THANKS to the popularity of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and unmistakable signs like unusually scorching weather on one hand and super typhoons on the other, Pinoys took to Earth Day this year with the fervor of a fiesta and the devotion of a babaylan or female witchdoctor.

Tree planting ceremonies were held more than a month before the event and the annual Tour of the Fireflies, a leisurely 40-kilometer bike ride around the city, kicked off a few weeks before.

The weekend of Earth Day buzzed. Henry Sy’s SM cinemas screened Al Gore’s dokyu for free, street parties and live music kept the usually busy Tomas Morato road in Quezon City carless and rocked Marikina, itself the poster city for cleanness and greenness.

Can we sustain this coming together in the name of Mother Earth? Why yes, of course, because our cruel summers and brutal monsoons won’t make us forget.

JOIN DIN KAMI. Miss Earth 2007 Jeanne Harn and Environment Secretary Angelo Reyes bike for the environment.

Why the Philippines is a climate hotspot

is not vulnerable to a one meter rise in sea level and that is Baguio

• the regions and provinces most susceptible to sea level rise, extreme weather events, and landslides are also among those with the highest poverty incidence

• An indicative one-meter rise in sea level is projected to affect 64 out of 81 provinces, covering at least 703 out of 1,610 municipalities and inundating almost 700 million square meters of land

• The Philippines ranks 4th in the Global Climate Risk Index.

The Green List

ON March 5, Greenpeace and the Eco-waste Coalition asked all 37 senatorial candidates ten questions meant to assess their “greenness” based on their stance and track record on key environmental issues.

Only 18 candidates responded after being given more 30 days to lay down their environmental platforms. Von Hernandez, Greenpeace Southeast Asia Campaigns Director, called the response rate “disappointing” and added that he was “disturbed by the indifference” of non-respondents including Joker Arroyo and Jamalul Kiram III.

The candidates who answered the questions revealed their positions on water pollution and scarcity, solid waste, toxic waste trade and the Japan-Philippine Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), genetically modified organisms (GMOs), sustainable agriculture, logging, mining, climate change and air pollution. They were also asked to disclose their environmental track record.

Fourteen candidates agreed to a moratorium of coal-fired power plants. Eleven said they would vote against the JPEPA in its current form. All support the Renewable Energy Bill and said they would support a five-year suspension on commercial logging operations in natural forest areas nationwide.

“If they get elected,” said Hernandez, “We will remind them of their commitments and expose their hypocrisy” if they fail to live up to their statements.