Greenheart

This is a new term but the idea is not. Greenheart is devoted to Green Revolution, not the program of the past intended to bring food into the table of millions of the poor but rather a response to the byword in every government of this planet – climate change and the environment.

There are green houses, green buildings and, of course the old green thumb but Greenheart is all of them rolled into one. It translates to the idea that “going green starts from the heart.”

The term is actually a shortcut of the Green Hermitage of the University of Negros Occidental-Recoletos. It is a campus-based environmental center which is promoting the idea that we are all stewards of the environment and therefore have responsibilities to insure that our environment is protected and enhanced.

Greenheart has published a small, 62-page “Environmental Stewardship Manual for Schools: Fomenting Ecological Awareness and Action in Schools” authored by Kathryn D’Anjou and Brother Jaazeal Jakosalem, OAR. The book is planned to be launched on February 10 this year to coincide with the anniversary of the creation of the Recollect Province of St. Ezekiel Moreno. Bro. Jaazel, popularly known as  Bro. Tagoy  gave me an advance copy and I thought this book is one material that every school, student, office, family and individuals should have.   

Though written with students and teachers in mind, nevertheless I believe that offices and homes should get a coy because there are very simple and practical suggestions on how to actively participate in the rising world-wide campaign to reduce pollution and reverse climate change. The cost per copy is less than P100 but the returns to this will be in the thousands aside from healthy life styles.

I even believe that all local governments, particularly the barangays should have a copy because there are practical suggestions that will not only reduce garbage but make the barangay earn from its garbage.

While browsing through this book, I am amazed at how much money we are throwing away each day and how this can be saved aside from reducing our garbage and give our local governments a respite. I strongly urge the Bacolod City clean and green committee to buy and insure that every member gets a copy.

Oftentimes in dealing with garbage, aside from its being a political issue that the opposition is making hay every day, stuns our government officials and we can sense a feeling of frustration at the almost impossible task of cleaning up Bacolod.

I suggest that the schools in Bacolod – public and private – adopt this program initiated by Greenheart. This is a successful program and its bank account, the number of its scholars, the subsidy it gives to college students, the cleaned university campus – they all attest to the success of this program.

Citizens rightfully complain that their garbage is not collected justifying their complaints that they pay taxes, specifically garbage fees. Bacolod City officials had been explaining their side and are doing the best they could to clear the city of trash.

One characteristic of garbage is that we produce them each day. It is part of daily living. It is like having to take a bath every day or brushing our teeth after each meal. We cannot escape from these daily demands on our lives and we take them for granted and usually with a grunt.

We tend to ignore our own share of garbage. Whatever we throw away we think that’s the end of it. This book has some interesting information. Take for instance the time of decomposition. It takes 2-4 weeks for paper to decompose, 80 years for aluminum can and about 450 years for a plastic bottle.

Note the impact of decomposition on the environment. The book says that once these items – paper, aluminum and plastic start to decompose, the chemicals they contain are able to leak into the environment which can cause major environmental damage especially if the chemicals reached water sources.

Individually, it seems negligible but once thousands of people throw a bottle, there are thousands of plastic bottles. The book says that it is approximated that between 7% to 8% of the world’s fossil fuels are used to produce new plastics so that considering millions of plastic bottles are used – water, soda, plates, covers, etc. the millions of plastics means millions of tons of fossil fuel.

A daily newspaper of 40 pages means 4-5 trees in one year. Some newspapers print a million copies a day, so you can estimate how many trees are cut.

How can we mitigate, meaning reduce the expenditures on these every day materials?

This book has plenty of suggestions that have been tested and found successful. I urge offices, schools and homes to get a copy. The city should implement the suggestion through the schools and reduce the volume of garbage it has to collect.*

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