I know I was supposed to write about Fair Trade, but I thought this was more interesting. Today, I just came from the gym, looking for something to watch, and ran into CNBCD. I serious just stopped in the channel, because I heard "Manila". The show was called "Carbon Hunters". I info'd it and it said, "Carbon Credit, cap and trade movement and eco-mercenaries are discussed".But I was shocked to see that they were talking about Garbage Mountain, in the Philippines. I mean I've seen this place in movies and soaps my mom watches on TFC (The Filipino Channel), but I really didn't know that it TRULY existed. How naive I was.
It was really sad how these people actually live around this 130-foot high garbage "mountain" and scavenge re-sellable junk to make a living for their families. I guess they collect plastic and computer parts to be sold for more money than the average Filipino citizen earns. I even saw kids as young as 3 or 4 years old working around all this garbage.
But what is really sad is that this Philippine energy company is also making money from this garbage. Tranzen Renewable Energy extracts methane from this mountain, which is used to produce electricity. I know it sounds really good right? I know I'm torn too. Like this extraction is helping the environment. But yeah, it's helping the environment, but does the money even go back to the people living around the mountain? Is this company giving back to the poor people living in these conditions? The country is SOoOOo poor all ready. There is no middle class in the Philippines. You're either poor or rich. And I believe the middle class in the Philippines are the people who have jobs and getting paid crap. Site
Now these "waste to energy" company receives Carbon Credits, which sells it to other bigger companies who need carbon credits, because they are obviously emitting too much carbon. All this linked to "Cap and Trade". Crazy, cause I just learned... okay I sort of learned about this in my Green Design Class, but I really didn't get it until I saw this show and saw the bigger perspective.
Basically this is what the show was about, Carbon Hunters, who find these companies who can produce Carbon Credits, like farms, forests, landfills, and sell them to Carbon making companies who needs these Carbon Credits so they can't get taxed so much. Obama claims that it's a new way to start making these Carbon makers stop putting out so much Carbon in the air. Or is it just to make these companies feel better about themselves?
There were huge arguments in the show. Like how these farmers in India devised this greener way to pump water out of the ground, but the device is a manual labor kind of device. It's called "Tread Water Pump", and is way cheaper than buying a diesel water pump. These farmers also sell Carbon Credits. But to earn one Carbon Credit these farmers have to pump a whole year's worth. But isn't this inhumane? Supposedly, this pump does help these people out and farming has been better.
Then they talk about Geo-engineering. It means "proposals to deliberately manipulate the Earth's climate to counteract the effects of global warming from greenhouse gas emissions." This is really crazy and something you would see in a sci-fi movie.
What they do is they drop algae into the sea and the algae in the sea will absorb the CO2 in the air, and the CO2 will be trapped in the sea. This process will also generate Carbon Credits which can be sold. They're doing this also in the Philippines and this Filipino Environmentalist claims that it's dangerous and we don't know what this will do to our oceans; and that this is just to profit the Carbon Credit buyers and not the Filipino people. I totally agree, look what's happening to us putting CO2 in the air, imagine our oceans. Instead of altering the environment shouldn't we just alter our ways instead?In the show they interviewed this business man who buys these credits and claimed that this whole thing was "like paying someone to throw your garbage away." That it's a dirty job, but someone has to do it? But can't it be more humane, benefit the people who really need the money, and is this all really good for the environment? I know it's a battle from all these things from helping the environment by regulating these large Carbon emitters, and these emitters invest in things that can help the environment. But to what cost? Investing in these poor countries for cheap labor for expensive Carbon Credits that don't even really profit the people in the country, but benefiting these other richer people? One of the Carbon Hunters said that he hopes that some of the money can go to some of the people that live in horrible conditions. They just need more regulations and rules in the system.
This one guy called all this "Carbon Colonialism". I really didn't get what he was talking about, but I looked it up online and got this meaning, "Carbon colonialism is about treating the supposed low cost emissions reductions in Southern countries as a new commodity that can be profitably exploited for the benefit of Northern consumers and companies." Site I also looked up, Carbon Communism and this is what I got, "Carbon communism results, according to Pravda (which is the Russian word for “truth”), in the situation where “Barack Obama keeps the temperature at 78 degrees Fahrenheit in the Oval Office while telling the rest of us to turn our thermostats down. …Al Gore has invested heavily in the ‘carbon trading’ brokerage business. All of these men jet around the world, live in oversized houses, and ride in limousines. If the common people are to be required by law to reduce our ‘carbon footprint,’ we need to demand that our leaders and the wealthy elite be restricted to exactly the same carbon allowance as everyone else.” Site
Yes folks. I'm nodding my head too, while picking up my jaw to close it again. I don't even know what is better anymore. Even my ethics is being tested. I too want to be become a "Green Advocate", a Green Consultant, but I'm now asking myself is it because it's in demand and I know I'll be getting paid more once I become LEED certified? Or am I doing it for us... us humans; so we all can live here longer to where it doesn't make more people suffer; doing this for the Earth. Why does money always have to be this horrible thing that makes everyone so greedy and be the motive to finally do the "right" thing? Just because there's money to make in this Green movement, everyone is soOo pumped now, when this problem has been going on for years, even before I was born. Even my Green classes are so expensive, books, expos I attend; my organic food; and laundry detergent. If we want everyone to be so "Green" and change, why is it so expensive? Am I just adding to a New problem?
The show is really great and I hope some of you can catch it. It really opened my eyes. There's more to the show than what I've been talking about, but it's what got to me and I needed to talk about it.
There's so much for me to learn and so much to gain from all of this. This is just the beginning and my brain is feeding on all these Green Movement knowledge. I guess it's up to me now, to do the "Right" thing. But what is the "Right" thing?
