As part of its continuing efforts to spread awareness and deepen people’s understanding of the climate emergency, the WeGen Social Transformation (ST) Team led a discussion at the WeGen Main Office on January 25 on the science behind climate change and the actions needed to mitigate the impacts of the said phenomenon. The talk was also live-streamed so that WeGen employees in the regional offices could also participate.
The core of the ST Team’s work is education and advocacy on climate change and the solutions to it which include the transition to renewable and sustainable energy sources like solar energy. Ina discussed the causes of climate change that are mainly anthropogenic or human-made, primary among them the burning of fossil fuels; agricultural activities; and the destruction of nature through mining, reclamation of oceans, land conversion; and pollution.
“Learning about the activities and acts that contribute to the worsening climate emergency is very important because it hopefully leads to people becoming more thoughtful and circumspect about the things they do and the social issues they hear about. While it is true that multinational and transnational corporations in industry and manufacturing are the ones to blame for the destruction of the planet’s ecosystems and the intensifying global warming, ordinary people also contribute to climate change. Our continuing use of single-use plastics and our consumption of fossil-fuel-based energy serve to damage our oceans and the atmosphere through the release of greenhouse gases. Much has to be done to bring down our own respective carbon footprints, but more importantly, we must push our government leaders to take action and reform policies and programs that allow environmental destruction in the name of profit,” Ina said.
For her part, Kring discussed the 12 Rs of environmental sustainability, primary among them “Remember,” “Respect”, and “Refuse.” She said that the last, “Refuse”, was actually the most important as a mental prompt because from the onset, refusing to buy a product is a good step because it will not lead to the generation of trash.
“It would be best for us to practice more mindfulness when it comes to our consumption of things – we must keep track of the things we have and refuse to buy more when we don’t actually need them. The relentless production of products and our consumption and use of them leads to the creation of so much garbage, especially when we improperly discard of things even when there is still much use to them,” she said.
She also gave a short refresher on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and how they interrelate. She also emphasized how WeGen’s social transformation efforts are guided by the principles of Pope Francis’ Laudato Si’.
At the end of the talk, Kring and Ina thanked all the employees who attended physically and online.
“We hope that we have been able to spark more than just a little interest in everyone when it comes to caring for our common home. We also hope that we are all proud to be part of a social-good company that puts a premium on climate change education as part and parcel of our mission to popularize solar energy,” they said.#