Last week’s column on counting crowds elicited various reactions that ranged from those who appreciate the article to those who question why scientists would participate in a very “political” issue such as estimating the numbers in a rally. We beg to disagree with the latter as this kind of thinking relegates those working in science and engineering to ivory towers.

Science does not exist separate from society and as such scientific workers also interact outside their laboratories like anybody else. Current political issues are part of our issues too, and we, as scientists and engineers, can participate in addressing these questions using the expertise and knowledge that we have.

In which areas can scientists and engineers directly participate? There are a plethora of issues that beset the Filipino people but we can categorize five major concerns where scientists can contribute: the environment, food security and self-sufficiency, public utilities, scientific and mass culture and in advocating national industrialization. We discuss the issues concerning the environment today.

Most biodiverse but poorest

The Philippines is known to be one of the most biodiverse environments in the world and yet, ironically, it is among the poorest economies. At the beginning of the Spanish occupation, the Philippines’ original forest cover was 27 million hectares, representing 90 percent of our total land area. As of 2003, this had shrunk to only 7.17 million hectares, or about 24 percent of our country’s land area. Rapid forest denudation resulted in floods in low-lying plains and soil erosion of a billion cubic meters of soil per year results in 63 percent of our arable land being severely eroded.

Coastal systems are severely affected with the conversion of mangrove forests for culture ponds for prawn and crabs, while coral reefs are being destroyed mainly by soil erosion and blast and cyanide fishing-for-export. Solid waste disposal in urban centers reach dangerous levels where as much as 2.7 thousand tons of garbage are produced by Metro Manila alone. Open dumps and waterways serve as disposal grounds where they pose dangers to the nearby residents in the form of health problems or calamitous death like what happened in Payatas in 1999.

Air pollution from industries and motor vehicles generate around a 1,000 tons of noxious gases, 40 percent of which is sulfur dioxide and the rest nitrogen oxides and other gases. Industrial pollution is aggravated by the fact that only a third of firms comply with air and water waste regulations. The rest just dumps wastes directly into rivers and waterways.

Large-scale corporate mining activities literally carve out whole mountains of soil and rock to obtain metal ores for foreign export. While these foreign mining companies leave nothing but their mine tailings for the surrounding communities to contend with, they would bring with them the raw metal ores and 100 percent of their profits.

No area in the country is spared from environmental problems. Peasants, fisher folk, indigenous people and even urban poor communities are experiencing the brunt of environmental destruction brought about by industrial pollution, massive conversion of prime agricultural lands, corporate mining activities and others.

This environmental debacle has its roots in the history of the country. Over centuries of colonial subjugation, the entire Philippine archipelago was eventually used mainly as a source of raw materials and human labor by Spain. The United States later left us with an economic system that persists until today characterized by foreign-dependence on imports and export-oriented production that commercialized our natural resources. This mode of production has heightened conflicts on the use, access and control of the environment.

Landlords with large holdings have maintained the export-oriented nature of agricultural production using backward technologies. Foreign multinationals and their local partners own and control the large industrial companies that are major contributors to environmental destruction. Worse, past and present governments have allowed this environmental destruction to worsen by letting these firms enter our country in the guise of foreign investments. The policies of liberalization, deregulation and privatization that sell out our national patrimony are the same policies being proposed in the Charter change provisions in Congress.

Our environment is under siege and our people is at its mercy. Climate change aggravates this situation as weather patterns change and the vulnerable sectors such as the poor are left to fend off its effects without any support from the State.

This problem is a major source of concern as well as an opportunity for concrete action for the science and technology community. We have to look at ways for science and technology to be harnessed to maximize the environment’s use for the people while minimizing damage. We should be able explain to the people the extent and effects of the environmental destruction in our country and unite with them in defense of our environment and natural resources.