THE AWARENESS

Isuzu made it possible to organize Treasure Quest event every year to give a message to the people about the importance of clean emission of vehicles and fuel Efficiency.  For me this is a very good thing to do, we often and most likely take these things for granted and worst ignored. Not knowing one day, we will wake up early morning at 6:00 am and breath a polluted air, smog as they call it. looking up to the sky so gloomy that it looks like a heavy clouds that is going to rain, but no its smog, a polluted air. I remember my days in manila around 2006 in south express way going to makati, seeing these tall buildings above it was some dark clouds. When we got there in the city it looked like 6:00 pm the place is almost dark, the city is covered by smog. You see people wearing mask, some are not. Stats have reported several death yearly caused by air pollution. and if you think this is something to be ignored, well think again! right now we might not experience it coz most of us is sealed in an air conditioned vehicle and not caring that our vehicles are belching black smoke.

I would like to include this article i bump in the net while surfing. and it’s a very sad shocking truth.

“Traffic jams cause two aspects of economic damage. One is the economic loss of lost time. The other comes through contaminating the environment. Studies have shown that vehicles pollute air the most when they are running at a low speed. This is the reason traffic jams contribute to air pollution. Here again, there are mainly two types of air pollution due to vehicle emissions. One comes from gasoline vehicles that emit carbon dioxide (CO2). CO2 is one of the so-called “greenhouse gases” that contribute to global warming. The other comes from diesel vehicles, which emit “Suspended Particulate Matter” (SPM) or “Total Suspended Particulates” (TSP), which directly affect people’s health. They are small solid or liquid particulates that are suspended in the air. The major sources of SPM and TSP are diesel vehicles and coal-burning power plants. The particulates are the gross black smoke that can be seen coming out of many of the heavy-duty vehicles, such as the trucks and buses running on the street because those vehicles are mostly diesel. “Particulate matter, 10 microns in diameter or smaller,” which is called PM10, is said to be harmful to people’s health.1 Diseases such as acute bronchitis, asthma, pulmonary diseases and lung cancer are attributed to PM10. According to a recent study by the World Bank, the health impacts and costs attributed to air pollution in the Philippines, particularly PM10, were estimated at US$392 million for 2001,2 based on monetary costs for excess deaths, treatment of chronic bronchitis, and respiratory symptom incidences. According to another study by the World Health Organization, in developing countries as many as 300 million people are dying due to vehicle emissions.3 These estimates show how much damage vehicular emissions can do to economic development. It is easy to realize that motorization in some ways can be an obstacle to sustainable development.”

Source: http://www.adb.org/AnnualMeeting/2007/Essay-Competition/winning-entries/Terumi-Ishii.pdf

Not only we have to keep our vehicles clean in emission but the government should also be strict in implementing the law regarding the smoke belching vehicles. when the issue was hot, you see officers having a check point, when the issue is diverted and seems to be forgotten, you see them just ignoring smoke belching , trucks and other vehicles. I mean what the? The sad truth is Cebu is becoming like manila. Ayala Business Park before was a good place to jog, now it’s polluted since they open the road for public vehicles.

About the Fuel Efficiency only few of us practice this, probably the ones who’s pockets hurts about the gas prices and the ones who knows how to. So its really a good thing that this event has this contest and before the game, they have a seminar on fuel Eifficiency driving. I bet you heard this everywhere when you came across of this organization in saving earth, like GREEN PEACE, WWF etc. or probably when you see the cartoon “captain planet” they often remind you about saving or conserving energy. that talks about electricity, fuel, etc. The more we save, the less we use them, the less the pollution. Im not going to drag this long, all i can say is im glad that these event is making these awareness to the public. only few company is making effort to help save our planet, or fight against pollution. This problem is not an easy thing to resolve, but it’s better to do something than to be part in promoting the problem. The change will start from us, individually. Act now, help save Cebu from becoming Manila, POLLUTED!