"Japan's Lessons on the Economy and the Environment: Our Pollution Experience"

Last meeting in our Environmental Engineering class, our professor made us watch a documentary entitled "Japan's Lessons on the Economy and the Environment: Our Pollution Experience". It was a 4 part documentary about the history of how japan learned and answers their problem on economy and pollution in the environment.

WWII leaves japan devastated because of the attacks from other countries and the atomic bombing of the United States in Nagasaki and Hiroshima. But Japan pick herself up after the war and rise as a developing country. Due to the needs for economic development, japan build many factories in order to produce more products in order for its GNP to kick up high so they will have a big economic growth. But they didn't notice something important because they focus on producing more products which result in more consumption. They didn't notice that they're producing more and more pollution. At first it doesn't affect them because of its long term effect, but after several months several horrific diseases spread through to those people who are near factories, imagine this, factories are just in the back of your house producing pollution, chemical dangerous pollution. While watching the documentary and this diseases part came up, it feels like it became a horror movie because the effects of the disease is really scary. Then the people took action and protest in order for the factories to be closed. But the CEO's and other higher ups in the corporation who owns these factories is denying that the cause of these diseases are the pollution that is coming out from their factories because they said that this kinds of factories are all over the world but in other places people near the factories are not experiencing problems like this. Japanese people became angry because many of them are dying because of these diseases so they didn't stop protesting, and it became a people power act. They sue the corporations and won the case. The Japanese government amends it's constitution regarding the environment acts and laws that is needed to secure the health of the people. 

After this horrific experience, learned their lessons regarding economy, environment and pollution. Today they are assuring that every factories have a filtering system that cleanse the pollution that they are producing before getting it out to the air and environment. Because of the mistakes Japan did, and because of the people who have concern for the environment and the people around them, Japan really did learned its lesson.

Ursula Island

The Ursula Island Game Refuge and Bird Sanctuary is located in southern Palawan, near the municipality of Brooke’s Point. The barangays of Rio Tuba and Buliluyan on the mainland of Palawan are also nearby. Bugsuk Island is about an hour and a half away by boat. The island is about 17.2 hectares in size. The landscape has a lush growth of lowland forest cover consisting mainly of old tress.

This island is declared as a protected site because numerous species of birds that nestle here. There are about 20 species of birds have been recognized on the island, including them are the threatened imperial gray pigeon and the pied imperial pigeon, which is locally known as kamaso, which form the largest part of the insland’s bird population. Other species found here are the white-collared kingfisher, the macklot’s sunbird, the pygmy flowerpecker, the Chinese egret, the scops owl, the Tabon bird also known as Tabon scrubfowl, and several eagles. The island is a winter migration site for both shore birds and sea birds from the north, as well as a haven for various endemic bird species. Other types of wildlife are also found in its forests. The island’s beach is frequently used by sea turtles to lay their eggs. Of the 10 protected areas in the province of Palawan, Ursula Island is one of the least known and less frequently visited.

"The Meatrix"

On our last meeting our professor told us about the changing cultures of hogs and farms. She told us that now a days farming and hogs are very different from the traditional ones that we used to. In order for us to further understand about this changing cultures about hogs and farms, she encourage us to watch the documentary entitled “The Meatrix”. She told us that it’s a discussing about how big corporations implements this economic farming and hogs.

I go online and search for the documentary, luckily I found a full version of it in Youtube.com. It’s an old documentary, well not that old, that is a parody of “The Matrix” movie. The main character is Leo which is a pig that lives in a normal farm. One day he is approached by Moo-pheus, and ask him if he wants to know about the true reality that he is not aware of, then Moo-pheus show Leo two pills and ask him to choose, if he choose the red pill, he will know reality and if he choose the blue pill, he will stay in the farm and will never know about the true reality. Then Leo choose the red pill to know reality. Then Moo-pheus showed him everything that he is not aware of. About the companies that is economically farm and hogs. Moo-pheus showed him how cruel is the situation of the animals, they’re confine in a really small space that they can’t even move or make a turn, the beak of the chickens are cut to avoid cockfight and the cow’s tail is cut. The cow’s newly born baby is separated from the mother, and is being fed processed milk that has the blood of the dead cows. They infect artificial hormones in the cow in able for it to produce more milk. Even though the whole documentary is cartooned, I feel a lot of mercy for those animals, because they cannot enjoy life, they are just there to give us milk and meat. The documentary also show the germs that and viruses that grows within the animals. These germs become stronger because of the everyday intake of antibiotic of the animals and because of these the germs became resistant to antibiotic. It also causes massive pollution, the feces and piss of the animals were thrown out to the rivers and it also pollutes the air, that’s why nearby communities is affected by these factors and destroyed communities.

Overall the documentary is good and enjoying to watch because of its humor and because it is cartoon, but it also opens our eyes to the cruelty to the animals and their grave condition. This documentary greatly affects me because of the reality it shows, just like Leo, my eyes were opened to the reality and cruelty of these companies.