Daily TribuneDENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said peoples of the world, including Filipinos, must be confronted with the urgency of a fast-developing planetary crisis.
Mall goers are invited to take small actions and make a big difference during Earth Hour at SM malls.
In observance of Earth Hour on Saturday, from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m., the Department of Environment and Natural Resources declared that mankind’s activities have had the most impact on climate and the environment.
DENR Secretary Maria Antonia Yulo-Loyzaga said peoples of the world, including Filipinos, must be confronted with the urgency of a fast-developing planetary crisis.
She said the observance of Earth Hour has everything to do with the perils and also the promise of the current ecological trajectories and inclinations of people.
“We stand today in the Anthropocene, being the only species able to alter what took billions of years to form. Scientists say we have crossed six of the nine planetary boundaries, leading our earth to the precipice of irreversible change,” she explained.
She added that evidence points to the Earth being formed 4.5 billion years ago and the earliest ancestors emerging roughly in the last 300,000 years. “As we know them in Asian, [they] may have emerged genetically less than 15,000 years ago,” she said.
“We can generate alternative and artificial intelligence, send men to the moon and satellites into space, and search for signs of life on other planets. Yet, we cannot control our fossil-fueled consumption, prevent plastics from reaching our oceans, or ensure that there is access to safe, sustainable water resources,” Loyzaga lamented.
As a species already responsible for threatening the extinction of those depending on the protection of their lives on the planet, Loyzaga said: “The choice is ours, and there must be no other than to be stewards and captains of our Earth’s future.”
“We renew this commitment this year as we stand with the World-Wide Fund for Nature Philippines in the global observance of Earth Hour 2024 with the local theme, ‘Switch Off Plastic Pollution, Switch On Nature.’”
