I agree with the observation that anyone can be an environmentalist in their own way.
I also agree that the concern for the environment is a balancing act. How one operationalizes and quantifies the process of that balancing act is the crux of the matter in pursuing the general welfare of the City. This is a highly- professional task better served by those who are trained for it.
The question for me then is, should I listen to one’s opinion about the environment? Yes.
Should I accept one’s version of environmentalism as gospel truth? I don’t think so.
Here’s my quandary. Should I listen, let’s say, to what some of my friends call a “know-it-all high school alumnus” who does solar panels, rainwater catchment, et cetera, mouthing albeit in an abrasive manner about matters of procedural law to lawyers in the implementation of the shoreline protection and reclamation project of the City?
Moreso, should I listen, let’s say, to an alleged “Who’s Who scientist” featured in a vanity publish-for-a-fee membership with unexamined claims of multiple degrees and certificates from prestigious universities in the U.S. such as University of Michigan, Stanford University, University of California at Berkeley, and University of Iowa (based on various online profile postings)?
I hope it’s not the same person I knew from the San Francisco Bay area who was an advocate/activist of Filipino-American studies with other advocates/activists like Helen Toribio, Abe Ignacio, and Enrique dela Cruz during my term as director of the Center for Filipino Studies at my University; but is now an allegedly self-proclaimed celebrated scientist in our island nation and a director of a local University program with no verifiable previous teaching (tenured or non-tenured) employment to boot. One wonders.
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I also wonder. Was there due diligence on behalf of the University regarding these alleged academic claims? I hope there was. After all, it’s a standard hiring process to require the submission of official academic diplomas or official transcripts of record or official academic certificates. An official inquiry from the various mentioned universities can also be done.
I guess it’s knee-jerk reaction to such stupendous academic puffery, and environmental authoritarianism that piqued my curiosity, as I’ve been in various capacities either as a chair or a member of a department, school, or university committee, scrutinizing my colleagues’ applications for retention, promotion, or tenure in my University. I am familiar with the rigor and the impeccable process of protecting the integrity of a university.
I’d even say that with the verified and confirmed academic credentials, one can easily become a tenured professor or dean of a college of a prestigious U.S. university. If I am wrong on this, then my name is Bozo the Clown.
And so, the alleged perception of mockery by some environmentalists towards those who challenge a particular character or authoritative pronouncements regarding the environment must rather be heeded as Alexander Pope’s reminder that “a little learning is a dangerous thing” or Aesop’s moral lesson of integrity in the Mermaid and the Woodcutter.
By the way, I appreciate reading the article on The Environmentalist except that I find Rachel Carson’s expose of DDT a non-sequitur to Dumaguete’s shoreline protection and reclamation project.
Efren Noblefranca Padilla
[email protected]
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