Why?

WHY?

by Antonio C. Antonio

January 18, 2015

Earlier today, I had a very meaningful conversation with a friend who never failed to give me a safe advice.  He follows my blogs and could not help but notice that I’ve regressed (meaning: return to a former or less developed state) to discussing basic concepts in environmental science or environmentalism in general.  So I went on to explain to him that we have actually moved too far forward in environmental advocacy and environmentalism that we’ve more likely lost our way.  We are now addressing the “what”, “how”, “where” and “when” when we do not even understand “why” things need to be done.  I firmly believe that “why” takes precedence (meaning: the condition of being considered more important than someone or something else; priority in importance, order, or rank) over “what”, “how”, “where” and “when” in addressing our environmental concerns.  What I am doing is regressing back to what I believe should first be understood before jumping forward to other equally important concerns… this is to highlight that all (namely: why, what, where, when and how) are equally important; therefore, all must eventually be addressed.

“What” and “why” are supposed to be taken with the same degree of priority.  The difference, however, is that “what” simply states the concern while “why” dwells on the deeper understanding of the concern at hand.  Stating something is dramatically different from understanding something.  It is the clear understanding of any concern that will lead to better and more plausible solutions to any environmental issue.

More than two years ago, a quantitative and qualitative survey was conducted by students of the University of the Philippines OU to assess the status and condition of environmental knowledge.  Unfortunately, the results of this study indicated the high level of ignorance and the lack of education of people on environmental issues, problems and concerns.  So even as people get involved in seemingly pro-environment activities, projects and programs, they do not have the slightest idea “why” they are doing things.  Having determined this inadequacy in environmental advocacy and environmentalism, we found it best to adopt the EIC (Education, Information and Communication) Approach to better inform everyone on the “why” of environmental science.  Even if the topics I blog and post on Facebook sometimes do not seem coherent (meaning: logical and consistent) on account of the multidisciplinary nature of environmental science, they all make better sense when viewed in the larger scheme environmentalism.

I am not saying, however, that the EID Approach is applicable to everyone. For those who are already soaked in the theoretical aspect of environmental science, they could surely go on their merry way and do the more advance things such as addressing the “what”, “how”, “where” and “when”.  But for the larger segment of society, let’s first regress back to understanding “why”.

Just my little thoughts…

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