying palm oil from companies which are destroying Indonesia's rainforests to make way for palm oil plantations. By their own admission, Unilever is the biggest single user of palm oil in the world.

Greenpeace is not calling for a boycott. It asking Unilever to act responsibly and to ensure that their products have not been produced at the expense of Indonesian rainforests and the climate. That means that their suppliers are not involved in the continued destruction of these rainforests. Greenpeace believes environmentalists and its supporters can be more effective if we pressure Unilever to change, exposing the truth about palm oil and showing that we care. Like a negative restaurant review is more damaging than no review at all – Unilever is more sensitive to public exposure and debate than a consumer boycott. What's more, deadly serious as the problem is, our approach allows us to do creative, subversive, fun things we love anyway.



Greenpeace wants all companies involved in palm oil production to commit to stopping further deforestation by supporting a moratorium on all rainforest and peatland conversion. The following minimum criteria must be met by the palm oil industry:
- No new plantations within mapped forest areas
- No plantations resulting in the degradation of peatlands
- No plantations or expansion post November 2005 resulting in deforestation or degradation of high conservation value areas including peatlands
- No plantations or plantation expansion established on indigenous peoples and other forest dependent communities without their free prior and informed consent
- Establish full supply chain traceability and segregation systems which exclude palm oil that fails to meet the above criteria.


Join the international Dove campaign today - sign the open letter found on this link http://www.greenpeace.org/seasia/en/talk-to-dove-2

and help us spread the word by:

Getting Social
Share the Dove campaign on Facebook
Rate, fave and share the "Dove Slaughter" video on YouTube
Digg the story

Tuesday, April 15, 2008

Green Choice Philippines

A few months back, I met some nice ladies from the Clean and Green Foundation who were nice enough to tell me that, contrary to popular belief of our country's backwardness, there is a group of dedicated individuals composed of both the public and private sector which reviews locally available products for environmental risks assessment.

The Ecolabeling Programme awards the Green Choice Philippines label to products that meet their criteria for being environmentally sound. As the ladies told me, so far there have been only 5 products that have been labelled Green Choice Philippines, but I only remember 3: Surf, Tide and Portland Cement (yes, cement). So please, if you see the logo up there, patronize it! Buy it! Spread the Good News!

You can visit the Green Choice Philippines website for more details about the Ecolabeling Programme. Unfortunately, their gallery for products labeled Green Choice is still not updated and is in fact empty. But I've already seen the GCP logo on Tide and Surf products in supermarkets, so hooray!

Long delayed post: Earth Hour Philippines saves 56MWh!

Sorry for the very long delay. I just realized I had almost a dozen posts about Earth Hour but no actual results aside from the video posts I got.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

WWF and Meralco estimates that more than a million Filipinos participated, saving 56MWh of energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by as much as 30-tonnes in Luzon alone – equivalent to shutting down an entire coal-fired powerplant!

Yes, the 30 tons is for the entire hour. This translates into:

Number of cars equivalent
Luzon: 334 cars consuming full tank fuel of 40L; 263 jeepneys consuming full tank fuel of 45L
MM: 96 cars 75 jeepneys

Number of households equivalent
Luzon - 560 households consuming 100kWh/ month
MM - 160 hh @ 100kWh/month

Millions of pesos equivalent
Luzon - 552,338.47 = P532,000 (kWh savings@ P9.5/kWh) + P20,338.47 (CO2 avoidance @ EUR10/t-CO2 and P66.034/EUR)
MM - 157,810.99 = P152,000 (kWh savings) + P5,810.99 (CO2 avoidance)

Again, thank you very much for your support.

Sincerely,
Teena

Teena G. Santiago
Resource Mobilization Officer
WWF-Philippines/
Kabang Kalikasan ng Pilipinas
JBD Plaza, 56 Mindanao Avenue
Bagong Pag-Asa, Quezon City
Philippines
Phone: + 63 2 920-7923 or 26
Fax: +63 2 454-3533
Mobile: +63 920 923-6998
email: tsantiago@wwf.org.ph
Website: http://wwf.org.ph

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

Teenagers On E(nvironment)

Cordillera teens find ways to deal with waste
February 26, 2008 00:33:00Vincent Cabreza
Northern Luzon Bureau
LA TRINIDAD, BENGUET – Fifteen-year-old science students of this town have come up with new ways to deal with wastes, and the local government has taken notice.

Kherrylo Baludda and Beverlyn Backian stumbled on bacteria that consume plastic bags and investigated how these could be used to clean up their neighborhood.

Jordan Luther Basawil tinkered with milk cans to discover how to produce liquid fuel from trash, while Marriane Walsien and Ronnel Christian Gulmayo built a biogas digester using their piggery’s waste.

