Brother JaazealJakosalem, was invited as one of the presentors of the 4th Bay Area Schools Environmental Conference celebrated in San Jose, California, last May 1. The annual conference has as objective the promotion and strengthening of the management of the environment. The “Go Green” program of San Jose has inspired various successful programs in schools that introduced initiatives of care of environment. The program also hopes to awaken conscience and spread successful green initiatives to other academic institutions.
The conference paper of the Augustinian Recollect entitled, “Students speak for the Trees: Branching out to New Heights,” offers alternative and innovative ways of recycling (also known as “green waste basket”). This is centered in the students’ environmental stewardship and its active implication in the expansion of rural and urban forests and the improvement of local watershed.The paper also brought to the attention of the participants the actual state of deterioration of the environment in the Philippines, and the role of students in proposing alternative solutions to ecological problems.
Jaazel was also invited to participate in the conference on the “Climactic Change in China” held in Beijing from June 9 – 13. The former US vice-president and 2007 winner of Nobel Prize for Peace, supported this gathering, which was a collaboration of China and the United States of America. Al Gore informed some 300 Chinese participants and the representatives who came from the United States of America, Indonesia, United Kingdom and the Philippines of the actual state of the environment in China. There was consensus and show of commitment to help reduce the ill effects of climactic change.