Chinese Fantasy Landscape

Painting and Verse by
Dr Abe V Rotor 

Raging fire and cool jade

marble of blue and ebony

jagged mountains ascending

colors not of earth

nor water nor sky

creatures by imagination

carved, floating, flying 

landscape of far away

in imagination, in myth

not on earth 

not in heaven 

not by man -

yet called

man, heaven and earth  ~

For sale: Fantasy Landscape (15.5" x 43") acrylic on canvas, mounted on black wood frame (gross weight 1.5 kg), ready to hang. Call Dr Abe V Rotor 939-63-31. Free copies of author's books, Light in the Woods (Poetry and Photographs) and Light from the Old Arch (Essays). Proceeds will be go to Functional Literacy program. 

The Wheel Re-invented - Educational Toy for Kids

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Mely C Tenorio, 738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday (Phase II 2006 to present)

Children in the neighborhood taking time out to learn the practical uses of the wheel in modern times. Lagro QC 
                      The Wheel Re-invented   
From a rolling stone moving downhill, the wheel was born in man's creative mind to become his first true invention that revolutionized his life and his society. 

From the rolling stone evolved the idea of the cart, caleza and chariot - all made possible by another discovery - animals as beasts of burden to ease his work.

With wheels for transport, roads were built, bridges laid across rivers, new settlements founded, and people moved faster and farther into new territories.   

The wheel formerly made of solid stone, then of wooden spokes, soon took various makes and forms to serve man's unending needs, this time as machine.

Machine to grind grains, to crush sugarcane, to bring up water from wells and rivers, to power trains and cars - transforming man's life into a modern world. 

A modern world with the wheel re-invented into wind mill and waterwheel to generate electricity, engine that move man across and between continents.

The re-invented wheel gave man electronic gadgets from TV, computer, to space satellite, the hand-held tablet, shrinking the whole world into a global village.

But the wheel was also re-invented for war, from guns to missiles that carry weapons of mass destruction threatening to destroy civilization and man himself.

Beauty and goodness the wheel took shape, from stone to postmodern age,  affirming man's ideal and nobility, yet paradoxically transforming into a monster.

The wheel re-invented in the hands of children lies a new hope for peace and understanding, ideas that bring back a glorious past, in colorful toys and pure joy. ~    

Music for Kids - where shall they begin?

Dr Abe V Rotor

Music revival for kids.   

Music for kids -
where shall they begin?
They begin in growing up
curious, inquisitive, sensitive
to sound with quality,
notes and melody.

A note here, a note there,
Mozart the kid babysitting,
barely reaching the piano,
composed a lullaby,
world's most popular
cradle song.

Today's rap and tap
are music denied;
drums dull, cymbals empty, 
ye-ye-ye - defeatist 
version of simpleton
of the finest piece. 

But they insist, these kids;
instant guitar, violin,
piano, keyboard:
opera, concert, aria -
Can't they wait?
Only one of so many.

To make music instant,
push buttons, shout, dance,
be weird, grotesque,
a little puff here, too,
music like weeds is
never music at all.

What is music then? 
the waves, stream on the rocks,
fiddling cricket, lamb, frog, 
passing breeze in the leaves
the thunder - noise tamed
in strings wind, percussion.

How they wish, these kids
someday in their hands
music flows, through breath  
the sweetest song;
but where do they begin?
It is in believing they can. ~

Spice up your life with superstitious beliefs

Spice up your life with superstitious beliefs
Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Mely C Tenorio, 738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday (Phase II 2006 to present)


1. Garlic drives the aswang away.

If aswang (vampire) being referred to are pests and diseases, then there is scientific explanation to offer, because garlic contains a dozen substances that have pesticidal, anti-microbial and antiviral properties such as allicin, allithiamin and aliin, from which the scientific name of the plant was derived – Allium sativum. Garlic is placed on doorways, in the kitchen and some corners of the house where vermin usually hide, which is 

Garlic grown in the Ilocos region is more pungent and aromatic than imported garlic

also practiced in other countries. Garlic odor is an effective repellant against insects and rodents – and to many people, also to evil spirits, such as the manananggal (half-bodied vampire).     

2. Fruit trees watered with sugar solution bear sweet fruits.

Plants do not directly take in sugar as animals do.  Besides, sugar, like any organic compound, will break down into simple substances and elements through fermentation and decomposition, becoming ultimately inorganic substances. Some of these compounds and elements, especially nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium (NPK) are useful for plants to grow and develop. The decomposition process may also alter the pH of the soil that may be more favorable.  

3. Nakakapagpagaling ang laway sa nausog. (A little saliva relieves someone who was chanced upon by the unseen.)  

Old folks tell us that a person who is nausog must have trespassed or offended the spirits. He perspires, becomes cold, pale and weak, and chances are he suffers of stomach cramp or headache. In the village, people know who have the power to heal the nausog. He may be a person close to the soul of a departed in the place, or one who knows where the di-katataoan (spirit, literally non-person) is residing.  He applies saliva on the painful part of the body, imploring help and asking forgiveness. Sometimes, the clothes of the dead are used to wipe the patient. Sometimes, fresh leaves of orange, lemon. eucalyptus are macerated and used as aroma therapy.  Or it could be incense or burned leaves of kamias and other plants. At the end, the patient survives amidst all the attention and remedies.