Irish Aquisan focused on a slightly off-grid problem and discovered a cheap source for chemicals that schools could use for laboratory lessons. Two of these gadgets are now being used in their villages and could easily be replicated.

Solution to urban wasteSoraya Facudo, head teacher of the Cordillera Regional Science High School in Barangay Wangal here, said Mayor Tomas Galwan asked the children to send him copies of their studies, which were also entries to the 4th National Science Mathematics Congress held recently in Olongapo City.

Basawil, of Besao, Mt. Province, said a constant barrage of news broadcasts about neighboring Baguio City’s garbage crisis had convinced him to find a solution to urban wastes.
Garbage, indeed, has come to this vegetable trading town. It has become cosmopolitan in both population and lifestyle, with an increase in migrants from Manila and Central Luzon. It has hosted an expanded business district along the Halsema Highway, the main road to interior Cordillera.

Some of these businesses used to operate in Baguio. But as early as 2001, the local government had been vigilant about the dangers of urban decay now plaguing the city.
Gov. Nestor Fongwan had initiated the construction of a sanitary landfill for the town when he was mayor to address La Trinidad’s growth.

The town also enforced a zoning ordinance that prevents organic fertilizer dealers from setting up warehouses and processing plants.

Last week, Peter Fianza, Baguio administrator, had explored a possible tieup with the La Trinidad government for the city’s trash now that it has shut down its only dump.
Basawil said he paid attention to reports on Baguio’s garbage woes and to the lectures of Fongwan on the value of recycling. His study on waste disposal was a product of these lectures.
Reliance on LPGUsing recycled materials, such as milk cans, a washed mayonnaise receptacle and old pipes, Basawil and his father Emilio constructed a burning chamber that condenses and distills the methane emitted by burned solid waste.

Basawil said he discovered that burning and distilling 3 kilograms of solid garbage for 10 minutes earned him 11.4 milliliters of fuel.“It is not combustible fuel,” he said. A full can of this waste byproduct could eventually reduce a family’s reliance on liquefied petroleum gas or firewood.
Most of the teenagers approached science as medium to solve economic issues that their households have had to confront, said Ethielyn Taqued, their science teacher. Baludda and Backian borrowed samples of bacteria from the local office of the Department of Science and Technology and discovered that a substantial volume of bacteria consumes 60 percent of a plastic strip.

They said their study inspired them to build a neighborhood community pit to be filled with a cultivated volume of bacteria so the residents could have a final “burial ground” for unrecycled plastic bags.

Biogas processorWalsien and Gumayo fused together used plastic pipes so they could feed hog waste to a “digester,” an improvised biogas processor, which fuels the stove that cooks the hogs’ daily meals.

Their only frustration? They have yet to find a fancier way to call their high density polyethylene digester.

Aquisan tested the mulberry tree in her yard and discovered that its juice extract could replace iodine and other chemicals used to help students identify plant cells during laboratory class.Importing these chemicals has been costing the school too much, she said.

Saturday, February 16, 2008

The Iloilo Coal Plant

February 08, 2008

Manila, PHILIPPINES — Greenpeace today slammed the proposed 165 Megawatt coal-fired power plant in Iloilo while criticizing the Philippine government's two-faced energy policy that purports to address climate change, even as it continues to invest in coal, which is now recognized by international climate experts as a major contributor to destructive global warming.

In a joint press conference with Responsible Ilonggos for Sustainable Energy (RISE) in Iloilo City, the environment group announced that it was joining the local communities struggle to stop the construction of the coal-fired plant in Iloilo City.

"The Iloilo coal plant should not be built. We challenge President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to be true to her word and 'assume the mantle of leadership and work to address the challenge of climate change.'" said Greenpeace Southeast Asia Climate and Energy Campaigner Jasper Inventor. "You can't talk sustainable energy solutions while peddling coal on the side--it's complete hypocrisy." he added.

Coal is the dirtiest, most carbon intensive of all fossil fuels. Emitting 29 percent more carbon per unit of energy than oil and 80 percent more than gas, it is one of the leading contributors to climate change. Burning coal also releases massive amounts of substances such as mercury and arsenic that are toxic to human health and create acutely detrimental effects on developing economies and hosting communities.

However, the government currently has at least eight coal-fired plants lined up for construction or expansion in the country: 165 MW in Iloilo City, Iloilo, 300 MW expansion in Pagbilao, Quezon Province, 200 MW each in Naga and Toledo Cities in Cebu, 300 MW expansion in Masinloc, Zambales, 100 MW in Concepcion, Iloilo, 300 MW in Olongapo, Zambales, and 150 MW in Sultan Kudarat. "

Coal-fired power plants already account for 36% of the country's total CO2 emissions, it is time that the RP government gets serious about exploiting the renewable energy sources that are abundant in our country. Sun, wind and geothermal energy tapping technologies are ready to deliver, what is needed is political will to deploy them." Inventor said.