The Bank of the Philippine Islands Dumaguete cluster employees initiated the cleaning and gathering of plastics and solid wastes at Silliman Beach every Saturday to prepare for Climate Impacts Day on May 5. According to 350.org coordinator Zephanie Danieles under the BPI Bayan Volunteeerism Project, the BPI employees step out of its comfort zone and offer one more day of work in voluntary service to the environment. This corporate family with permanent partners from the Focolare Movement, Century Security and Protective Agency, SU-IEMS and the officials and residents of Brgy Bantayan has been cleaning beach area for a year now weathering climate change, said Danieles. Climate Impacts Day is an internationally coordinated advocacy day addressing the negative impact of too much carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Carbon Dioxide is a by-product of fossil fuel burning released into the atmosphere from vehicles, factories, and other fossil fuel powered machines.
“This is creating a heat trapping blanket around the earth keeping heat close to the earth and unable to break out beyond the atmosphere. Imagine sitting in a car under the sun with the doors and windows closed,” Danieles stated. The closed windows function like this heat trapping blanket that has built up around the earth from too much CO2 in the atmosphere. Scientists call this the Greenhouse Effect which is a principle cause of the Global Warming, she added.
For its part the BPI Bayan Volunteerism Project, coordinated by Gary Rosales, gather discarded plastics and other solid wastes for proper disposal not only to beautify the area for the community but also to prevent more CO2 emission in the atmosphere when these plastics are burned. In the same spirit, the group clears an area at the north end of the beach for the planting of 350 mangrove trees that will contribute to the absorption of CO2 from the atmosphere. This is the spirit of corporate responsibility that will bring to our children’s children a better world, Danieles said.
Climate Impacts Day will celebrate the number 350, the measurement of CO2 in parts per million defined by scientists as the safe threshold below which the earth is sustainable and above which the earth is in danger to continue down its present tract of global warming, this is learned. CO2 in the atmosphere is presently at an alarming 392 PPM according to Danielles. The advocacy of the Climate Impacts Day is to engage the whole world in doing something to bring this number down to 350 PPM or below. (MBCN/JCT/PIA-Negros Oriental)
