PHILIPPINES: Students at the International School in Manila on Global Warming

Coordinators: Limmena, Joey; Yang, Kevin; Bagli, Roshni

As you might already know, 20 simultaneous workshops were run at the launch of Pyramid 2012 in Manila. Here is what happened in Group A, which consisted of international students between the 9th and the 12th grade and the founder of Global Climate Action, a local NGO.

The topic tackled: global warming. The participants quickly identified the rise in demand for resources, over-extraction and overproduction as being the main underlying factors causing it. This might already sound familiar, but the novelty lies in the solutions, because that is where each group can fully express its creativity! In brief, here are some of the ideas they came up with:

• Increase usage of public transport to reduce CO2 emissions by initiating bus programs at schools and local establishments;
• Stop over-logging to reverse the effects of deforestation of a national-scale, by establishing green companies that would use recycled materials in the production of, e.g. paper;
• Increase awareness of global warming through social campaigns in order to raise public support for the integration of eco-friendly materials in the production process of everyday objects;
• Reduce the stress level associated with the future of the world and combat people’s fear of global warming by giving out free hugs.

As for the Capstone Agreement, the group reports: “The ultimate solution was awarded to the Nature group with the plan of initiating bus programs at a national scale and the SPROUT program was awarded to the NGO (founder, Ed.) of the group, Lawrence Lin from Tianjin International School. With the initiative that he has already taken, it was appropriate for him to further his ideas into reality.”

The atmosphere was “very loud, with ideas being said from every person in the room”, but also “very productive” and respectful. Just what you would expect from a group of enthusiastic young people determined to change the world!

More about the workshop, on their blog »