4. Hanging bottles on the trellis of gourd plants induces fruiting.

Old folks believe in decoy to induce fruiting.  This is why they hang bottles on the trellis, and the more, the better the harvest. I have seen a squash trellis appearing like pabitin in fiestas. There is no scientific explanation to this of course, except that the bottles may serve somehow as deterrent against pranks and thieves. 

It could be for the reason that the colors, the pendulum movement, and occasional chimes of hanging bottles repel fruit flies, a major pest of fruits of cucurbits and other plants.  I would venture to add to the explanation that water trapped in the hanging bottles is a breeding place of mosquitoes and other insects that attract predators such as preying mantis, spiders, and house lizards. In effect these predators protect the crops from pests, and therefore, more of their fruits develop.

5. Harelip or cleft lip is the result of an accident when the baby was still in the womb.

When a mother accidentally falls, or is bumped, the baby she is carrying gets injured. The baby in the womb, by instinct sucks its thumb, so that we are made to believe that the injury is in the upper lips.

Actually, harelip - named after the shape of the lips of the hare or rabbit – is a result of incomplete fusion of the embryo’s facial parts early in prenatal development. It is a congenital abnormality. Slight cleft lip can be easily repaired by surgery. Cosmetic surgery to minimize the scar may be desirable when the child is a few years older.  

6. If a Fortune plant received as a gift bears flower, it is a sign of good luck; if it dies it is an omen of bad luck.

Fortune plant (Dracaena) is propagated by cutting.  The cutting is first allowed to produce new shoots before it is placed in a vase or dish. Water is regularly replaced, and once in a while the plant is taken out under the sun to give it vigor. Dracaena directly planted in pots and in the ground grows into a small tree and may bear a bouquet of flowers especially during the cold months, if properly tended. One must have a green thumb, so to speak, which often accompanies happy disposition and diligence.

7. Inadvertently wearing reverse clothes (baliktad) leads one to marry a widow or old maid.  

It’s a case of poor eyesight, or mali-mali (habitual forgetfulness). I know of guys who are not too concerned with their grooming. They are occupied with many things. Someone would even suspect, “Siguro mahilig yong mama na yan.’” (Maybe the guy  is naughty.) Anyone who lacks proper grooming may not have much chance building admiration in one whom he may wish to marry.  Whatever, somehow, sometime, someone comes along and finds the guy worth building a future together. It is likely one who can influence him to be concerned with the finer things in life.

  

8. It’s customary to first spill a little of your wine in deference to the  spirits.

And say a little prayer, too, to appease the souls and spirits. It is a sign of peace and respect not only to the memory of the departed souls and spirits of the place, but also a gesture to the host and company. But please do it discreetly and with finesse.

  

9. It’s lucky to find a four-leaf clover.

There are freaks in nature all around us.  Some are common, others occur only in a million chances. It is the latter that people who find them feel they are favored by some kind of luck.

But we also fancy on common ones like an elephant shaped papaya fruit, twin bunches of banana, ginseng root forked like beautiful legs, squash fruit with a face, and the like. These are deviations that appear suddenly and unexpectedly. Nature after all is not perfect.  It also commits errors, and these errors may occur only temporarily in the organism concerned, or it is passed on to its offspring – which is the key to speciation, a progressive deviation of traits that ultimately leads to the making of a new species.    

Try your luck again if you can’t find a real clover leaf representing the logo of the Boy Scout. Steal a leaf of makahiya, one that does not droop, and your wish – any wish – will be granted. 

  

10. Mothers place the extracted tooth of their children under the pillow or mat so that the good tooth fairy will come to replace it.

Actually this is an act of making a wish that psychologically reduces pain. It gives us a happy aura, pep and a positive feeling that promotes good health. We wish for many things, but we must always strive to get them. The tooth is a souvenir that keeps memories alive, that brings out the happy childhood in us in later years.  Listen to the song My Favorite Things (Sound of Music) and you won’t feel so bad.~ 

Time Out

Dr Abe V Rotor

Manressa Retreat Center, QC

Spanish system of volumetric measurement in the Philippines

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]
Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Mely C Tenorio, 738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday (Phase II 2006 to present)

Dama Juana, early glass jar was introduced by the Spaniards mainly for wine, like basi (Ilocos Wine). Its content is approximately 5 gallons - equivalent to that of common plastic jars today.

The Spaniards introduced into the Philippines a practical system of volume (in lieu of weight) measurement which we used for almost 400 years. Some of them are still being used today.

