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‘MANNA FROM HEAVEN’ Zambales sets priorities to capacitate community, build self-reliance, attain sustainability

ZAMBALES Gov. Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. visits the island-barangay of San Salvador in one of his regular sorties under his “Dalaw Barangay” program.

I

By Henry Empeño

BA, Zambales—On June 28, after swearing into office the newly elected officials of Zambales and its 13 municipalities, Governor Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. announced to the public the first order of the day: Join him in creating inclusive growth and capacitating the community for self-reliance.

“A fresh start like today will eventually become a journey for all of us, and whether that journey takes us to a better place or bring us no further than where we are now would depend mostly on ourselves, the elected leaders,” Ebdane told the assembled officials.

“Things won’t get better by chance, but by purposive change that we have to introduce as leaders of our community,” he pointed out.

“We are here to start another term as servant-leaders who bring change and progress. That is the significance of this occasion today,” Ebdane reminded his audience. “We pledge to serve, and this is what we must do.”

It was a call for decisive action after all the rhetoric of the election campaign. Ebdane said he believed that accomplishments, rather than talk, should characterize public service. And because of this, he made sure the other officials get the direction his administration is taking. Right from Day One. “The legacy I want us all

to leave behind,” the governor stressed, “is a Zambales that could stand on its own—progressive, forward-looking, competitive, capable, empowering, and proud.”

The past and present

THE urgency with which Ebdane sounded the call for a sustainable community was borne by the “situation on the ground,” a phrase favored by the governor who was once a police general, and at one time or another secretary of the Department of National Defense and head of the Department of Public Works and Highways.

Zambales, which is the second largest among the seven provinces in Central Luzon, had historically thrived on farming, fishing, mining and tourism that found sustenance along its fertile plains, beautiful shoreline, as well as the mineral-rich mountains and bountiful sea that hemmed in the province.

As of 2020, Zambales had a total population of 649,615 people living in a land area of 3,630 square kilome-

PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 56.3450

A NEWLY completed covered court in Barangay Panan, Botolan, Zambales.

ters, giving it an average population density of 179 persons per square kilometer—the second lowest in Central Luzon. On the other hand, the economically productive sector aged 15 years to 64 constitutes about 64 percent of all Zambales people, thus providing the province with an able workforce.

This meant that not only did Zambales have enough room to grow, it also did have the manpower to make that growth happen.

In terms of income generation, meanwhile, Zambales often found its way to the list of the richest prov-

inces in the country. In 2010 when Ebdane was first elected governor, the revenue record was P655.3 million, representing a 1.76-percent increase over the figures in the past year. This gradually increased to P786.4 million in 2013 and to P995.9 million in 2015, the last year of Ebdane’s second term.

After a brief hiatus in service when he lost in the 2016 election to long-time rival Amor Deloso, Ebdane staged a comeback in 2019, after which he identified another source of local income—the lahar deposits of Mount Pinatubo.

Since then, Zambales’s financial position further strengthened to the tune of P1.6 billion in 2019, then P1.9 billion in 2020, and finally P2.42 billion in 2021—a consistently upward trend that gave promise of local progress.

Lessons learned

THE Covid-19 pandemic, however, disrupted social and economic life in Zambales, as elsewhere. Ebdane said a lot of residents became jobless when businesses closed and the usual livelihood activities were not possible to pursue.

Worse, a lot of residents fell victim to the virus (11,788 confirmed Covid-19 cases in Zambales as of July 20, 2022), with some not making it out alive (700 deaths as of last count). A lot were also affected mentally and emotionally by the struggles and stress of coping with the disease.

Ebdane said the provincial government successfully managed the health crisis despite the lack of “on-shelf” solutions to the pandemic, but admitted that the experience was a huge setback to his development track.

In the past two years of the Covid-19 pandemic, Ebdane said, the provincial government had to spend some P771.5 million to purchase medicine and medical supplies, as well as for food packs and monetary assistance to Zambales residents, especially the economically dislocated.

This was aside from implementing a six-point strategy to effectively curtail the spread of the virus: establish border control points and health checkpoints; designate the provincial hospital as dedicated facility for Covid cases; put up quarantine facilities in all the 13 towns; enforce disinfection and health safety protocols in offices and public areas; inventory and stock food, medicine and essential goods in the province; and implement mass rapid testing among frontline workers and provincial government employees.

“Because of this pandemic, we realized clearly the need for cooperation, discipline, determination and caring for each other,” Ebdane recalled.

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Source: BSP (July 22, 2022)

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‘MANNA FROM HEAVEN’

TOURISTS navigate the lahar terrain on the way to the Mount Pinatubo crater lake in Botolan, Zambales. HIJODEPONGGOL | DREAMSTIME.COM Continued from A1

Also because of the experience during the pandemic, Ebdane said his administration has now set its eyes on five priorities: health, education, livelihood, shelter and infrastructure development.

10-point agenda for better public service

WHEN Ebdane first took over the helm of Zambales in 2010, he immediately initiated the formulation of the Provincial Development and Physical Framework Plan (PDPFP), a 10-point agenda that served as a guidepost for his administration’s pubic service program.

The PDPFP sought to: enhance revenue generation; improve social services like medical and pubic health; strengthen youth development through free education and sports; provide livelihood support and social enterprises for fisherfolk; supplement farming requirements; reinforce tourism planning, development and promotion; build more infrastructure facilities; upgrade technological infrastructure like digitalization; capacitate human resources; and establish effective good governance mechanisms.

“This overall plan is really ambitious, but I am preparing a blueprint for this—an updated blueprint of what we can do for Zambales,” Ebdane told the BusinessMirror.

“What is important here is to innovate, improve on the situation, and, of course, prepare the people who will come after, so that they can appreciate what they have. It would be a pity for us to do the hard work now, and not train the next generation. Because when their time comes, they should be ready for the job, too,” he added.

To build a self-sustaining community, Ebdane said his administration’s first priority would be a comprehensive health program that would bring about a state-ofthe-art hospital with more doctors, nurses and other health personnel, so that patients won’t have to go far for medical help.

Already, a P100-million budget from the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (Pagcor) will initially fund Phase 1 of the upgrading project. “In due time, upgrades for the two district hospitals, to include the Ospital ng Santa Cruz, will be done,” Ebdane said.

Ebdane’s second priority is free education for college students.

This would be realized, he said, by

improving the facilities and capacity of the President Ramon Magsaysay State University. The local tertiary school, he said, should offer courses relevant to local needs like tourism, agriculture and fisheries, as well as technology.

Ebdane revealed the provincial government recently provided some P46 million worth of financial assistance to 23,000 college students in the province with funding from the Office of the President and some senators, and additional funds from the provincial treasury.

In terms of livelihood development, the third priority Zambales should aim for, according to Ebdane, are bigger and better equipment, and the latest technical innovations and applications to modernize agriculture.

“There has to be a paradigm shift in this generation if we are to survive as a people,” he pointed out. “We must provide more inputs in terms of mechanization and technological application, so that we can modernize agriculture and make it work for us.”

Ebdane also considers housing a priority and deems it necessary to provide safe and decent homes for residents, especially the informal settlers. He asked municipal officials to identify and plan for the establishment of resettlement areas for those in need of housing.

Lastly, the governor said that infrastructure development should be prioritized to further enhance commercial activities, provide access to production sites, enhance revenue generation, and promote supply and market distribution.

Creating inclusive growth

ON July 13, in his message during the opening session of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan ng Zambales, Ebdane reiterated the urgent need to promote equity and inclusive growth.

He recalled that in his first two terms of office, government priorities were directed towards the most urgent needs of Zambales residents: health, education, livelihood, employment and infrastructure.

“It was our desire and intention to help our constituents that shaped these priorities,” Ebdane pointed out. “I must admit that these social services were propoor in nature. However, when providing social services, the priority is always given to the less fortunate and the underprivileged.”

“But what challenges our leadership now is not the equitable distribution of our meager resources, but how we can achieve inclusive growth, providing every Zambaleño the instruments needed for self-reliance, social mobility and economic sustainability,” he added.

Ebdane said that on top of his administration’s agenda is strategic revenue generation for the province’s economic recovery program. This is through Department Administrative Order 13, series of 2019, of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, which allowed the dredging of three major river systems in Zambales that have been clogged with lahar materials since the Mount Pinatubo eruption in 1991.

The order facilitated the restoration of the rivers to their past glory, the reduction of risks to life and property by increasing their hydraulic capacity, and, at the same time, the tapping of what Ebdane called “manna from heaven”—the lahar that initially made Zambaleños’ lives miserable, but later proved to be a blessing for their revenue-generating value.

Ebdane said that with DAO 13, Zambales posted environment revenue collections at P75.2 million in 2019, P118.5 million in 2020, and P201.8 million in 2021.

This increased the province’s general fund from P1.47 billion in 2019, to P1.74 billion in 2020, and P1.87 billion in 2021.

For this reason, the Bureau of Local Government Finance cited Zambales as the top performer in Region 3 in 2020 and No. 4 at the national level for year-on-year growth in locally sourced revenues, he stressed.

He added that the revenue derived from dredging activities benefits the national government, the province of Zambales, as well as the respective towns and barangays where the projects are located.

“The revenue generated from the commercial disposal of dredged materials will bring about substantial increase in our revenue collection, which can fully subsidize expenses on social services, including adequate health services, scholarship programs, community livelihood projects, and employment,” Ebdane said.

“As our revenue collection continues to shoot up, I believe we are on our way to building a self-sustaining community,” he added.

The World

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Angel R. Calso

BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 24, 2022

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Supply chains inching back to normal brace for headwinds of softer demand KYLE TOMCAK sits in front of his house in Aurora, Colo., on Monday, July 18, 2022.

Tomcak was in the market for a home priced around $450,000 for his in-laws and he and his wife bid on every house they toured, regardless of whether they fell in love with the home. He said his search became increasingly dispiriting as he not only lost out to investors fronting cash offers $100,000 over asking price. As mortgage rates started to balloon, he has since pulled out of the housing search. AP/THOMAS PEIPERT

Housing market chills as mortgage rates and prices scare US buyers

By Ken Sweet, Michael Casey & Alex Veiga The Associated Press

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EW YORK—Kyle Tomcak was looking for a home for his in-laws in the suburbs around Denver, something priced close to $450,000.

Tomcak became dispirited as he lost out to investors fronting cash offers $100,000 over the asking price. Then mortgage rates ballooned, putting his price range out of reach.

“All of a sudden, your buying power is less...even though your payments are the same,” he said.

Tomcak, 39 and a project manager for a commercial painting company from Aurora, Colorado, had hoped to lock in a monthly mortgage payment of $2,350.

His mortgage consultant recommended dropping the maximum price he’d pay for a home, first to $300,000 then to $200,000.

Tomcak has abandoned his search for now.

The Federal Reserve has aggressively raised short-term interest rates to fight inflation, which in turn helps push rates higher for credit cards, auto loans and mortgages. Rising mortgage rates have combined with already high home prices to discourage would-be buyers. Mortgage applications have declined sharply.

Sales of previously occupied homes have fallen for five straight months, during what is generally the busiest time of year in real estate.

The rate on a 30-year mortgage averaged around 5.54 percent this week, according to mortgage buyer Freddie Mac; a year ago it was close to 2.78 percent. The increase in rates is leaving buyers with some unwelcome options: pay hundreds of dollars more for a mortgage, buy a smaller home or choose to live in a less desirable neighborhood, or drop out of the market, at least until rates come down.

All signals point toward the Fed continuing to raise interest rates, promising little relief for potential buyers at least for the rest of the year.

Data provided to The Associated Press by the real estate data company Redfin shows how much home a buyer could get with a $2,000 a month mortgage payment. In Providence, Rhode Island, for example an average buyer a year ago could have purchased a roughly 4,900-square-foot home for that size mortgage payment. Now that amount only gets a buyer a 2,200 square foot home.

In Seattle, a hotter housing market, a $2,000-a-month payment this time last year would have gotten a buyer a modest 1,300-square-foot home. That sort of payment would get them only a 950-square-foot apartment now.

“Simply put, people cannot afford the same home as they could have a year ago,” said Daryl Fairweather, an economist with Redfin.

Besides pushing would-be homeowners to reconsider their home search, rising rates are also forcing a growing number of buyers who struck a deal on a house to back out. About 60,000 home-purchase deals fell through in June, representing nearly 15 percent of all homes that went under contract last month, according to Redfin. That’s up from 12.7 percent in May and 11.2 percent a year ago.

For more than a decade, potential homebuyers were willing to put up with rising home prices because the cost of a mortgage was at historical lows. The average mortgage rate on a 30-year fixed-rate mortgage mostly stayed below 4.5 percent for most of the last decade, according to data from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis.

The financial data firm Black Knight estimates that the rise in mortgage rates has increased a typical borrower’s monthly payment by 44 percent since the beginning of the year. Since the start of the pandemic, the average mortgage payment has doubled to more than $2,100.

