Greetings from Laguna, Philippines!

For those who do not know yet, I’m here in the Philippines representing DAPSY (DAP Socialist Youth) for a climate change conference. This conference is organized by the Young Progressives of South East Asia (YPSEA).

We have just finished the second day of the conference. It’s a pretty packed scheduled, which activities from morning till night everyday (except for tonight).

So far, the conference has been focused on the science of climate change. We’ve had a Member of Congress and a renowned university professor speak to us on this subject. While for me most of things were not new, it has been a timely reminder of the seriousness of climate change and global warming.  There’s plenty of literature out there on climate change (just google it up) so I won’t spend time here going into that.

The next couple of days we’ll be looking into the political aspect of climate change. Having the awareness of the scientific facts is not enough. Crying for change is also not enough. It’s time to come up with plans on how we can both mitigate the effects of climate change, and also adapt the way we do things to reduce the damage we do to the environment.

It should be an exciting time, and hopefully this conference will be a turning point to how ASEAN countries deal with the climate change issue for the better. I acknowledge the road forward is not easy.  I also acknowledge that governments have to balance environmental ideals with progress, development, and preserving livelihoods of its citizens. That is why we need to be able to tailor our plans to achieve the environmental ideals in a way that minimizes the negative impact of the way we “cari makan”.

Looking forward to coming home, missing Malaysian food. Till the next update..