Mosquito Season, The Third Philippines Season?

I can't help myself laughing every time I see the commercial of a fabric conditioner. The commercial model/actress claimed that it is mosquito season again. I find it crazy because why they are adding season to our climate just to promote their product. Philippines have only two seasons, the dry and wet season. No wonder the product they are promoting is a fabric conditioner which they claimed effective in warding off mosquitoes. And they are still airing the commercial now even it is no longer rainy season which is the only season when we have a lot of dengue cases and when there are a lot of mosquitoes.

But when I learned that the son of my neighbor got dengue, it looks like they make sense after all. Dengue is most common during rainy season and it is quite surprising that this kid still got dengue when it is already dry season. And what more surprising is our barrio has just been fumigated by barrio officials. It is alarming to know that we now have an all season dengue carrying mosquitoes and the use of chemical is not quite effective in eradicating this kind of mosquitoes. This is only show that we cannot resolve the dengue problem by using insecticide alone, we still need the natural way of limiting the population of mosquitoes. We still need the help of animals that prey on mosquitoes. We cannot discount the fact that during the old days the big population of this mosquito predators save us from mosquito related diseases. Sad thing is their population is now very small. The most common mosquito predators here in the Philippines that I know are frogs and lizards. I can rarely see frogs now a day even during rainy season and the last time I saw is a victim of a road kill. The on going land development is the main reason why their population decreased. Farm land which is their habitat is now being converted to residential and commercial area. It is sad that we have maintained our old belief but not the ecological balance. Up to now many still afraid of Palakang Araneta or bullfrog in English, because they believe that they will be poison by it, so every time they see this kind of frog they will kill it, but so far no known incident wherein a person has died because they were poison by this frog. While the Palakang Bukid or mountain frog has remained as one of Filipino staple food, which is why they are always being hunt. While the Palakang Dikit or banana frog is being believe to be the cause of kulogo or warts once you have contact with their urine. Although lizard can still be seen, there is still a possibility that their population will decreased because there still some Filipino that still believed that eating a lizard will cure their asthma.

If we will continue to have this beliefs and we will believe with the word of the commercial model of the fabric conditioner commercial that they will be able to solve the problem of disease cause by mosquito then we will continue to be reluctant in keeping the ecological balance which is very important in keeping the harmonious coexistence of , organisms and their environment.

Cold Snap Energized Global Warming Deniers

Global warming doubters and agnostics get help from cold weather to bolster their argument that global warming is a hoax. Due to cold season many doubters flooded blogs, online news site, social networking and forum to criticize those environmentalist that promote green living. They are saying that the proponents of green living only use the global warming scenario to earn money. They are now asking for explanation why there is a cold snap if the earth is warming.

Maybe our creator only wants to remind us what we will lost if the global warming is for real and will reach its peak. Sure it may be cold now, but as a whole the world is warming. 2010 is the warmest year on record; we've been experiencing a hot weather for a long time, so let’s not be quick to conclude that global warming is a hoax just because of once in blue moon cold snap. If it wasn't for global warming this cold snap would happen much more regularly. We don't know what will happen next, this might be the last time we will experience a cold weather.

I hope that the current cold weather will not halt the ongoing green program of some organization and government and the environmentalist will not be discouraged by the recent challenge being thrown upon them. Regardless if the global warming is true or not I still see some benefits if we will continue to be conservative in using our natural resources. Let us remember that by limiting our carbon footprint we will prevent air and water pollution. Two million die prematurely each year because of air pollution and ther'e is a mass extinction of marine life due to water pollution. Let’s not forget that fish and other marine life is our main source of food. By taking care of our environment we are also taking care of our future, health and wealth.