Most of the pain is being felt at the bottom of the market: the first-time homebuyer, who often has the least amount of money for a down payment and is trying to make the monthly payment work for their budget. Sales of homes priced below $250,000 fell by more than 30 percent in June.

For those who can afford to buy a home even with higher mortgage rates, the housing market slowdown has a silver lining—more options. As homes get fewer offers, they tend to linger on the market longer. The number of homes for sale, which has been rising from ultra-low levels since the spring, increased 18.7 percent from a year earlier, according to Realtor.com.

The market has changed dramatically for sellers as well.

Raymond Martin and his wife listed their home in Austin, Texas, for sale for $1.1 million in early May. They figured selling the four-bedroom, three-bath house would be “a walk in the park.”

The couple had reason to be optimistic. As recently as this spring, it wasn’t unusual for sellers to receive multiple competing offers within hours of listing their home, or for some buyers to agree to pay well above asking price while giving up their right to a home inspection—all to beat out rival bidders. It was very much a sellers’ market.

Instead, the Martins have yet to receive a single offer and have lowered their asking price to $899,000. Raymond Martin, 51, noted that shortly before listing his Austin home, a neighbor sold their similar-sized home for $100,000 over the $1 million asking price.

The couple is living in a new home in Florida while patiently trying to sell the Austin property. “Clearly, the market’s kind of stalled,” he said.

Historically, late spring to early summer is peak home buying season in the US, but there are multiple signs that buyers have become discouraged.

The number of Americans applying for a mortgage is down significantly from a year ago. Weekly mortgage applications tracked by the Mortgage Bankers Association are down roughly 50 percent from a year earlier. The decline in mortgage applications could signal a slowdown in future homebuying activity, since potential homebuyers do not apply for a mortgage unless they have settled on a particular home or condo.

Joe Luca, a realtor and past president of the Rhode Island Association of Realtors, said buyers have to refine their search, settling for smaller homes, or choosing a neighborhood further from a city center.

“People may be looking to buy a house in a really nice town in the best part of that town. Rates go up so they can’t afford that, so they need to recalibrate what they are going to buy,” he said. Casey reported from Boston. Veiga reported from

Los Angeles. AP Reporter Jesse Bedayn contributed to this report from Denver.

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By Brendan Murray

OCK guitarist Jack White, who extended his “Supply Chain Issues Tour” into October, might want to name his band’s next road trip after a different villain.

That’s because supply strains, while still afflicting many consumers and businesses, are becoming more mundane than menacing like they were six months ago, especially in the US. Snarls have eased back from their pandemic peaks and some are already adding less inflationary pressure.

Modest i mprovements a re show ing up in gauges ma intained by forecasters ranging from Bloomberg Economics to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. But the gradual end of the pandemic-driven supply crunch might give way to another potential headache: a slump in consumer demand that throws economic growth into reverse and leads to an ugly inventory pileup.

“Pressures in the global goods sectors, which have been a central driver of inf lation, may finally be easing,” Citi economists led by Nathan Sheets wrote in a research note this month. “The bad news is that this looks to be occurring on the back of a slowing in the global consumer’s demand for goods, especially discretionary goods, and thus may also signal rising recession risks.”

Citi cautioned against declaring an “all clear” on the supply front, and there are reasons to doubt whether clogs in the plumbing of global trade will be cleared any time soon. Labor strikes, factory disruptions tied to Covid outbreaks in China, Russia’s war in Ukraine, and year-end holiday shipping pressures could tangle logistics networks all over again.

Economists generally agree that US household demand for merchandise will be key to watch in coming months, but they’re split about whether it will stay strong or start to soften. One private indicator suggests it might be poised to tip back toward normal as people dine out, see shows, and travel more than they did during

the pandemic.

To help pinpoint this shift back to services spending, Flexport Inc. developed its Post-Covid Indicator to monitor how Americans’ divvy up their paychecks.

The latest reading shows “consumer preferences shifted slightly away from goods in May,” the San Francisco-based freight forwarder said. “Looking ahead, the indicator is forecast to hold at close to current levels throughout the third quarter of 2022. That would imply that overall consumer preferences for goods over services will decline but still remain slightly above summer 2020 and pre-pandemic levels.”

Controlling some levers of economic activity is the Federal Reserve, which is set to raise interest rates later this month to try to curb surging inflation. According to the central bank’s most recent regional survey, businesses are still dealing with plenty of supply problems but they seem to be fading in severity.

Here’s a not-so-scientific tally of where things stand in the Fed ’s recent observations: the number of times the word “shortage” appears in this survey, called the Beige Book. These could be references to shortages of labor, materials or other keys to production. While the number is still more than double its pre-pandemic level, it has declined to about onethird of its peak in August 2021.

Another indicator of emerging supply slack after two years of tightness: Ocean freight rates have continued their decline from record highs. And the fact that it’s happening during what’s usually peak season for global shipping leads some observers to conclude that a market that lacked any excess capacity just a few months ago is rapidly swinging back in the other direction.

Container rates, including these

OCEAN freight rates have continued their decline from record highs, and the pandemic-driven supply crunch is easing, but they might give way to another potential headache: a slump in consumer demand. BLOOMBERG

published by Freightos, a digital platform for cargo bookings, are still well above pre-pandemic levels but their trajectory looks increasingly like a slide still searching for a bottom amid uncertainty about consumer spending.

Much of the logistics recovery hinges on China’s ability to remain a trade powerhouse and keep factories and ports humming through its strict rules to control Covid outbreaks. That looked to be intact after the country released numbers on Thursday showing June was the country’s secondbest month for exports in at least three decades.

Eric Zhu of Bloomberg Economics published a supply-chain dashboard focusing on China recently that showed production there rebounding and delivery times shortening after Shanghai lifted virus restrictions. That heat map is flashing some rare shades of green and a little less bright orange.

Not everything is on the mend, particularly in Europe, which is seeing extended shipping problems given the region’s proximity to the fighting in Ukraine. Sanctions on commodities and other items originating from or headed to Russia are complicating European trade flows, particularly from Asia. On top of that, labor disruptions like the one affecting Germany’s big seaports in recent days will only prolong the recovery efforts.

Figures from the Kiel Institute for the World Economy show congestion has already been building at ports in northern Europe and creeping higher along the US East Coast, where ships are queueing for days or even weeks from Georgia

to New York waiting to offload their cargo.

Another indicator that supply stress may not ease very quickly: On Friday, Commerce Department figures showed American retail sales rose more than economists forecast in June, data that Yelena Shulyatyeva and Andrew Husby of Bloomberg Economics said “imply there’s still enough momentum for the US economy to grow during the rest of the year as consumers find ways to cope with surging inflation.”

That outlook bodes well for container imports into the US, which stayed solid through June and look resilient at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, California, through July so far.

Gene Seroka, the executive director of LA’s port, said he’s cautiously optimistic for the second half of the year.

“We’ll be seeing back-to-school, fall fashion, Halloween and the allimportant year-end holiday goods coming across the Pacific in the weeks and months ahead,” he said during a press briefing last week.

“Even though some retailers have high inventories and may look to discount goods, I expect imports to remain strong—though tapered— versus last year.”

He added some words of warning: Train congestion is building again, with more than 29,000 r a i l c o nt a i n e r s d e l a y e d o n LA’s docks—a bottleneck Seroka said ought to be closer to the “9,000 range.” Rail-bound cargo is sitting an average of 7.5 days when ideally it shouldn’t exceed two. Stakeholders need to take action now, he said, “to avoid a nationwide logjam.” Bloomberg News

China’s top chipmaker achieves breakthrough despite US curbs

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EMICONDUCTOR Manufacturing International Corp. has likely advanced its production technology by two generations, defying US sanctions intended to halt the rise of China’s largest chipmaker.

The Shanghai-based manufacturer is shipping Bitcoin-mining semiconductors built using 7-nanometer technology, industry watchers TechInsights wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. That’s well ahead of SMIC’s established 14nm technology, a measure of fabrication complexity in which narrower transistor widths help produce faster and more efficient chips.

Since late 2020, the US has barred the unlicensed sale to the Chinese firm of equipment that can be used to fabricate semiconductors of 10nm and beyond, infuriating Beijing.

A person familiar with the developments confirmed the report, asking not to be named as they were not authorized to discuss it publicly. SMIC climbed as much as 1.9 percent in Hong Kong, while Chinese chip and chip gear stocks including Shanghai Fudan Microelectronics Group Co., Naura Technology Group Co. and Advanced Micro-Fabrication Equipment Inc. gained more than 5 percent.

SMIC’s surprising progress raises questions about how effective the export

control mechanism has been and whether Washington can indeed thwart China’s ambition to foster a world-class chip industry at home and reduce reliance on foreign technologies. It also comes at a time American lawmakers have urged Washington to close loopholes in its Chinese-oriented curbs and ensure Beijing isn’t supplying crucial technology to Russia.

The restrictions effectively derailed Huawei Technologies Co.’s smartphone business by cutting it off from the tools to compete at the cutting edge—but that company is now quietly staffing up a renewed effort to develop its in-house chipmaking acumen.

Previously, SMIC has said that its core capabilities stand at 14nm, two generations behind 7nm, which in turn is roughly four years behind the most advanced technology available now from Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. and Samsung Electronics Co. The company has worked with clients on technologies more advanced than 14nm as early as 2020, it said on an earnings call that year.

China-based MinerVa Semiconductor Corp., which is named as SMIC’s customer in the TechInsights report, showcases a 7nm chip on its website and said mass production began in July 2021, without

specifying the manufacturer. Dylan Patel, chief analyst at SemiAnalysis, was first to note the report.

Representatives of SMIC and MinerVa didn’t immediately respond to requests for comment.

The Trump administration blacklisted SMIC about two years ago on national security concerns, citing the company’s t i e s w i t h t h e C h i n e s e m i l i t a r y, a n allegation the chipmaker has denied.

Following Washington’s move, American equipment suppliers have been banned from providing the Chinese company with gear “uniquely required” to produce 10nm or more advanced chips without licenses, although it is not clear exactly what the US Department of Commerce has allowed domestic firms to sell to SMIC since.

US Senator Marco Rubio and US Congressman Michael McCaul have repeatedly urged the department to tighten export control restrictions pertaining to SMIC to strengthen US security and ensure China is not transferring technology to Russia and helping Moscow evade sanctions.

“The Biden Administration will continue working to grow and strengthen our cooperation with allies and partners to ensure effective controls on semiconductor production so that we

remain generations ahead of competitors in advanced semiconductor technology,” a spokesperson for the Commerce Department said. The National Security Council did not immediately respond to a request seeking comment.

SMIC has said that its blacklist status hurts its ability to develop sophisticated technologies. The company’s capability is severely curbed by its lack of access to ASML Holding NV’s extreme ultraviolet lithography (EUV) systems, which are required to make the most advanced chips that include 5nm and 3nm geometries.

The Dutch firm has not shipped a single EUV machine to mainland China because of US pressure on the Dutch government.

The administration of President Joe Biden at one point considered tightening restrictions around SMIC but ruled out any unilateral action to allow for more time to negotiate with other trading partners.

Those talks have not borne fruit so far.

Washington is, however, pushing ASML to stop selling even less advanced gear to China.

SMIC told analysts in mid-2020 that a large share of the equipment it has for 14nm chips can be used to make more advanced chips and it is seeking to develop more sophisticated technology to improve its profitability. Bloomberg News

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TheWorld BusinessMirror

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Major nations lag in acting on climate-fighting goals

By Seth Borenstein

W

AP Science Writer

ASHINGTON—For most of the major carbon-polluting nations, promising to fight climate change is a lot easier than actually doing it. In the United States, President Joe Biden has learned that the hard way.

Among the 10 biggest carbon emitters, only the European Union has enacted polices close to or consistent with international goals of limiting warming to just a few more tenths of a degrees, according to scientists and experts who track climate action in countries.

But Europe, which is broiling through a record-smashing heat wave and hosting climate talks this week, also faces a short-term winter energy crunch, which could cause the continent to backtrack a tad and push other nations into longer, dirtier energy deals, experts said.

“Even if Europe meets all of its climate goals and the rest of us don’t, we all lose,” said Kate Larsen, head of international energy and climate for the research firm Rhodium Group.

Emissions of heat-trapping gases don’t stop at national borders, nor does the extreme weather that’s being felt throughout the Northern Hemisphere.

“It’s a grim outlook. There’s no getting away from it, I’m afraid,” said climate scientist Bill Hare, CEO of Climate Analytics. His group joined with the New Climate Institute to create the Climate Action Tracker, which analyzes nations’ climate targets and

policies compared to the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement.

The tracker describes as “insufficient” the policies and actions of the world’s top two carbon polluters, China and the US, as well as Japan, Saudi Arabia and Indonesia. It calls Russia and South Korea’s polices “highly insufficient,” and Iran comes in as “critically insufficient.” Hare says No. 3 emitter India “remains an enigma.”

