There’s this residential area near the university that seems to be intimately linked with the present existence. Just like the university, this subdivision – with its blocks of sprawling houses and quiet gated streets – has its way of intruding into one’s consciousness. If there’s a sense in describing oneself as haunting a place even if one is still very much alive, this is exactly how one would feel upon coming to an awareness of such encroachment. It’s like slowly realizing that one has been a sort of prisoner all these years, that no matter how many miles one has flown away from a certain point of origin, one’s life will ultimately be pulled back to gravitate around a few significant places. Yet, there’s also this sense of being set free from some drab view of the past, and being made to see such places and everything on it in a totally different light. Such were the thoughts that flitted through a weary mind as it came across this tree along one of the subdivision’s main streets....
The controversy surrounding the re-opening of Senator Juan Ponce Enrile's logging concession in Samar island in the Philippines has once again raised the issue of people's participation in the management of natural resources and how serious the government really is in implementing this policy. On the one hand, there is the recent legal move by provincial officials in Samar challenging the decisions of Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR) Secretary Mike Defensor to lift the logging moratorium and extend Senator Enrile's logging permit by 16 years. According to these local officials, Secretary Defensor failed to comply with the provision of the 1991 Local Government Code making proper consultation with communities and local governments mandatory for any project or activity that could impact on people's lives. On the other hand, Senator Enrile's logging concession lies within a protected area, the Samar Island Natural Park. Based on the National Integ...
From Real Climate "We here at RC continue to be disappointed with the tendency for some journalistic outlets to favor so-called "balance" over accuracy in their treatment of politically-controversial scientific issues such as global climate change. While giving equal coverage to two opposing sides may seem appropriate in political discourse, it is manifestly inappropriate in discussions of science, where objective truths exist. In the case of climate change, a clear consensus exists among mainstream researchers that human influences on climate are already detectable, and that potentially far more substantial changes are likely to take place in the future if we continue to burn fossil fuels at current rates. There are only a handful of "contrarian" climate scientists who continue to dispute that consensus. To give these contrarians equal time or space in public discourse on climate change out of a sense of need for journalistic "balance" is as indefens...
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