“A happy new year to all! Let us welcome the next decade with open arms; it can’t be much worse than the last one.”
by Ducky Paredes
“The last 10 years are the warmest 10-year period of the modern record,” says NOAA (the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) climate monitoring chief Deke Arndt. “Even if you analyze the trend during that 10 years, the trend is actually positive, which means warming.”
Vicky Pope, head of climate change advice at the Met Office, Britain’s Weather Bureau, says; “We would expect roughly half the years from 2010 to 2020 to be warmer than 1998.”
And, while there may some arguments that the world is cooling, as in fact, it seems to be getting cooler in the United States and Canada, the greater danger to us in the Philippines in the coming decade is the Philippine Sea.
“Since 1950, the planet released about 20 percent of the warming influence of heat-trapping greenhouse gases to outer space as infrared energy. Volcanic emissions lingering in the stratosphere offset about 20 percent of the heating by bouncing solar radiation back to space before it reached the surface. Cooling from the lower-atmosphere aerosols produced by humans balanced 50 percent of the heating. Only the remaining 10 percent of greenhouse-gas warming actually went into heating the Earth, and almost all of it went into the ocean.” — Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres study done “without using global climate models,” meaning this is all from empirical data.
Thus, we can expect warmer days, more typhoons (which are helped along by the warming seas) and more floods from higher prevailing tides.
* * *
Imagine that in 1909, in America, the average life expectancy was 47 years, fuel for the Model T Ford was sold only in drug stores at two cents a gallon and only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone. There were only 8,000 cars and only 144 miles of paved roads. The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph. The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!
More than 95 percent of all births took place at home and 90% of all doctors had no college education! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press and the government as ’substandard. ‘
Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used Borax or egg yolks for shampoo.
The American flag had 45 stars and the US Population was 90,490,000, just about where we are at the moment. Federal spending was just $0.69 billion. The average per capita income was $944 and a new home could be bought for $2,650.
The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30! Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and iced tea Hadn’t been invented yet. There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day. Two out of every 10 Americans couldn’t read or write and only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.
Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, ‘Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health’
Imagine how far the world has progressed
* * *
Ten years ago, we had Erap as President and a blackberry was a fruit.
We did not have to take off our shoes at airports and we could bring a bottle on a plane.
A blog then was something amorphous, at best, not the 100 million now in cyberspace.
Cameras then had film; not anymore. In fact, our Christmas pictures were seen by my children in Europe and America on their Christmas day, as it could also be seen by just about anyone who was curious enough to know what was going on with the Paredeses on their Christmas gathering.
Cell phones, texting and the e-mail and friendster (as well as the facebook) has taken over the way that we relate to each other.
We’re not there yet but New York put a ban on using trans fats in food served in restaurants and Alabama — second in US national obesity rankings — introduced a tax on overweight state workers. We could be getting there with several Pinoys in the Asian edition of the TV show “The Biggest Loser” on losing fat.
We’re going green in the use of cloth shopping bags (although bits of plastic still clog our canals) using more efficient light bulbs and fuel with organic additives. (Two golf course lockers that I know of no longer give out plastic bags.
This is also the decade when Google became my best mate. If I can’t remember the first name of this or that official, all I need to do is to “google” it.
Starbucks is big with the younger folk but too expensive for most seniors who are still hanging out at McDo.
Tattoos are in and are no longer a surefire way of telling if one’s suspect has a criminal record.
This was also the decade of the ipod, the blackberry, the WII, the Croc, Youtube and Wikipedia.
There were attempts at changing the Constitution which was written in the trauma period after the end of the Marcos years and that, after 23 years, does need some serious tweaking, But those who would do the changing would have put us back into the nightmare we escaped. Perhaps, the coming decade will be a more fitting time to do so with a more credible and a calmer President at the helm.
The Supreme Court started the decade on the wrong foot when it broke all rules of logic and equity by declaring a President “constructively resigned.” It ends the decade by breaching its own rule that cases decided upon by the Supreme Court can no longer be resurrected or reviewed. What will the next decade be for the Court? What other absurdity will it be springing on us in the next ten years?
And, lest we forget, this was definitely the decade of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who took over in 2001 and has yet to let go. We will be finally rid of her in June 2010. (Or, will we?)
A happy new year to all! Let us welcome the next decade with open arms; it can’t be much worse than the last one.
# # # #
hvp 12.29.09
Post a Comment