“We are losing ground against ambitious goals” such as keeping global warming to less than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) or 1.5 Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, said veteran international climate negotiator Nigel Purvis of Climate Advisers.

The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.

Seven years ago, when almost all the nations of the world were preparing for what would become the Paris climate agreement, “it was all about ambition and setting ambitious targets,” Larsen said. “Now we are transitioning into a new phase that’s really about implementation...I don’t think the international community knows how to do implementation.”

Other nations and the United Na-

tions can pressure countries to set goals, but enacting laws and rules is a tougher sell. While Europe has been successful with “a long history of implementing and ratcheting up existing policies,” Larsen said, that’s not the case in the United States.

The US is on path to cut emissions by 24 percent to 35 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, far shy of the nation’s pledge to reduce emissions by 50 percent to 52 percent in that time, according to a new analysis by Rhodium Group.

Biden is running low on options, said Larsen, a report co-author. Congress—specifically key Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia—is balking on the president’s climate-fighting legislation, and the Supreme Court curbed power plant regulations.

Congressional action “was a big window of opportunity that would have allowed us to be on track to our goal,” Larsen said. A second window is available in “the suite of federal regulations that the Biden administration plans to release.”

“These are the two big deciders of whether the US will meet its target, and one we have largely failed on. So in that sense, it is a big miss because these opportunities don’t come along very often,” she said.

“The US can get close” to reaching its goal, but it’s not close yet, Larsen said. Whether that happens “depends on the next three to 18 months of what the administration does.”

Other nations, particularly China, look at what the US is doing to fight climate change and are reluctant to ratchet up their efforts if America isn’t doing much, Purvis and Hare said.

At the urging of activists and some Democrats, the Biden administration is considering declaring a national emergency because of climate change and using special powers to cut carbon pollution from power plants and vehicles.

Calling it an emergency is not enough; what matters is the actions that follow, Purvis said.

Biden could put a moratorium on federal lands and water. He could reinstate a ban on US oil exports. He could move up spending on wind and solar. But all are subject to a conservative Supreme Court.

“The big question is where can Biden go with executive orders and how convincing is that going to be to other leaders?” Hare said.

Elsewhere in the world, “the Russian energy crisis has definitely been a major setback,” Hare said. It’s a shortterm problem for Europe, and it’s even loosened some of their rules, but “their long-term policy framework is very robust, and this might help them double down on alternative energy,” Larsen said.

But the panic over natural gas has other countries, specifically in Africa, jumping onto the bandwagon of liquefied natural gas, which still emits carbon. The pivot to LNG has added 15 percent to 20 percent to the amount that the world uses, Hare said.

While there is a risk Europe might add infrastructure for natural gas that will be hard to abandon, it looks like the Russian invasion of Ukraine strengthened Europe’s resolve to reduce Russia’s energy influence and get off fossil fuels, Purvis said.

There are other places where weaning the world off carbon looks more possible. A new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency found the cost of electricity last year from onshore wind fell by 15 percent, offshore wind by 13 percent and solar panels by 13 percent compared to 2020.

Meanwhile, electric vehicle sales in America are rising, and the time when they could hit “escape velocity” and really make a difference is on the horizon, Larsen said.

Monkeypox virus could become entrenched as new STD in the US

By Mike Stobbe

AP Medical Writer

N

EW YORK—The spread of monkeypox in the US could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus that causes pimple-like bumps might yet be contained before it gets firmly established.

Experts don’t agree on the likely path of the disease, with some fearing that it is becoming so widespread that it is on the verge of becoming an entrenched STD—like gonorrhea, herpes and HIV. But no one’s really sure, and some say testing and vaccines can still stop the outbreak from taking root.

So far, more than 2,400 US cases have been reported as part of an international outbreak that emerged two months ago.

Health officials are not sure how fast the virus has spread. They have only limited information about people who have been diagnosed, and they don’t know how

many infected people might be spreading it unknowingly.

They also don’t know how well vaccines and treatments are working. One impediment: Federal health officials do not have the authority to collect and connect data on who has been infected and who has been vaccinated.

With such huge question marks, predictions about how big the US outbreak will get this summer vary widely, from 13,000 to perhaps more than 10 times that number.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said the government’s response is growing stronger every day and vaccine supplies will soon surge.

“I think we still have an opportunity to contain this,” Walensky told The Associated Press.

Monkeypox is endemic in parts of Africa, where people have been infected through bites from rodents or small animals. It does not usually spread easily among people.

But this year more than 15,000 cases have

been reported in countries that historically don’t see the disease. In the US and Europe, the vast majority of infections have happened in men who have sex with men, though health officials have stressed that anyone can catch the virus.

It spreads mainly through skin-to-skin contact, but it can also be transmitted through linens used by someone with monkeypox. Although it’s been moving through the population like a sexually transmitted disease, officials have been watching for other types of spread that could expand the outbreak.

Symptoms include fever, body aches, chills, fatigue and the bumps on parts of the body. The illness has been relatively mild in many men, and no one has died in the US. But people can be contagious for weeks, and the lesions can be extremely painful.

When monkeypox emerged, there was reason to believe that public health officials could control it.

The telltale bumps should have made infections easy to identify. And because

the virus spreads through close personal contact, officials thought they could reliably trace its spread by interviewing infected people and asking who they had been intimate with.

It didn’t turn out to be that easy.

With monkeypox so rare in the US, many infected men—and their doctors—may have attributed their rashes to some other cause.

Contact tracing was often stymied by infected men who said they did not know the names of all the people they had sex with. Some reported having multiple sexual interactions with strangers.

It didn’t help that local health departments, already burdened with Covid-19 and scores of other diseases, now had to find the resources to do intensive contact-tracing work on monkeypox, too.

Indeed, some local health officials have given up expecting much from contact tracing.

The Associated Press writer Janie Har in San Francisco contributed to this report.

www.businessmirror.com.ph

Aviation faces hurdles to hit goals for cutting emissions

By David Koenig & Kelvin Chan Associated Press

F

ARNBOROUGH, England—Airplanes are a minor contributor to global greenhouse-gas emissions, but their share is sure to grow as more people travel in coming years—and that has the aviation industry facing the prospect of tighter environmental regulations and higher costs.

The industry has embraced a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by 2050. Experts who track the issue are skeptical.

Until the Covid-19 pandemic caused travel to slump, airlines were on a steady course of burning more fuel, year after year. Today’s aircraft engines are the most efficient ever, but improvements in reducing fuel burn are agonizingly slow—about 1 percent a year on average.

At Monday’s opening of a huge aviation industry show near London, discussion about climate change replaced much of the usual buzz over big airplane orders.

The weather was fitting. The Farnborough International Airshow opened as UK authorities issued the first extreme heat warning in England’s history. Two nearby airports closed their runways, one reporting that heat caused the surface to buckle.

As airlines confront climate change, the stakes could hardly be higher.

Jim Harris, who leads the aerospace practice at consultant Bain & Co., says that with airlines recovering from the jolt of the pandemic, hitting net-zero by 2050 is now the industry’s biggest challenge.

“There is no obvious solution, there is no one technology, there is no one set of actions that are going to get the industry there,” Harris says. “The amount of change required, and the timeline, are big issues.”

Aviation releases only one-sixth the amount of carbon dioxide produced by cars and trucks, according to World Resources Institute, a nonprofit research group based in Washington. However, aviation is used by far fewer people per day.

Jet fuel use by the four biggest US airlines—American, United, Delta and Southwest—rose 15 percent in the five years leading up to 2019, the last year before air travel dropped, even as they updated their fleets with more efficient planes.

Airbus and Boeing, the world’s two biggest aircraft makers, both addressed sustainability during Monday’s opening day at Farnborough, although they approached the issue in different ways.

Europe’s Airbus and seven airline groups announced a venture in West Texas to explore removing carbon dioxide from the air and injecting it deep underground, while Boeing officials said sustainable aviation fuel, or SAF, will be the best tool—but not the only one—to reduce emissions.

Last September, airline leaders and President Joe Biden touted an agreement to cut aircraft emissions 20 percent by 2030 by producing 3 billion gallons of SAF by then and replacing all conventional jet fuel by 2050. Climate experts praised the idea but said the voluntary targets are overly optimistic. Current SAF production is around 5 million gallons per year.

Sustainable fuel is biofuel made from cooking oil, animal fats, municipal waste or other feedstocks. Its chief advantage is that it can be blended with conventional fuel to power jet engines. It has been used many times on test flights and even regular flights with passengers on board.

Among SAF’s drawbacks are the high cost—about three times more than conventional jet fuel. As airlines seek to buy and use more of it, the price will rise further. Advocates are lobbying for tax breaks and other incentives to boost production.

Policymakers see SAF as a bridge fuel—a way to reduce emissions until more dramatic breakthroughs, such as electric- or hydrogen-powered planes, are ready.

Those technologies might not be widely available for airline-size planes for two or three decades.

Several companies are designing and starting to build electric-powered planes, but most are small aircraft that take off and land vertically, like helicopters, and they are about the same size—with room for only a few passengers.

Electric-powered planes big enough to carry around 200 passengers—a mediumsize jet by airline standards—would require much bigger batteries for longer flights.

The batteries would weigh about 40 times more than jet fuel to produce the same amount of power, making electric airliners impractical without huge leaps in battery technology.

Hydrogen, on the other hand, “is a very light fuel,” says Dan Rutherford, who leads the study of decarbonizing cars and planes for an environmental group, the International Council on Clean Transportation. “But you need a lot of volume to store it, and the fuel tanks themselves are heavy.”

Despite that, Rutherford remains “cautiously optimistic” about hydrogen. His group believes that by 2035, there could be hydrogen-powered planes capable of flying about 2,100 miles (3,380 kilometers). Others, however, see obstacles including the need for massive and expensive new infrastructure at airports to store hydrogen that has been chilled into liquid form.

Airlines face the risk of increasingly tough emissions regulations.

The UN aviation organization reached an agreement—voluntary until 2026, then mandatory—in which airlines can offset their emissions by investing in projects to reduce greenhouse gases in other ways. However, some major countries didn’t sign it, and environmentalists say the scheme won’t reduce emissions.

Even some in the airline industry, such as United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby, have mocked carbon offsets, which companies can get for things like paying to plant trees.

The European Union has its own plan to slash emissions 55 percent by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050 while bringing aviation under the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement on climate change. It is trying to finalize an emissions-trading system and impose higher taxes on fossil fuels including jet fuel. The rules would apply only to flights within Europe.

“The taxation policies that are already in place, particularly in Europe, are going to drive the cost of operations for airlines way up,” says Harris, the Bain consultant.

“Ultimately, fares rise whether it be paying more for sustainable aviation fuel or it’s taxes on fossil fuels.”

Airlines also face the risk of flight shaming—that more consumers could decide to travel by train or electric vehicle instead of by plane if those produce lower emissions.

That does not seem to be inhibiting many travelers this summer, however, as pent-up travel demand has led to full planes.

Whether changes in fuel and planes can cut emissions fast enough to hit the industry 2050 target—and whether airlines act on their own or under pressure from regulators—remains to be seen. But it won’t be easy.

“We’re not on a path to deliver those goals,” Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian says.

“We need the energy producers to invest in sustainable product for us, (which) is going to require government to come in.”

Rutherford, the transportation expert, notes that net zero “is a really challenging target.”

“If we aren’t clearly on a trajectory of down emissions and massive uptake of clean fuels by 2030 and 2035, we are not going to hit net zero in 2050,” he says. Koenig reported from Dallas.

Frank Jordans in Berlin contributed to this report.

Science Sunday BusinessMirror

www.businessmirror.com.ph • Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Sunday, July 24, 2022

A5

UN recognizes DOST’s SETUP 4.0 program

Published it in UN SDGs Acceleration Actions under The Partnership Platform

By Lyn B. Resurreccion

T

HE United Nations once again recog ni zed a Depa r t ment of Science and Technology’s (DOST) program. This time, it is the flagship program “Small Enterprise Technology Upgrading Program 4.0 (SETUP 4.0),” which was published on a UN web site as part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) platform.

This UN recognition to a DOST program came barely a month after the DOST’s Science for Change Program was accorded the UN Public Service Award in the category of “Enhancing the effectiveness of public institutions to reach the SDGs.” The United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) published on its web site the SETUP 4.0 as part of the SDG Acceleration Actions under “The Partnership Platform” on July 12.

“The Philippines was recognized by the UN DESA during its interventions at the Seventh Annual MultiSt a ke holder For u m on Sc ience, Technology and Innovation for the Sustainable Development Goals [STI Forum], and the 2022 Ecosoc [Economic and Social Council] Finance for Development Forum,” the DOST International Cooperation Office said.

‘Stood out as interesting contender’ UN DESA said the DOST’s SETUP 4.0, along with two other national initiatives, “stood out as interesting contenders” for the SDG Acceleration Actions

Platform, and was recommended to be registered in the platform.

The DOST gratefully concurred with the recognition and registered SETUP 4.0 in the SDG Acceleration Actions Platform, the DOST said.

