July 31, 2017

Engr. Erwin B. Daculan

Faculty, DEEE
School of Engineering
University of San Carlos

Dear Engr. Daculan,

Last week, we watched two different films, The Right to Breathe and Cowspiracy: The
Sustainability Secret. Both film tackled the most common issue on our society today, climate
change, but still majority of us have just taken it for granted. Currently, most of us are unaware of
the root cause of climate change which has been the main culprit of global destruction of our
planet and the sudden changes in weather patterns. We blame huge factories and manufacturers
of products which are displayed in retailing establishments, and the traffic for what has happened
to our atmosphere today, as a result, our air has become polluted and storms become stronger
and unpredictable.
As I watched the film The Right to Breathe again when I went home, I felt sad about the people
living in communities which are heavily exposed to bad pollution. I asked myself, are we not
thankful enough to live in a place where we can still breathe fresh air? Despite of all the filthy and
polluted gases we contribute every single day. I agreed to what Dr. Keith Black said when he was
interviewed that, when we think about health there are things that we can control and there are
things that we cannot control. He added that, we can change our diet, we can exercise more. But
we cannot change the air that we breathe. No matter what we do to improve our health and our
living if the air that surrounds us particularly the air we breathe is full of toxic and hazardous
substances, we cannot escape the fact that we are still subjected to chronic diseases. Its very
frightening that we, living in urban areas are ignorant and unconscious of all the bad effects of air
pollution to our health. On the other hand, the film Cowspiracy claimed that the biggest
contributor of all the pollution is animal agriculture. I was surprisingly shocked and saddened of
their revelation because I never thought that animal agriculture could contribute such thing. I was
thinking that the transportation industry and manufacturing industry are the biggest contributor of
pollution and are responsible for more greenhouse gases, habitat loss, topsoil erosion, ocean
dead zones, and virtually every other environmental ill. The film changes my view on animal
agriculture, it somehow helps me to minimize my consumption of meat especially fast food
products such as hamburgers and hotdogs. Perhaps, we should be very attentive and cautious
of the things we do because we wont know that maybe someday we are out of fresh air to breathe.

Sincerely yours,

Degres F. Paloma
BSECE-5