Raphael Luis I.

Valencia

My Place in the Earth

1. The average EF of the Philippines in 2017 is 1.3 gha. Our natural resources
can only support a biocapacity of 0.5 gha per person. Compare this with your
EF. What does this say about your place in society? How are you compared to
the country’s average EF and biocapacity? (100 words max)

My gha is 6.7 which is almost 5 times the average of the country. I think this
just speaks in volume to my privilege as I have the resources to have such a high
gha. I never really considered how my daily meat consumption led to such a high EF
and it honestly startled me. I take up more than 10 times the ideal biocapacity of a
single person so I think I need to reevaluate my lifestyle and make changes to
reduce my gha. My privilege shouldn’t give me an excuse to negatively affect the
environment like this.

2. Based on your detailed EF, in which area is your impact the highest? What
are the potential environmental impacts on the land, water, air, and/or
biodiversity of this aspect of your lifestyle? For example, if your highest
footprint is from transportation, what are the potential environmental impacts
of this? (100 words max)

My highest footprint comes from my daily consumption of meat with a gha of

three. According to WWF, deforestation is heavily linked with the meat industry as
forests are often cleared in order to grow feed for farm animals like pigs and
chickens that get slaughtered and are eventually sold as cheap meat. Deforestation
is a huge problem as it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions and displacement
of animals that live in forests which could potentially kill them due to loss of habitat.
Putting it into concrete statistics, the WWF states that deforestation contributes to
around 10% of global warming.

3. In relation to question 2, what are the effects of these impacts to disaster

risk (you may focus on a specific hazard and refer back to the disaster risk
equation to help formulate your answer)? Are these risks applicable to you or
your immediate environment? Who are most at risk because of these impacts?
(100 words max)

Since deforestation makes a significant contribution to global warming it

makes the hazard of flooding more severe. Although this does not affect me and my
immediate environment since I live in the mountains, it significantly impacts coastal
communities that live near the oceans due to their susceptibility to flooding. Most at
risk are low-income families living in these coastal areas as these floods pose the
threat of destroying their homes and their belongings. This is detrimental to them as
they already struggle with their getting by day-to-day and having to completely
rebuild from scratch would be almost impossible without aid.

4. Use the concepts of hedonism and eudaimonia to reflect on your detailed EF

and come up with actionable solutions that will help you live “the good life”.
What values and pleasures are important to you? Are you happy with your
current EF? If you are, why? if not, what can you do to change it? (100 words
max)’

My values are mainly selfless as I find more joy in helping others than I do in
helping myself. Seeing as though my gha is way higher than it should be, I need to
realize that acts of service aren’t enough and that I need to address my own lifestyle
if I truly want to help others by reducing my impact on the environment. Incorporating
more fruits and vegetables into my diet and being mindful of unplugging appliances
when they aren’t being used will help me live the “good life” as I’ll be helping others
by reducing my EF.

5. What are your insights from this module and this activity? :) (50 words
minimum, no maximum)

Both the module and this activity allowed me to really see the fuller picture of
how impacted our environment truly is. This module really supported my learnings
from Theology as it concretized the reality that environmental impacts are unjustly
distributed as those in the lower socioeconomic classes are often the most affected
when those in the higher socioeconomic classes are usually the ones contributing
the most to environmental damage. Three things caught my attention in this module
and these were the history, interconnectivity, and realities of the environment.
Interesting to me was the history of our relationship with the environment, how we
started by adapting to it but as time and technology progressed, we started forcing it
to adapt to us. Another thing that was really interesting to me was the
interconnectivity of the environment on a global scale. I’ve always known that the
environment had interconnectivity from science lessons of the past discussing the
different spheres of the environment and how they affect one another but learning
about things such as transnational air pollution and the Pacific Garbage patch really
made me realize how the actions of one country could affect others. Certain realities
also caught my attention such as

Overall I’d say that this module and this activity really humbled me. It helped
me realize the privilege I have due to my socioeconomic status and how this allows
me to have a high gha. Despite this capability to have such a high gha, I need to do
my own part in reducing my gha as there are other people who are very affected by
environmental impacts. However, simple lifestyle changes won’t cut it and I plan to
bring the information I got from this module with me as I move forward in life.
Systematic and systemic changes need to be made in order to truly save the
environment and I plan to be a part of that in the long run. For now, I will do my part
in bringing awareness to this issue. As I learned from my previous participation in a
coastal cleanup, small actions like that will not be enough to save the environment
as the trash we cleaned up will probably just resurface the day after. The real reason
coastal cleanups are done is to show just how severe present environmental issues
are, and this information needs to be made known to others if we want systematic
and systemic change to occur. Social movements and environmental policies that
encourage sustainable practices while calling out unsustainable ones will be the key
to slowly alleviating environmental issues. We can no longer see ourselves as
separate from the environment as whatever we do to harm the environment will
subsequently hurt our fellow brothers and sisters in the long run.

Sources:

● WWF. (n.d.). The Effects of Deforestation. Retrieved December 13, 2020, from
https://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/effects-of/deforestation
● Undeniable climate change facts. (2016, November 18). Retrieved December 13,
2020, from ​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ7bzR99iJ4