Through the representation of thenSecretary Fortunato T. de la Peña, the DOST delivered the Philippine statement at the STI Forum, which was held on a hybrid format in New York on May 5 and 6.

‘Inspiring’ “IT is inspiring” that the UN has recognized the contributions of DOST’s SETUP 4.0 to SDGs, the former DOST chief said in his reply to the BusinessMirror’s online interview on July 21.

“It has indeed benefited thousands of MSMEs [micro, small and medium enterprises] nationwide in terms of upgraded technology acquisition and adoption, which have enabled them to have expanded product lines, larger capacities, faster and better production capabilities, higher product quality, job creation ability and larger markets and incomes,” de la Peña pointed out.

Being part of the Partnership Platform, he explained that the DOST “shall then continuously provide updates” about the SETUP 4.0.

“Other UN members and stakeholders may easily recognize this,” he noted. “DOST could pave the way for new international partnerships.”

De la Peña acknowledged the people behind the success of SETUP. “Thanks to our frontline implementors in the regions, to our research and development institutes, and,

most of all, to our very good MSME beneficiaries. And to our national government, which has been providing for the continuing program implementation,” he said.

“I am proud to have given the program’s name that is easy to remember way back in 2002,” he noted. He was then the DOST undersecretary.

Honor for the Philippines FOR his part, DOST Undersecretary Sancho A. Mabborang said: “We are delighted and grateful that the UN has recognized SETUP to address concerns on SDGs.” “Rest assured that our office will continuously provide STI interactions and engagements to uplift the lives of Filipinos in communities that are in great need. Our future is brighter with STI,” Mabborang, who oversees SETUP operations, told the BusinessMirror in an online interview.

DOST Assistant Secretary for International Cooperation Leah Buendia said UN’s recognition of the SETUP 4.0

“was truly an honor, not just for the DOST, but for the Philippines.”

“For the past six years, the Department did not waver in its commitment to pursue national STI interests and promote the country’s innovative breakthroughs in the international community,” Buendia told the BusinessMirror in a message when asked for her reaction.

She added that it “is a testament that our efforts to elevate the Philippines’ position in the global arena bring us more opportunities.”

With the SETUP now registered in the SDG Platform, “we hope that more STI international partnerships would flourish in this area. SETUP 4.0 is one of the many initiatives of the DOST that directly contribute to the achievement of the United Nations [SDGs], particularly 1, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12 and 13,” Buendia pointed out.

The DOST’s SETUP 4.0 has been a recurrent component of country statements developed by the department.

DOST SETUP 4.0 until 2030 SETUP is now on its 20th year. The original SETUP (2002-2017) offered firm-level assistance to upgrade existing technologies and products of MSMEs, the DOST web site said.

The SETUP 2.0 (2018-2020), on the other hand, provided S&T assistance to further boost the enterprise and productivity on a more focused industry approach that developed the industry-S&T roadmaps.

Paving the way for the acceleration of new and disruptive technologies despite the pandemic, SETUP evolved to address the bigger pressing needs of the times and shifted to high gear with the launch of SETUP 4.0.

Set to run until 2030, the DOST SETUP 4.0 program is at the forefront in the advancement of the technological needs of the MSMEs in the country.

The program categorizes MSMEs in terms of their level of development to deliver the appropriate S&T

interventions. It likewise provides industry-level assistance.

The program supports the vision of an “Innovative, Resilient, Sustainable and Globally Competitive Gender-Responsive MSME Sector’’ that will nurture a sustainable economy and society for Filipinos in support of AmBisyon Natin 2040.

It aims to transform the enterprises into smart MSMEs through the Smarter Strategic Themes: Sustainable Economy, Market Competence, Able Human Capital, Responsive S&T Support Infrastructure, Technology and Innovation, Enterprise Support, and Resiliency and Continuity.

SDG Partnership Platform THE SDG Partnership Platform is a global registry of voluntary commitments and multi-stakeholder partnerships in support of the implementation of the SDGs, and through various UN conferences and thematic action networks, including the UN Ocean Conference, the Small Island Developing States Conference, the UN Sustainable Transport Conference, the Rio+20 Conference, and others.

The SDG Acceleration Actions online database is a tool to help inspire and mobilize actions around the world.

It aims to promote the implementation of the SDGs, as well as build resilience and bring inclusive recovery in the context of new realities post Covid-19, so that the global economy, planet and people could emerge stronger together from the crisis.

Searca studies households’ food security strategies during pandemic

T A RESEARCHER evaluates the stem-end rot disease on a mango. UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN MINDANAO PHOTO

DOST-PCAARRD project uses biotech tools to improve Carabao mango variety

T

HE diseases of Carabao mango variety may soon disappear with the help of biotechnology tools through an ongoing project funded by the Philippine Council for Agriculture, Aquatic and Natural Resources Research and Development of the Department of Science and Technology (DOST-PCAARRD).

Targeted to address the scab and stemend rot diseases of mango, the project that is being led by Dr. Edward A. Barlaan of the University of Southern Mindanao (USM) will develop and identify molecular markers associated with scab- and SER-resistance in mango to improve the Carabao mango.

Scab and SER diseases are among the major problems of mango farmers causing high pre- and postharvest losses, and low fruit quality.

In its second year of implementation, Barlaan reported that the project has geotagged and characterized 101 mango accessions in Guimaras, North Cotabato and Davao City. They have identified two mango cultivars (i.e., ‘Huani’ and ‘Irwin’) and four other cultivars (i.e., ‘Katchamita’ or Indian mango, ‘Florida,’ ‘Nam Doc Mai,’ and ‘Kabayo’) resistant and moderately resistant to SER, respectively.

Meanwhile, 45 mango cultivars other than the Carabao variety were found susceptible to scab disease in a mango seedling nursery

evaluation at USM. A total of 18 isolates associated with scab disease were molecularly identified and currently undergoing pathogenicity test to confirm the said disease.

These findings will help develop SERresistant mango varieties to help increase the production of quality mangoes that can compete in the export market.

The project team partnered with the Bureau of Plant Industry-Guimaras National Crop Research, Development, and Production Support Center in floral induction and mango fruit collection.

They also forged partnerships with the Institute of Plant Breeding at the University of the Philippines Los Baños (IPB-UPLB) and the National Taiwan University for SER and scab isolation, and bioinformatics, respectively.

The ongoing project is a component of DOST-PCAARRD’s mango breeding program which aims to improve Carabao mango using biotechnology tools.

These accomplishments were presented in an annual project review attended by the USM project team, S&T Consultant and UPLB Professor Emeritus Dr. Rita P. Laude, as well as the DOST-PCAARRD staff headed by Crops Research Division’s Officer in Charge Dr. Allan B. Siano, via videoconferencing.

Danica Louise C. Sembrano and Ma. Cecilia S. Alaban, S&T Media Services

First CERN-driven cubesat launched

C

ELESTA, the first CERN-driven satellite, successfully entered orbit during the maiden flight of Europe’s Vega-C launch vehicle. Launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) from the French Guiana Space Centre on July 13, the satellite deployed smoothly and transmitted its first signals in the afternoon.

Weighing one kilogram and measuring 10 centimeters on each side, Celesta, a CERN latchup and radmon experiment

student satellite, is a 1U cube satellite (cubesat) designed to study the effects of cosmic radiation on electronics, a CERN news release said.

CERN stands for the French “Conseil Européen pour la Recherche Nucléaire,” or European Council for Nuclear Research.

The cubesat carries a Space RadMon, a miniature version of a well-proven radiation monitoring device deployed in CERN’s Large Hadron Collider.

HE Southeast Asian Regional Center for Graduate Study and Research in Agriculture (Searca) is conducting a research in Los Baños, Laguna, on urban households’ coping strategies on food security during the Covid-19 pandemic.

At the same time, a similar study is also being held in two cities in Indonesia by sister centers under the Southeast Asian Ministers of Education Organization, the Seameo Regional Center for Food and Nutrition, and Seameo Regional Centre for Tropical Biology.

Searca is among the centers of Seameo.

According to Dr. Pedcris M. Orencio, Searca program head for Research and Thought Leadership, the center will attempt to enhance the understanding of the experiences of Los Baños communities in coping with food security issues and concerns during the pandemic.

It aims to generate policy recommendations that will address the concerns, a Searca news

A FATHER and his oldest son (background) are busy collecting crops, while his younger son is planting fresh plants to ensure that they have enough food to survive. Investing time in planting is a good method to save lives, especially during a pandemic.

PHOTO BY ARNEL DAGDAG GARCIA/SEARCA

release said.

Orencio explained that the study intends to determine the status of food security and identify the key determinants of households in Los Baños, as well as the range and most common coping strategies adopted,

and social aids sought and received from government institutions.

Moreover, Orencio said the study will identify which components are most challenging among the households, and will generate policy recommendations

on addressing food security during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Los Baños-based Searca has already met with the Municipal Planning and Development Office (MPDO) and the Municipal Nutrition Action Office (MNAO) where the study was discussed.

Household interviews will be administered in 10 barangays in Los Baños that will be selected based on the consultations conducted with the MPDC and MNAO from July 25 to 29.

The interviews will be undertaken by Searca’s Research and Thought Leadership Department led by Orencio, and coordinated

by Anna Gale C. Vallez and Donna Bae N. Malayang, program specialist and program associate, respectively.

Student interns from the University of the Philippines Los Baños-College of Economics and Management are involved in the study, particularly in profiling the target barangays, data collection and analysis of survey results.

DOST-S4CP training aims to improve more agri products like pili nut, pineapple

T

HE resilient pili nut tree, considered as the “tree of hope” due to its ability to withstand numerous typhoons, is one of the agricultural products supported by the Department of Science and Technology's Science for Change Program (DOST-S4CP).

Research and development (R&D) gave way to local innovations for its processing like the development of pili sorter, depulper, cracker and oil extractor, the DOST-S4CP said in a news release.

In an effort to sustain the developments in the pili nut industry as well as in other agricultural and industrial products in the Bicol Region, the DOST-S4CP Program Management Office led an “R&D Ideation and S4CP Proposal Writeshop” in Legazpi,

Albay, on July 7 and 8.

The event was made in collaboration with DOST Region V, and in coordination with the Department of Agriculture and the National Economic and Development Authority.

Five Bicol-based universities and five local companies developed a total of 22 R&D concept proposals during the activity.

It is expected that through the event, the state universities and colleges in the area will be able to generate industry-based R&D proposals and pave the way for an increased distribution of R&D budget in the region.

Targeted in the writeshop were the Bicol University College of Agriculture and Forestry, Partido State University, Central Bicol State University of Agriculture, and

Camarines Norte State College, which currently implement and host the Pili and Queen Pineapple R&D Centers.

The goal was to enrich their programs through additional R&D projects focused on geomapping, detection of diseases, genetic conservation, gender analysis, and product development and commercialization among others.

The Pili and Queen Pineapple R&D Centers are included in the 43 centers funded under the S4CP-Niche Centers in the Regions for R&D Program (Nicer).

Niche centers are established to capacitate universities in the regions for regional development.

For the Collaborative Research and

Development to Leverage Philippine Economy (Cradle) Program, five local companies worked with the universities to work and think of possible solutions to their needs for e-commerce, oil extraction, product characterization, automatic classification of fruit varieties, and biogas purification, among others.

The Cradle Program aims to empower Filipino-owned companies to take part in research and development through partnership with experts in the academe to innovate their products and processes.

To date, there are 86 collaborative projects funded under the Program with a total of P396.6-million grants, the DOSTS4CP said in a news release.

Celesta has been sent into an Earth orbit of almost 6,000 kilometers.

“Right in the middle of the inner Van Allen belt, Celesta will survey an unusual orbit where radiation levels are at their highest,” explained Markus Brugger, head of the CERN Experimental Areas group and initiator of both the Cern High energy AcceleRator Mixed-field (CHARM) facility and Celeste projects in the context of the Radiation to Electronics (R2E) initiative.

The Space RadMon is a flagship example of how CERN technologies can have applications beyond particle physics

experiments.

“Based entirely on standardized, ultra-sensitive components selected and calibrated by CERN, and mostly in CERN facilities, the Space RadMon is a lightweight and low-power instrument, ideal for future risk-tolerant space missions,” said Ruben Garcia Alia, R2E project leader.

“If Celesta is successful, the Space RadMon could even be adapted to satellite constellations as a predictive maintenance tool—to anticipate the necessary renewal of satellites,” Alia said

A radiation model of the Celesta satellite was also tested in CHARM, a CERN mixedfield facility capable of reproducing, to a large extent, the radiation environment of low Earth orbit.

The mission will be an important validation of this capability at the facility.

“Capable of testing satellites all at once, rather than component by component, CHARM is a unique installation worldwide, remarkably different from other irradiation test facilities. It offers a simple, low-cost alternative and the possibility to assess system-level effects,” said Salvatore

Danzeca, CHARM facility coordinator.

