(Continued from Aug. 21-22, 2021)
AS WE talk about the political dimensions of this subject matter, it would eventually become clear that the debates about the enforcement of environment laws would boil down to the conflicts of interests between big business and the small people.
By the latter term, I would actually mean the poor people who are not only the victims of displacement due to the actions of illegal miners and illegal loggers; they are also the victims of man-made and natural disasters that could be traced to environmental damage. At times it could be said that the lack of enforcement could be blamed on corruption, if and when public officials would look the other way because of bribes. Aside from corruption however, it could also be the abusive use of power and influence by those who are in public office.
It is not all bad news however, because the incumbent administration now seems to be diligent about curbing corruption and about enforcing environment laws. Aside from that, there is the other good news of more pro-environment forces that are learning how to use the social media as their tools for online protests and public advocacies.
Perhaps what would come out as better news is if these forces would wake up to the reality that all the manufacturers could be pressured to adopt Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs) thereby ensuring that all the industrial wastes that they would produce should be cleansed first before these are released back into the environment. In theory, it would seem easier to cleanse industrial wastes before these are released, rather than to clean up after these wastes are already released.
In reality, the circular economy if put into place, is not just all about cleaning the environment. It is also about producing clean energy and clean food. That is so because more power could be produced by converting waste into energy. That is also because more agricultural land could be made available for food production as more polluted soils are re-mediated in order to make these arable again.
That logic would also apply to fisheries, because more marine food could be produced as more bodies of water are cleansed of contaminants. The same logic would also apply to forestry, because more fruits and edible leaves could be harvested as more pollutants are removed from the air.
As the circular economy becomes more widespread, there would also be more value added produced, as more minerals and metals are recovered in the process of cleansing the waters and soils around us.
We are often told that we could not clean the bays not unless we clean the rivers, that we could not clean the lakes not unless we clean the lands and the mountains that feed it. While that massive supply chain might seem too impossible to cover, that is not really impossible to do now, because technologies such as Super Critical Water (SCW) and enzymes are now available. All told, all we need to do now is to enforce the already existing laws to make the circular economy happen./PN