The success of the satellite is the result of a fruitful partnership between CERN and the University of Montpellier, which involved many students from both institutions and radiation effect specialists from CERN, the news release said.

Celesta is based on the Custom Space User Management (CSUM) radiation tolerant platform. It will be operated from the CSUM control centre. The European Space Agency provided the launch slot in the framework of its small satellite program.

A6

Sunday, July 24, 2022

Faith

Sunday

Pope Francis warns A of toxicity in socmed V

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion • www.businessmirror.com.ph

Nuncio to preside Thanksgiving Mass for Venerable Camomot

ATICAN—Pope Francis has called on Catholics to counter toxicity in social media, and to engage in dialogue and education to help deal with “lies and misinformation.”

In a message published by the Holy See on July 18, the Holy Father also called for the inclusion of currently excluded communities into “the digital space.”

Pope Francis addressed this message to the participants of the 2022 World Congress of Signis in Seoul, South Korea. The event is held every four years, and the 2022 Congress explores the theme of “Peace in the Digital World” both on site and digitally from August 16 to 19.

Signis is the World Catholic Association for Communication, an organization whose mission is to “help transform cultures in the light of the Gospel by promoting human dignity, justice and reconciliation.”

In his message, Pope Francis said, “the use of digital media, especially social media, has raised a number of serious ethical issues that call for wise and discerning judgment on the part of communicators and all those concerned

POPE Francis VATICAN MEDIA

with the authenticity and quality of human relationships.”

“Sometimes and in some places, media sites have become places of toxicity, hate speech and fake news,” the pope added.

He encouraged Catholic communicators to persevere in efforts to counter these, “paying particular attention to the need to assist people, especially young people,

to develop a sound critical sense, learning to distinguish truth from falsehood, right from wrong, good from evil, and to appreciate the importance of working for justice, social concord, and respect for our common home.”

The pope also drew attention to “the many communities in our world that remain excluded from the digital space, making digital inclusion a priority.”

In doing so, Catholic communicators provide a “significant contribution to the spread of a culture of peace grounded in the truth of the Gospel,” the Holy Father added.

Pope Francis prayed that “the story of Saint Andrew Kim and his companions 200 years ago [may] confirm you in your own efforts to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in the language of contemporary communications media.” AC Wimmer/Catholic News Agency via CBCP News

Shinto religion has long been entangled with Japan’s politics

F

ORMER Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s alleged shooter, Tetsuya Yamagami, told the police that he was motivated by Abe’s connections to the messianic new religious movement known as the Unification Church.

Yamagami explained that his mother had made a “huge donation” to the group, and he blamed the church for bankrupting his mother and ruining his family.

In a news conference on July 11, the president of the Unification Church’s Japanese branch confirmed that Yamagami’s mother was a member, though the suspected killer and Abe were not.

The Unification Church was founded in 1954 by the late Korean religious leader Sun Myung Moon. Moon claimed to have been sent by Jesus to save families and achieve world peace. His followers are colloquially called “Moonies.”

Besides his religious activities, Moon was very involved in international business dealings and conservative, anticommunist politics.

The Abe family’s political connections to the Unification Church go back three generations, including his maternal grandfather, Nobusuke Kishi, and his father, Shintaro Abe. Shinzo Abe appeared as a paid speaker at Unification Churchrelated events as recently as 2021.

The possible motive behind the shooting surprised many people who view Japan as one of the least religious countries.

As a scholar of Japanese religion, I know that Abe and his political party, the ruling conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), have connections with several religious traditions and religious political parties. Yet somehow Abe’s deep connections with Shinto religion rarely make the news.

Shinto has long been a part of Abe’s politics and continues to be so for the LDP.

What is Shinto?

SHINTO is one of Japan’s two

major religions, along w ith Buddhism. Like many religious traditions, Shinto can have different meanings for people. For some, it is the central faith of the Japanese people. Others do not see it as a religion at all.

Shinto is typically translated as the “Way of the Gods.” Simply put, Shinto is a collection of ritual traditions that focus on the worship of deities called “Kami.”

These powerful deities are believed to be responsible for many things, like helping crops to grow and protecting people’s health.

A certain group of Shinto deities is known for connections to the imperial family of Japan.

In particular, the sun goddess Amaterasu is revered as the ancestor of Japan’s emperors and empresses and protector of the nation. She is worshiped at the Grand Shrines of Ise, often characterized as the holiest site in Japan.

Shinto rituals are performed by priests at shrines around Japan—and the world—on behalf of the deities and the local communities of people under their purview.

T h e e m p e r o r o f Ja p a n a lso per for ms Shinto r it uals yearly for a good harvest and at the time of his enthronement—and, sometimes, abdication—on behalf of the nation.

For some, participating in rituals is a sacred and spiritually uplifting experience. For others, visiting a Shinto shrine is simply a matter of tradition or national pride.

Entanglement with politics

SHINTO has a long and complex history of entanglement with politics and the state.

The earliest surviving Japanese texts recalled the mythical deeds of the gods from whom the emperor and court officials claimed to descend, legitimizing their rule.

In his book Faking Liberties, scholar Jolyon Thomas shows how Shinto was at the center of a centurylong debate over what constitutes religion in modern Japan.

officials’ visits to Tokyo’s Yasukuni Shrine—a controversial space that represents Japan’s past militarism.

In this shrine, spirits of war dead—including colonial subjects and war criminals—are enshrined as Shinto deities.

Abe and SAS JAPAN’S former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, in this image from a video, makes a campaign speech in Nara, Japan, shortly before he was shot on July 8. Abe, a divisive arch-conservative and one of his nation’s most powerful and influential figures, has died after being shot.

KYODO NEWS VIA AP

Until the 19th century, there was no concept in Japan of what is considered in the West as “religion,” and there was no word in Japanese for it.

But when the 1889 Meiji Constitution included the right to religious freedom, the government had to decide what traditions and groups were or weren’t religious.

At that time, Shinto was officially split. Rituals concerning the emperor and his divine ancestors were categorized as nonreligious civil ritual—sometimes called “State Shinto”—and other matters of personal belief and practice as private religion.

After World War II, the Allies, led by the United States, formed an occupation government in Japan and separated all of Shinto from the postwar state by categorizing it as religion.

But, like other religions, Shinto continued to be involved in Japan’s politics.

One key group in Japan is the Shinto Association for Spiritual (SAS) Leadership, founded in 1969 as the political arm of the Association of Shinto Shrines, an umbrella organization for around 80,000 member shrines.

According to scholar Mark Mullins, the nationalist group’s aims include promoting the power of the emperor, revising the constitution and implementing Shinto moral education in schools.

They also support government

ABE and his administrations worked closely with the SAS for decades. In 2016, 19 of the 20 members of Abe’s Cabinet were affiliated with the SAS. Fourteen were members of the Japan Conference, “Nippon Kaigi” in Japanese, which is another right-wing nationalist group with ties to Shinto groups, such as the Society to Defend Japan, or “Nihon wo Mamoru Kai.” Abe served as a member and special adviser to the Japan Conference.

Abe and his family have also been associated w ith other right-wing religious projects outside of government.

In 2017, Abe and his wife were involved in a corruption scandal concerning an ultranationalist private Shinto elementary school. The Abes cut ties with it, and plans for the school were abandoned, when questions arose around the government’s massive discount for the land acquisition.

Apart from nationalism, Abe helped politicize other aspects of contemporary Shinto, such as environmentalism.

In 2016, he invited the G-7 leaders to visit the Inner Shrine of Ise in Mie Prefecture, where Amaterasu is worshiped.

The visit included a treepl a nt i n g ce re mony. S c hol ar Aike Rots has written about how Abe used the event to acquire legitimacy and promote Shinto as a form of national public spirituality.

During his time as prime m i n i s t e r a n d e v e n a f t e r, Shinzo Abe was a leader and a model for Shinto politics for a generation of conservatives, nationalists and adherents.

T h is legac y l ives on. Kaitlyn Ugoretz, University of California Santa Barbara/The Conversation (CC) via AP

THANKSGIVING Mass in honor of Venerable Teofilo Camomot will be held in Cebu province’s city of Carcar next week.

T he Ju ly 27 Mass w i l l be presided over by A rchbishop Charles Brow n, t he Apostolic Nuncio to the Philippines, at a chapel located inside the Daughters of St. Therese Mother House compound.

During the Mass, the decree of the heroic virtues of Archbishop Camomot will be read by Archbishop Jose Palma of Cebu, while Archbishop Jose Cabantan of Cagayan de Oro will deliver the homily.

“Let us celebrate with sincere thanksgiving for the gift of our dear Teofilo Camomot being raised to the level of venerable,” Palma said during a news briefing in Cebu City last Wednesday.

More than 3,000 devotees and pilgrims are expected to attend the Mass that will be preceded with a conference on the process of beatification and canonization of saints.

The conference will feature as speaker Fr. Samson Silloriquez, the Rome-based Augustinian friar and postulator for Camomot’s cause for sainthood.

After the Mass, a procession will be held to the nearby “Domus Teofilo” for the blessing of his tomb by the papal nuncio.

In a decree promulgated on May 21, Pope Francis recognized the heroic virtue of Archbishop Camomot.

According to the Archbishop Camomot Committee in Cebu,

VENERABLE Archbishop Teofilo Camomot. PHOTO FROM VEN. TEOFILO CAMOMOT FB PAGE

there have been testimonies of the archbishop’s ability to heal the sick and levitate in prayer.

A native of Carcar, he was ordained priest for the Archdiocese of Cebu in 1941 and was elevated to episcopacy in 1955.

His last assignment was as coadjutor archbishop of Cagayan de Oro, where he ser ved for 12 years.

He then retur ned to Cebu where he died in a car accident on September 27, 1988 at the age of 74.

“In our own way, may we as well become inspired to try to live the virtues that he lived,” Palma said.

“Let us also continue to pray that time comes that he would be beatified and eventually be canonized,” he added.

The Cebu archdiocese said that Camomot was known “for his fame of sanctity during his life, his death and after his death.”

“His dedication to the poor and detachment from material possessions were the trademarks of his ministry,” it said. CBCP News

‘Red-tagging will not cow us’

SEVERAL consecrated men and women from different religious congregations and secular institutes are shown attending a Mass for the 25th World Day of Consecrated Life at the Santo Domingo Church on February 2, 2021. CMSP

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HE countr y’s major superiors said that continued red-tagging of some among their ranks will not in any way distract them from pursuing their mission and work for justice and peace.

The Conference of Major Superiors in the Philippines (CMSP), in a statement issued recently, asserted that “to serve the people of God is never wrong.”

“Irresponsible labels and namecalling will not cow us,” part of the statement read. “To be in solidarity with the struggles, dreams and hopes of our people is demanded by our life of consecration to God and His people.”

The statement was a product of their July 11 to 14 online convention, where they reflected on the theme, “The CMSP’s Prophetic Challenges Today.”

More than 150 delegates coming from 116 women and 26 men institutes attended the event, together with some representatives from the CMSP Commission on Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation, and its mission partners.

The organization, formerly known as the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines, urged its members to keep working with justice and peace

advocates, and environment and human-rights defenders.

“Let us go to the margins and peripheries, the new frontiers and spheres of our missionary presence—socioeconomic, political, religious and cultural, technological and minister to the vulnerable and the deprived,” they said.

“We commit ourselves in working to dismantle unjust structures in society, and in their place, help build new ones in a spirit of reconciliation, justice and peace, as our Christian faith demands,” they added.

The major superiors also vowed to “stand for the truth” amid “systematic disinformation, misinformation, [and] historical distortions” in the country.

“As Church, we are challenged by our present time and context to stand for truth,” according to them. “The Church will not and cannot be neutral on moral and ethical issues and concerns.”

They also vowed to continue working for “ecological integrity, human rights and human dignity, citizen engagement and good governance, interfaith dialogue, and safeguarding the minors and vulnerable in our various pastoral ministries.” CBCP News

Biodiversity Sunday BusinessMirror

Asean Champions of Biodiversity Media Category 2014

Sunday, July 24, 2022 A7

Editor: Lyn Resurreccion

Solar power makes farms green Valuable ecosystem services

By Jonathan L. Mayuga

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MONICA INONOG (from left), John Paul Magana and Kuhkan Maas lead a team of forest rangers tasked with protecting critical areas plagued by illegal activities inside the Masungi Geopark Project and the Upper Marikina Watershed. PHOTO FROM MASUNGI GEORESERVE FOUNDATION

Masungi rangers win IUCN’s 2022 International Ranger Awards

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HE Rangers of the Masungi Georeserve Foundation won in the World Commission on Protected Areas (WCPA) 2022 International Ranger Awards of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

The Masungi team was awarded among the 12 winners from four continents worldwide during a hybrid ceremony at the IUCN Africa Protected Areas Congress in Kigali, Rwanda, a news release announced.

Masungi rangers—represented by Kuhkan Maas, John Paul Magana, and Monica Inonog of the Bayog Ranger Station—were lauded for their exceptional resilience in the face of serious risks in performing their duties.

The Bayog Ranger Station is located at one of the most vulnerable areas for encroachment inside the Masungi Geopark Project, the site of the foundation’s forest restoration initiative, and the Upper Marikina Watershed.

“We are inspired that the international community recognizes our efforts and sacrifice.

We hope this recognition will raise awareness of the plight of environment defenders in Masungi and the Philippines,” Inonog said.

“We ask the new [Environment] Secretary Ma. Antonia ‘Toni’ Yulo-Loyzaga to help protect us from continuing danger and finally remove the destructive quarry interests and illegal structures in the watershed,” she added.

“We also ask the police and the local government to support us in defeating organized crimes inside the Masungi landscape and the surrounding watershed, the health of which is critical to the disaster resilience of many communities and cities,” she pointed out.

The team at the Bayog Ranger Station and rangers stationed nearby have faced non-stop violence, threats and harassment from environmental offenders and organized criminals in the past few years.

On July 24, 2021, at around 9 p.m., Maas and his companion were shot in the head and neck while resting inside the Bayog Ranger Station after their daily patrol.

On February 18, 2022, persons associated with swimming pool resorts and compounds that have been built inside the watershed ganged up and mauled Masungi rangers, including Magana and Inonog.

The rangers not only face physical harassment but also legal harassment, which aims to exhaust resources and discourage them from continuing their work, including patrolling, reporting, and mitigating threats, planting and maintaining project areas, and educating visitors.

“Because of the lack of enforcement, negligence, or even connivance of certain officials, we are always put in the line of danger.

Many times we feel alone. Instead of helping us, some of those in positions of authority are in effect helping incompatible interests like quarries and illegal structures prosper,” Inonog lamented.

“We hope we will be given justice. However, until now those who have hurt us are not yet punished,” Maas said in Filipino.

He explained that despite criminal complaints having been filed against suspects for various acts of violence, none of them have been penalized. While there are a many large illegal structures in the protected area and reforestation project site, the structures have not been demolished and only two complaints are known to have been filed by the government against the proponents.

Maas added that conspicuous walled compounds, such as those allegedly owned by an active police general and a former environment officer, have been left untouched.

Alarmingly, certain officials are even facilitating clearances for the unauthorized developments, encouraging more unwanted encroachments, disruption of vital waterways, and harassment of environment defenders.

According to the 2021 report of the Global Witness, the Philippines is the third among countries with the most killed environmental defenders in 2020, next to Colombia and Mexico, respectively.

The documented killings in the country have reached 29, which are mostly linked to defenders’ opposition to mining, logging, and dam projects.

The IUCN-WCPA International Ranger Awards aim to recognize the amazing work of rangers globally and improve their abilities, raise awareness of the important role they play in caring for protected landscapes around the world, and spread their unique stories.

Nominees were screened based on the following criteria: exceptional personal commitment to a protected area; exceptional valor, fortitude, or resilience in the face of serious threats to a protected area; and exceptional actions and impacts to safeguard a protected area.

Established in 1948, the IUCN is currently the largest and most diversified environmental network with 1,400 member organizations and 15,00 experts. It strives to urge various societies to conserve nature and ensure the proper use of natural resources.

HE Department of Agrarian Reform (DAR) that is mandated to implement the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program and provide small farmers with various support services to help fight hunger and poverty in rural areas, announced on July 20 the turn-over of a P10-million solar-powered communal irrigation systems to a farmerirrigators in Quezon Province.

The project, which is being implemented by DAR with the National Irrigation Administration, will benefit 53 farmer-members of an irrigation association and irrigate 35 hectares.

A SOLAR-POWERED irrigation project in Pangasinan province.

DAR PUBLIC ASSISTANCE AND MEDIA RELATIONS SERVICE PHOTOS

Climate-change action THE DAR deployed even smaller solar-powered irrigation projects to various parts of the country over the past five years. It aims to empower farming communities in remote villages in various parts of the country, through solar energy.

The Solar Power Irrigation System (SPIS) Project is one of the responses of the DAR in operationalizing the Climate Change Act of 2009.

Ricky P. Sunga, SPIS project head, said the irrigation systems have been installed in agrarian reform communities, particularly in sites devoted to cash crops with no irrigation.

The SPIS Project involves the use of an irrigation system powered by solar energy using open water sources, such as lakes, rivers, streams, and even creeks.

“This is very effective, especially in areas with no irrigation or even electricity,” Sunga told the BusinessMirror partly in Filipino in a telephone interview on July 12.

No electricity cost AMONG the project’s advantages include the non-use of fuel or electricity, easy installation in remote areas, use of renewable energy, and suitability for remote watershed and rain-fed areas.

More importantly, he said, it is free.

“Because it is solar powered, they don’t have to spend money for diesel, especially now that the price of diesel is going up,” he added.

The initial implementation of the project was in partnership with the Department of Agriculture-Bureau of Soils and Water Management (DA-BSWM) through a memorandum of agreement and with initial funding of P10 million.

Under the partnership, DA-BSWM adopted the SPIS technology, while DAR’s role was in the identification of project sites and beneficiaries.

The project was implemented in 15 pilot sites with funding of P1 million per site.

Due to the relatively good performance of the pilot implementation of

the project, the SPIS was integrated into the enhanced implementation of the DAR’s Agrarian Reform Connectivity and Enterprise Support Services Program and its successor program, the Climate Resilient and Farm Productivity Support Program.

Environment-friendly ACCORDING to Sunga, the project is environment-friendly and promotes sustainable farming.

He said many farmers are happy with it because they are able to use renewable energy to grow and harvest vegetables without using diesel.

For Leon Dulce, national coordinator of the Kalikasan-People’s Network for the Environment, said the use of solar power to irrigate remote farming villages is a welcome initiative.

“Using solar power for irrigation mechanization and rural electrification, in general, helps address the country’s 40 percent irrigation coverage gap without further contributing to carbon emissions and air pollution,” he said when asked to comment on the matter.

He added that decentralizing irrigation also weans the system off from intensive centralized sources, such as mega-dams.

“This, however, requires careful regulations around particular solar irrigation projects far from surface water sources to prevent over-extraction from groundwater sources,” he warned.

Better than diesel NEVERTHELESS, using renewable energy is a lot better than oil-based fuel.

“Diesel-based irrigation pumps pose threats of air pollution, toxins and other harmful impacts to biodiversity that can be found in the aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems,” he said.

Farming is a major driver of biodiversity loss. The conversion of otherwise natural habitats of plant and animal wildlife for the purpose of food production results in massive habitat destruction that causes

LGUs push passage of policy on national single-use plastic

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OCAL government units (LGUs), through ordinances, are pushing for a national law that will comprehensively and effectively address single-use plastics, advocates said during a recent joint webcast by Cebu Technological University and The Climate Reality Project Philippines.

“As of 2019, 489 cities and municipalities, or about 30 percent of [LGUs] in the country, have some form of policy to regulate the use of plastics, particularly plastic bags,” said Ian Soqueño, Anti Single-Use Plastics lead of Climate Reality Philippines. The webcast was the second episode of Klima Ug Kalikupan, a news release said.

Citing data from the National Solid Waste Management Commission (NSWMC), Soqueño said the local ordinances have different scopes, different definitions of singleuse plastics and different sanctions.

He also noted that all regions in the country, except in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, have LGUs regulating plastics.

Pending bills, existing laws

SOQUEÑO noted that two bills were filed in the 17th Congress that sought to address the concern on single-use plastics.

House Bill 9147, or the proposed SingleUse Plastic Products Regulation Act, was already approved on third reading at the House of Representatives. It was a consolidation of about 40 bills that aims to phase out and eventually totally ban the use of single-use plastics in the country.

It also mandated companies or plastic producers to create programs and measures that will manage plastic waste.

However, it did not flourish in the Senate. “[The Senate] wanted the extended producer-responsibility scheme,” making the House create a bill that would “complement the Senate bill,” Soqueño said, pertaining to Senate Bill 2425 and House Bill 10696, or the Extender Producers Responsibility Act. The consolidated bill that solely focused on extended producer responsibility schemes has been approved by both houses of Congress, but may lapse into law after

AREAS must develop tailored approaches to phasing out single-use products based on local contexts. PIXABAY/RITA E/UNEP.ORG no action was made by President Duterte.

Soqueño also lamented the failure of concerned agencies to fully implement Republic Act 9003, or the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000.

“Had we implemented this law right, we wouldn’t have this much of a problem on plastics,” he said.

He explained that the law mandates the NSWMC to formulate and update a list of Non-Environmentally Acceptable Products (NEAPs) and determine a phase-out period for the products.

While the law has been in effect since 2000, it was only last year that the NSWMC released a list of NEAPs.

“It’s not even a promulgated list. It’s a draft list ... that was not yet approved by the agencies that advise the Commission.... Twenty-two years since the law was enacted, the draft list includes only two items—plastic soft drink straws and coffee stirrers,” he lamented.

Banning single-use plastics is not anti-poor

SOQUEÑO pointed out that there are ways to shift to more sustainable systems without leaving low-income families behind, the Climate Reality news release said.

“A lot has been said about the advocacy against single-use plastics being anti-poor and that it will not help Filipinos who could

the extinction of many plant and animal species.

Farms are always associated with animals. Besides farm animals like carabao, cattle, horses, goats and dogs, farms also provide food and shelter to wildlife like birds, snakes, lizards, rats, fish, snails, small crabs, talangka, bees and butterflies.

Agricultural biodiversity ACCORDING to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), biodiversity is the basis of agriculture.

“It has enabled farming systems to evolve ever since agriculture was first developed some 10,000 years ago. Biodiversity is the origin of all species of crops and domesticated livestock and the variety within them,” CBD said on its web site.

“It is also the foundation of ecosystem services essential to sustainable agriculture and human well-being.

Today’s crop and livestock biodiversity are the results of thousands of years of human intervention,” it added.

Strongly interrelated FURTHER, the CBD said that biodiversity and agriculture are strongly interrelated because while biodiversity is critical for agriculture, agriculture can also contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity.

“Indeed, sustainable agriculture both promotes and is enhanced by biodiversity. Maintenance of biodiversity is essential for the sustainable production of food and other agricultural products and the benefits these provide to humanity, including food security, nutrition, and livelihoods,” it said.

Hence, the CBD Conference of Parties has recognized “the special nature of agricultural biodiversity, its distinctive features, and problems needing distinctive solutions” Essentially, it states that agricultural biodiversity is essential to satisfy basic human needs for food and livelihood security. only afford products in sachets.... Even before sachets, we have working systems on these kinds of products, such as refilling systems,” he explained.

He shared how multinational companies are circumventing the definition of singleuse plastics. They do not consider sachets as single-use plastics because they are composed of other materials other than plastics.

“This is why bills were designed to include an eventual phase-out of singleuse plastics instead of an outright ban.

This way, we can promote the development of eco-friendly products and develop alternative systems and approaches, such as refilling systems and zero-waste sarisari stores,” he said.

He added that the government should find ways to address gaps, including those who will lose their jobs because of the ban of single-use plastics.

Roxanne Doron, founder and executive director of Bisdak Pride, supported Soqueño’s position.

“It [sachet system] is destructive.

Our old system of tingi-tingi used to be sustainable but this has been destroyed by multinational firms. I have traced the history of this profit-centered drive from companies that has resulted in this waste problem,” Doron said.

THERESA MUNDITA S. LIM, executive director of the Asean Centre for Biodiversity, told the BusinessMirror in an interview via Messenger on July 20 that indeed agrobiodiversity embodies the link between the biodiversity of natural ecosystems and those components which are human-managed.

“Food and livelihood are among the valuable ecosystem services provided by thriving biodiversity, but as resources become finite, we must ensure to use and manage them sustainably,” said Lim, an international biodiversity expert.

She said: “The first step to transitioning to a more sustainable and healthy food system is to start moving toward biodiversity—or nature neutral, or even a biodiversity- or naturepositive agricultural practices.”

Less emission, the better “ONE that has much potential to contribute to this transition are these solar-powered irrigation systems.

Solar-powered irrigation contributes to cleaner air and reduces carbon emission, thus, it will help support a healthier environment for all species [including bees] to survive,” Lim added.

Moreover, Lim, a former director of the Biodiversity Management Bureau of the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, said solar-powered irrigation systems leave a smaller carbon footprint on natural ecosystems, compared to large irrigation dams.

“The inclusion of small rainwater catchments reduces over-extraction of water from natural freshwater ecosystems that help in preventing the wetland from permanently drying up. These are wetlands which tend to decrease in level during the summer season, but still need to maintain moisture or small amounts of water to support a variety of important organisms that grow and seek shelter in muddy soil,” she said.

According to Lim, freshwater ecosystems also support native fisheries, some of which migrate to and from the large rivers to the sea to complete their life cycles.

“Small-scale solar-powered irrigation systems will not have as enormous an impact because it is not expected to redirect as much the natural waterways to adversely affect the normal life cycle or movement of critical aquatic species,” she explained.

According to Lim, inland water biodiversity provides a variety of healthy protein sources for communities and, for some indigenous peoples, may be linked to their tradition and culture.

“Irrigation systems, in the end, maybe more efficient, economical, and sustainable,” she said.

Waste management in Cebu

DORON noted that a conference in April aimed at finding solutions to Cebu’s 30-year garbage problem.

“In the conference, the city government expressed that they will embark on a people-driven solid-waste management.

It is commendable because the leadership should guide the people on solid waste management. If your leadership is good, people will follow. Since Mayor Michael Rama is about to start his mandate, I hope that there is follow-through,” he said.

Doron noted that Cebu City already has ordinances in place to address the plastic problem. These include the ban on plastic shopping bags on Wednesdays and Saturdays and the prohibition of foam food containers and single-use plastics in all public events in the city.

“The bigger question is why is it that there is still waste around the city? The problem here lies in the supply because if you cut the supply there will be less supply.

We have ordinances on waste disposal but we do not have restrictions on waste production,” Doron said.

The Cebu City Council enacted an ordinance last year totally banning all single-use plastic materials in all business establishments. However, the ordinance still needs the signature of the local chief executive.

Sports

Ex-coach criminally charged in naked ‘fat test’ case

BusinessMirror

By Jessica R. Murfree Texas A&M Unversity

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T least 50 high school football players in the US have died from heat stroke after falling ill on the field in the past 25 years.

And high school athletes in other sports are not immune from the risks—female cross-country athletes are twice as likely to suffer from heat-related illnesses as athletes in any other high school sport.

The numbers are especially shocking when you consider that heat-related illnesses and deaths are entirely preventable.

While sports equipment has improved over time to protect against concussions, young players and college athletes are facing increasing risks from rising heat.

We study sport ecology and legal aspects of sport. With summer temperatures rising, we believe many youth sports leagues and school districts will need to aggressively update their practice rules and heat policies to keep their players safe. We suggest particular attention be paid to low-income, minority neighborhoods and regions that can get excessively hot.

HEAT RISKS IN YOUTH SPORTS EACH year, summer marks the return of discussions of just how severe the sweltering heat is. Nine of the 10 hottest years globally have been on record since 2012, and this year’s late-spring and earlysummer heat waves were previews for what forecasters warned would be a brutal summer of 2022.

Yet many interscholastic and preparatory sport summer camps have kids running hard through the summer months, sometimes on days that reach triple-digit temperatures.

In a period of rapid climate change, ensuring heat risks remain preventable is critical.

Heat is the most frequent climaterelated killer in the United States, with more deaths associated with it than tornadoes, floods and cold temperatures. And days of extreme heat and humidity are now surpassing concerning levels for human health.

Overall, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported an average of more than 700 heat-related US deaths each year between 2004 and 2018. Some of the hottest years ever recorded have happened since then, and preliminary data detailing heat deaths in the US indicates the rate increased 56 percent from 2018 to 2021.

Extreme heat due to climate change is making sport participation progressively challenging.

For high school athletes, the prevalence of extreme heat is leading to escalating heat-related illness, injuries, hospitalizations and deaths.

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unday, July 24, 2022 mirror_sports@yahoo.com.ph Editor: Jun Lomibao

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ROVIDENCE, Rhode Island—A successful Rhode Island high school basketball coach was criminally charged Thursday by authorities who say that for years he asked male student-athletes to remove their clothes while alone with him so he could check their body fat.

Aaron Thomas, 55, who coached at North Kingstown High School from the 1990s until he resigned last year, faces second-degree child molestation and second-degree sexual assault charges, Attorney General Peter Neronha and North Kingstown Police Chief Patrick Flanagan said in a statement.

Arraignment is scheduled for August 19.

Thomas, through his lawyer, denied wrongdoing.

“Aaron Thomas adamantly denies that any criminal activity took place,” attorney John E. MacDonald said in a statement. “The sole purpose of the testing program was to better the athletic performance of North Kingstown High School’s studentathletes. Hundreds of student-athletes participated in this program over the course of many years and greatly benefited from it.”

Although Thomas is alleged to have performed the tests on multiple students, the charges relate to alleged sexual contact with two, authorities said. One was under age 14 at the time of the alleged crime between September 2000 and February 2002, authorities said.

The other case dates to some time between September 2019 and February 2020, they said.

The criminal investigation started in November and involved interviews with more than 30 former students, as well as teachers, coaches, administrators and medical professionals.

The former coach and the school are also facing lawsuits from several former students, and federal prosecutors are also investigating.

HEAT RISK TO YOUNG ATHLETES

THE US’s Sepp Kuss cools off as he races during the 16th stage of the Tour de France last week. AP In fact, heat stroke is a leading cause of death in sports.

Unsurprisingly, the greatest concentration of heat illness in young athletes occurs in August: the back-to-school and backto-sports season.

WHEN HEAT RISKS TRIGGER LAWSUITS RECOGNIZING the warning signs can be especially challenging for children and teens. Young people are still learning how to communicate their feelings and experiences, and that can be more difficult in sport environments that promote toughness and perseverance.

Ultimately, young athletes must trust adults to protect them.

Evidence suggests the prevalence of exertional heat stroke among high school athletes is largely due to young athletes’ not acclimatizing, or physically adjusting to the heat, particularly in the first few weeks of practice. Although heat policies related to temperature and hydration exist at the high school level, they aren’t always enforced. And they may need to be improved to reflect the warming climate given the rate of heat illness.

As a result, parents and guardians are faced with how best to advocate for their children.

In some cases, families have sued after heat injuries, both to recover money for their child’s suffering and to drive change in the hope that no

other child will have to endure what others have. However, the heat injuries continue to rise.

Adults’ responsibility to keep children safe in sport settings becomes blurry as the growth in legal challenges related to heat illness demonstrates a disconnect between adults’ duty of care and athletes’ well-being. Negligence is a common claim associated with these lawsuits. Allegations of child endangerment or wrongful death can lead to civil or criminal legal disputes.

But can reactive legal action prevent these heat injuries in the long run?

The fact that heat injuries are preventable is often why legal cases alleging negligence and wrongful death are successful. Still, heat stress, heat exhaustion, heatstroke and sunstroke are not uncommon in sports. Medical researchers have described heat illness among athletes as one of the most prominent pieces of evidence of climate change’s hazards and effect on sport.

ATHLETIC ELEGANCE American ski racer Lindsey Vonn and gymnast Olivia Dunne arrive at the ESPY Awards at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles last Wednesday, bringing with them as much elegance on the stage as in the competition arena. AP

CLIMATE INJUSTICE FOR YOUNG ATHLETES EXTREME heat can also enhance existing injustices and inequities.

For example, non-Hispanic Black Americans suffer heat-related deaths at a rate higher than the US average. That doubles for Indigenous and Native Americans, who report the highest death rate from heat.

For athletes, the consequences of extreme heat can further complicate environmental and climate injustice.

For instance, racial minorities and those in lower socioeconomic brackets have greater chances of living in the warmest areas, including urban heat islands, where heat trapped by pavement and buildings can make temperatures several degrees hotter than the city average.

Stay or go? Ronaldo’s future uncertain at Manchester United

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MLB struggling to get crowd back to pre-pandemic levels

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ILWAUKEE—Blame it on lingering effects of the pandemic, resentment over the lockout or economic fears.

Major League Baseball (MLB) is struggling to fill the stands at preCovid levels as the sport heads into the last two-and-a-half months of its first season since 2019 without capacity restrictions.

MLB reached the All-Star break with an average attendance of 26,409. That represents a drop of 5.4 percent from the All-Star break of 2019—which was 10 days earlier than this year.

League officials remain encouraged and point to the recovery.

“We have come back to between 94-95 percent of where we were prior to the pandemic,” MLB chief revenue officer Noah Garden said. “So we feel really good about the progress we have made on the attendance side rebounding strongly from a situation that threatened the very core of how we operate as an industry.”

Attendance is up over 70 percent from the season-ending average in 2021, when only Texas started at full capacity and all 30 teams weren’t at 100 percent until July 2. MLB played its abbreviated 2020 regular season without spectators.

While MLB’s average attendance had fallen each year since 2015, most of the drops were by less than 2 percent.

Average attendance was over 30,000 for 14 straight seasons from 2004-17 but hasn’t reached that mark since.

“Attendance has been dropping about 1 percent a year—year after year—for about the last 15 years,” said Victor Matheson, a Holy Cross economics professor who specializes in sports economics. “Major League Baseball attendance peaked in 2007 and has been falling pretty consistently year after year for over a decade. What we’d just normally expect after about three years is about 3 percent lower attendance.”

Bob Heaning, a 48-year-old fan from Cranford, New Jersey, said he used to attend about a dozen New York Yankees games per year. He’s attended just three this season, has tickets for two more games and doesn’t plan to attend any others.

Heaning said he stopped going as often because he bought a house last year and is staying at home more often, but he also believes the high price of attending games may be keeping fans away. That could prove particularly true this year as inflation causes more people to spend more carefully.

“I think people are maybe more concerned,” Hearing said. “There’s not as much expendable income.”

Matheson said MLB relies more than other professional sports leagues on out-of-town fans. That makes MLB particularly vulnerable to issues that could curtail tourism.

“If travel’s disrupted, either by expensive gas prices or expensive airline tickets or just general travel disruptions, that could make a big

dent,” Matheson said.

Charles Lindsey, an associate professor of marketing at the University at Buffalo School of Management, noted that singlegame ticket sales remain solid but season ticket sales have gone down.

He said the NBA faced a similar problem this season.

Lindsey cited inflation as a leading cause and said the pandemic may have contributed to a lesser extent. AP

REMAINING relevant and highly visible is clearly so important to Cristiano Ronaldo. AP

HE weekly social-media posts published by Cristiano Ronaldo this offseason typically have shown the soccer superstar half-dressed, muscles bulging, either working out or promoting one of his many brands.

Remaining relevant and highly visible is clearly so important to the player who, along with Lionel Messi, is the greatest of his generation. That also extends to the final years of his career on the field, too.

It’s why, for the 37-year-old Ronaldo, playing for Manchester United—still one of the world’s most famous sports teams, despite their recent trophy drought—just isn’t enough. He wants to be competing on the biggest stage, winning the biggest trophies while he can.

Hence the current standoff with United, which is becoming more damaging and disruptive as the days go by and the new season looms.

Publicly, Ronaldo has not yet returned to preseason training with the English club because of what has been described as “personal reasons.”

The expectation, recently hired United manager Erik ten Hag repeats on an almost-daily basis, is that Ronaldo will be back before the Premier League begins and be a key member of the squad.

The reality, it seems, is different.

Ronaldo reportedly wants out after just

THE Detroit Tigers play the Oakland Athletics before an almost empty stadium in Oakland, California, on Thursday. AP

one season back at Old Trafford, with United no longer in the Champions League or in shape to compete with the best teams in England like Manchester City and Liverpool. United finished sixth last season, 35 points behind first-place City.

So, while the rest of the United squad has been on tour in Thailand and Australia, getting match-sharp and acquainted with ten Hag and his methods, Ronaldo has been back home in Portugal with his family while his agent, Jorge Mendes, shops around seeking a new club for his most famous client.

Currently, there is no buyer.

And the Premier League season starts in about two weeks.

“I don’t know what Cristiano said to the club and to the manager,” said United midfielder Bruno Fernandes, who also plays alongside Ronaldo for Portugal. “I don’t know what’s going on in his head, if he wants to leave. I didn’t ask them that.

“From everything we know,” Fernandes added, “he had some family problems so we have to respect his space, give him some space and that’s it. The only thing I asked Cristiano when he didn’t turn up was if everything was OK with the family. He told me what was going on, that’s it and nothing more.”

On the face of it, United still wants to keep Ronaldo—he was the team’s top scorer last season with 24 goals and is back to being the club’s poster boy for the marketing department—and ten Hag has called the striker “extremely important” along with being “not for sale.”

But why would other top clubs be cold on a player who is still a guaranteed source of goals, and revenue for that matter?

Goals might be the aim of the game but they are not necessarily enough for a modern-day coach. A certain level of mobility and an ability to be part of a team pressing game counts for a lot, too, and Ronaldo does not offer that, even if he remains a supremely athletic player with that uncanny knack of coming alive in the penalty area and scoring from anywhere. A team’s structure must change to accommodate a player like an aging Ronaldo, covering for his deficiencies and the need to make him the focal point. AP

BusinessMirror

July 24, 2022

Giving out flowers on TikTok: Random act of kindness or benevolent ageism?

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BusinessMirror JULY 24, 2022 | soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com

YOUR MUSI

JUANS AND ONLY

THE JUANS, FROM LEFT: vocalist and acoustic guitarist RJ Cruz, lead guitarist Japs Mendoza, lead vocalist and keyboardist Carl Guevarra, and vocalist and bassist Chael Adriano.

Pop-rock outfit, The Juans stages first live show in two years

H Publisher

: T. Anthony C. Cabangon

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: Lourdes M. Fernandez

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: Aldwin M. Tolosa

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: Jt Nisay

SoundStrip Editor

: Edwin P. Sallan

Group Creative Director : Eduardo A. Davad Graphic Designers Contributing Writers

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: Niggel Figueroa Anabelle O. Flores : Tony M. Maghirang, Rick Olivares, Darwin Fernandez, Leony Garcia, Stephanie Joy Ching Pauline Joy M. Gutierrez : Kaye VillagomezLosorata Annie S. Alejo

Photographers

: Bernard P. Testa Nonie Reyes

Y2Z & SOUNDSTRIP are published and distributed free every Sunday by the Philippine Business Daily Mirror Publishing Inc. as a project of the

The Philippine Business Mirror Publishing, Inc., with offices on the 3rd Floor of Dominga Building III 2113 Chino Roces Avenue corner Dela Rosa Street, Makati City, Philippines.

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By Leony R. Garcia

INDI tayo pwede Pinagtagpo pero ‘di tinadhana Hindi na posible Ang mga puso’y huwag nating pahirapan Suko na sa laban Hindi tayo pwede So goes the chorus of the song ‘Hindi Tayo Pwede’ which sends many hopeless romantic – including the heartbroken — and pop song lovers go gaga over the pop-rock band established and based in Bulacan, The Juans.

It could be remembered that The Juans had been steadily gaining momentum since its formation in 2013 until it hit a roadblock in 2018 when three of its five members decided to leave the group to pursue their respective personal endeavors.

Instead of wallowing in despair, the band’s frontman and songwriter Carl Gueverra, along with Japs Mendoza (vocals and guitar) scouted talents from the church they attend as part of the worship team. Soon enough, The Juans were back to five, with new members, RJ Cruz (acoustic guitar), Chael Adriano (bass), and Joshua Coronel (drums).

After Carl and Japs finalized the new lineup, The Juans got down to business and started rehearsing the band’s material. “We already had previous opportunities to play with each other as worship leaders. So, it was fairly easy for us to get along and gel together,” Carl said during the media conference held in Quezon City.

Around such time that the group was reconstructing, The Juans dropped its second EP, “Umaga,” which spawned the hit song “Hindi Tayo Pwede.” This sentimental song has become the heartbreak anthem of many and has helped the group become one of today’s most-streamed local music acts.

The song has recorded over 33 million streams on Spotify and was used as the theme song of a 2020 romance movie of the same title.

By the end of June 2022, however, Viva Artists Agency announced the departure of Joshua Coronel from The Juans.

In a statement, the agency said that Joshua, who served as the band’s drummer, is leaving due “to personal reasons and matters.” However, they assured fans that it is an “amicable separation” and that the remaining four members of the band “wish nothing but the best for Joshua.”

“Malugod naming tinanggap ang pag-alis ni Joshua dahil priority niya ang kaniyang pamilya. We wish him well,” Carl stressed.

Citing how their first hit “Hindi Tayo Pwede” transformed their lives, Carl added: “We want to continue to inspire people with our music. We want to relate to and validate the feelings of other people because we all felt it — the separation, the heartbreak. We want to tell them that after hugot, there is hope and healing.”

Likewise, the group is thankful for the creative freedom and all-out support they get from Viva and great mentoring from Boss Vic del Rosario. And with other artists doing the cover for their hit song, the young men are equally grateful.

“It’s somehow a measurement of success as a band and as a songwriter that others sing our song. We appreciate the artists for giving different versions and colors of our songs, they said in agreement.

The Juans Live in Araneta

THAT The Juans will continue as a 4-man band, has become apparent, as

they announced a major concert at the Araneta Coliseum this October 23. The group revealed that they will perform with sessionistas who will add to the dynamics of their music.

“The Juans Live in Araneta is a culmination of all our hard work for the past few years. We’ve been at this for several years now and we feel that we’ve been working all this time to get to this point,” Carl said.

Japs added, “We’re so excited to do this. Every band has a dream venue to play and the Araneta Coliseum is one of those. It is for us as well.”

RJ and Chael, meanwhile, dedicated the concert to their very supportive fandom, The Juanistas. “They’ve been with us since the start, some of them have been here kahit nung wala pa kami sa group,” RJ said.

“This will be a celebration of the music with our dear Juanistas,” chimed in Chael.

What to expect from The Juans’ Big Dome concert

THE concert also draws power from the theater background of Guevarra, who worked in theater and appeared in musicals including “Peter Pan,” “Kelly!

Kelly! Ang Hit na Musical,” “Batang Rizal,” and “Lola Basyang.” “It will be a fusion of film and musical theater, the ultimate!

May bida at kontrabida din sa istorya ng concert,” Guevarra quipped.

General ticket sales start on July 17, while fan-club members gain early presale access from July 15 via Ticketnet.

Ticket prices will range from PHP500 to PHP5,000.

Juanistas can expect the band to play their many hits including “Hindi Tayo Pwede,” “Lumalapit” “Atin Ang Mundo,” “Hatid,” “Anghel,” and “Dulo,” among others, at the concert as produced by KDR Music House and Viva Live, Inc.

IC

soundstrip.businessmirror@gmail.com | JULY 24, 2022

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BUSINESS

‘PINCH ME’ MOMENT

Danish sensation Maximillian still can’t believe his success

I

By Patrick Miguel

T was supposed to be an ordinary day for Maximillian as he lay on his bed in his Copenhagen home, recalling watching a Netflix show on his phone. But somehow, he decided to open the Spotify stats and check the total listens of his music.

He noticed a notch in his song “Beautiful Scars,” coming from 2000 streams to around 10,000 in one day. That was two years ago. His reach did not end there because Beautiful Scars has 121,912,420 streams on Spotify as of this writing.

The Danish singer has a total of 300 million audio and video streams.

“That was a crazy moment,” he said, describing how his music reached people from other countries like Asia. “Just the fact that on the other side of the world, people are connecting to something that I once felt—that

Maximillian

just felt surreal.”

His song “Beautiful Scars” is the most listened to song in his album Still Alive. Asked why the people, specifically his Filipino listeners, love the song, he said, “Because the whole idea of the song is to accept who you are as a person and have the guts to look at yourself in the mirror.

“I also think it’s because when COVID-19 started and everyone was forced to really be alone with themselves, that’s when you start seeing a bit more of yourself than you used to,” he added, recognizing its peak during the lockdown.

The Danish singer has a large Filipino fanbase, and in January of 2021, he collaborated with Filipino singer-songwriter Moira Dela Torre. The two singers sang a new version of Beautiful Scars in a duet.

“I don’t think there are other people in the world that are this dedicated and supportive, which is insane so thank you all,” he said, attributing this to his Filipino fans.

“Mahal kita,” he addressed his Filipino fans.

But despite Maximillian’s success as a singer-songwriter, he still finds every moment of the trip as a “pinch me moment.” The kind of moment in which everything about his music career is surreal.

“This entire trip is a ‘pinch me’ moment,” he said. His trip which

started in Bangkok, he described, felt “unreal.”

“It took two years, but the fact is that there is still support after two years of only being virtual and not being able to go to meet my fans,” he said, expressing joy as he can finally meet his fans in person now and not behind the screens.

SoundStrip asked Maximillian: what is your message to your Filipino fans?

Maximillian smiled and said, “I love you all, and I can’t wait to see you [...] I will be back—one hundred percent. I will be back.”

Maximillian was scheduled to perform live at Eastwood Mall on July 22 and Venice Grand Canal Mall on July 23. He will also be releasing a new single on August 12.

Giving out flowers on TikTok: Random act of kindness or benevolent ageism?

By Natasha Ginnivan & Kaarin Anstey UNSW Sydney

I

n June, 22-year-old Harrison Pawluk filmed himself staging a “random act of kindness,” giving a bunch of flowers to an older woman sitting alone in a Melbourne food court.

His video went viral on TikTok, attracting 57 million views within a week. Comments on the post included, “when she started crying, I couldn’t hold it back” and “wow that was so beautiful I swear I would cry.”

Acts of kindness can boost well-being for the giver, the recipient, and even the viewers of selfless acts. Social media influencers have found ways to commodify this by presenting them as random and unexpected.

But this gesture was interpreted by Maree, the woman targeted for the video, as an artificially staged production that left her feeling “dehumanized” and like “clickbait” for tabloid fodder.

In the media, individuals aged over 60 are often depicted as a homogeneous group of elderly people who lack personality, social identity or individuality. It’s not just a “random act of kindness.” Pawluk’s actions—and some of the media coverage—unearths a much bigger problem of “benevolent ageism.”

What is benevolent ageism?

Benevolent ageism is where these every day biases manifest in the belief that older people need special “help” or “support.” The

Age discrimination commissioner Kay Patterson calls ageism “the least understood form of discriminatory prejudice” and “more pervasive and socially accepted than sexism and racism.” concept manifests in the way people sometimes use pet names or baby talk to address older people; an emphasis on pitying people above a certain age; or the importance placed on “protecting” older people during the Covid pandemic.

Commenters on Pawluk’s video said “[the flowers] made her feel so good and it looks like she might have needed it,” “she is so cute” and “I miss my grandma!.”

Benevolent ageism leads to false assumptions or inaccurate and limiting stereotypes about older people being “warm but not competent” and lacking individuality.

In Pawluk’s video, Maree is framed as being sad and alone. Speaking to ABC Radio, Maree expressed frustration at being presented as “the elderly woman who drank a takeaway cup of coffee.”

“It’s the patronizing assumption that women, especially older women, will be thrilled by some random stranger giving

them flowers,” she told the ABC.

Our implicit biases Benevolent ageism is hiding in plain sight. Age discrimination commissioner Kay Patterson calls ageism “the least understood form of discriminatory prejudice” and “more pervasive and socially accepted than sexism and racism.”

A recent report from the World Health Organization shows one in every two people shows moderate to high levels of ageist attitudes, with their definition of ageism encompassing stereotypes (how we think), prejudice (how we feel) and discrimination (how we act) towards others or oneself based on age.

Internalized ageism, in which we unconsciously hold these own ageist attitudes against ourselves, negatively impacts our functional health as we age and can even shorten our own lifespan.

Stereotypes facing older women When interviewed by The Project, Pawluk apologized to Maree. He claims he does not target people based on their age. But the assumptions made about Maree—and other women to whom he has offered flowers— are embedded in age-old stereotypes about older women: that they are sad or lonely, and in need of support.

There is nothing wrong with greeting another person regardless of their age. But the framing of this TikTok video is a clear example of ageist stereotypes manifesting as a show of concern. This social media craze of capturing supposed “random acts of kindness” can have the undesired effect of diminishing the perceived social value of the target to whom the protagonist is trying to show kindness.

We should take this as a moment to pause and address our own unconscious biases and our subtle forms of everyday ageism of the benevolent kind. The Conversation

When ‘eudaimonic’ social media goes bad

F

rom holding life-affirming signs in malls to hugging strangers, giving homeless people huge wads of cash and rescuing stray animals, “random acts of kindness” have proved a popular video genre on social media channels.

In media studies we call these videos “eudaimonic media,” from the ancient Greek word “eudaimonia.” This is often translated as meaning “happiness,” but the philosopher Aristotle used it to refer to the highest human good—to living a life of virtue.

In contrast to hedonistic media, or content that’s all about personal gratification and pleasure, eudaimonic media is meant to make us reflect on life’s purpose, potential, virtue and meaning.

Feel-good outweighs feel-bad For all the focus on social media’s capacity to promote “engagement” through sensationalism, polarization and appealing to people’s worst emotions, the market for eudaimonic content remains far bigger.

A survey of more than 777 million Facebook posts in 2019, for example, found “love” emojis accounted for about half of all video reactions in 2018 (compared with 4.5 percent “angry” emojis).

Facebook’s most watched video that year, with more than 361 million views, was of Jay Shetty, a Hindu monk turned life coach/ influencer giving an inspirational talk to school students (scored with poignant piano music).

4 BusinessMirror

All up Shetty reportedly earned $1 million in Facebook advertising revenue in 2018—something certainly to inspire TikToker Harrison Pawluck and his collaborators.

We’re all responsible It would be easy to focus on Pawluck and his fellow content creators, but this is part of the bigger systemic problem with social media: that it is often antisocial even when appearing, superficially, to be prosocial.

The bottom line with the entire social media business model is that appealing to, amplifying and manipulating emotions is a surefire way to increase engagement and monetize content.

July 24, 2022

This is where we all, as social media users, have the power to contribute to the higher good. We must be more discerning about the type of content we are encouraging people like Pawluck to make though our clicks and comments.

Watching that video might have momentarily made us feel good, but did the content creator actually do good? Are they upfront about their financial motivations? Have they sought permission from their unwitting subjects?

Consider the impact of your next hit of a feel-good video of a rescued dog or giving those less fortunate money or food. Is this a eudaimonic or moneymaking moment? The Conversation