This system applies mainly to agricultural crops - rice, corn, mungo, muscovado sugar, sesame, beans, flour of rice, corn and cassava, and the like. It is also used in measuring fish and fish products like ipon (dulong), dilis (dried anchovies), salt, suso (snail), padas (fry of samaral fish) and other small fishes.

The system consists of the following units, systematically patterned as follows: 

• cavan
• ganta (or salop)
• litro
• chupa.
• gantilla

There are six chupa in a ganta, twenty-five ganta to make a cavan. There is also litro, equivalent to four chupa, and gantilla, eight of which is equivalent to one ganta. Except for the cavan which is made of jute sack, these measuring tools is made of wood having the same dimension on all sides and bottom.

Spain did not invent this system; it evolved in early Europe and Middle East, which in turn was introduced into the Philippines. Remember the story of Alibaba in One-Thousand-and-One Arabian Nights? The story tells how Alibaba's brother came to know of his secret of having found a treasure. A gold coin stuck at the bottom of a ganta!

How accurate is the system?

I remember old folks saying, it depends if you have "light hands" - meaning when measuring, say rice, pour the rice lightly into the ganta and run a lever quickly across its top to level it, so fast and light, it's like a sleight of the hand. The idea is to avoid compressing the content.

As a kid I tried the technique. It's true. Test it by measuring the commodity, compact it by tapping the ganta real hard on a solid surface. You will notice how the content "shrinks." That's how much you gain having the gift of "light hand". Which to some people is like having a Green Thumb.

But here is a malpractice of vendors. Place your thumb as deep as possible into the container, and while filling it up, discreetly elevate your thumb to create a space inside. This is done on commodities you don't have to use the level, like ipon, monamon, ariyawyaw, sapsap, padas - and other kinds of small fish. But culprits can't escape the watchful eyes of experienced customers.

The Spanish volumetric system was popularly adopted during the whole Spanish period in the Philippines, extending to the Commonwealth era and thereafter,. It was phased out only recently with the introduction of the international Metric System.

However, we still use cavan today, now standardized to 5o kgs in weight. Fish is sold wholesale inbañera, fruits like mango are packed in tiklis, tomatoes and pomelo oranges in standard size wooden boxes. There are still ganta and chupa used in the market, and Filipinos being innovative, have alternative measurements duplicating the obsolete volumetric system. Del Monte can is approximately one ganta, sardine can for chupa, table glass for gantilla.

A dozen of eggs, please. Isang piling (sapad Ilk) na saging. Pinch of salt. Isang dakot na bigas. One cup of milk. A flock of sheep. A truck of gravel. One light year is 186,000 miles per second. Micron is one-millionth of a mete. How about nanometer? Megapixel?

Indeed measurements have evolved a long, long way. ~

UST-AB Assignment: The Teacher-Researcher

Dr. Abe V. Rotor

 Lecture Outline on Research for 3CA1 and 3CA3, Ust Faculty of Arts and Letters

 February 18, 2013 Monday (3CA1 3 to 6 pm ; February 22, 2013, Friday 3CA3 9 to 12)

Paaralng Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Mely C Tenorio, 738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday (Phase II 2006 to present)
Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Fallen cross on a belfry ruin, Bacarra, Ilocos Norte

 It's a kids' world: bamboo poles and Palm Sunday palaspas for sale. 
 Quaintness of living has gone too far .

 A. Ways of Researchers

• ·       Hook and Line
• ·       White Gown
• ·       “Frankenstein”
• ·       Entrepreneur
• ·       Continuing

B. Stages of a “Sageing”

• ·       The Age of Becoming (adventure and discovery)
• ·       The Age of Overcoming (mastery)
• ·       Age of the Forthcoming (Integrity and Harmony)
• 
  
•         Youth – Blunder, also Opportunity
•         Middle Age – Regret, also Fulfillment
•         Old Age – Curse, also Wisdom

C.The ABH (Always Busy and in a Hurry) Person

• ·       He is here and he is not here; anywhere but here.
• ·       Often unhappy with what he has, with where he is.
• ·       Imagines success, happiness and contentment to be external and distant
• ·       Not physically, emotionally and spiritually involved.
• ·       He is not living fully; he is Tomorrow’s Child.

D. The Control Freak

• ·       He wants to be in control in everything and everyone.
• ·       Deep inside he does not trust himself.
• ·       Very organized but always worried.

  E. The Cheerful Robot

• ·       Afraid to take the initiative, drifts with the current
• ·       Creature of routine
• ·       Contented with mediocrity

  F. Cynic (Frustrated Idealist)

• ·       Incurable critic
• ·       Always complaining
• ·       Envious and jealous

  G. The Hoarder

• ·       He has insatiable want, forgetting what he truly needs. (Bill Gates)
• ·       He is trapped in the fear of losing what he has.
• ·       He needs to escape from the suffocating clutches of his possession

 H. The Pleaser

• ·       His self-image relies on public approval (KSP)
• ·       He can’t say, NO without feeling guilty.
• ·       He overburdens himself with promises he can’t fulfill

I. The Pretender

• ·       He wears many masks he has forgotten his real face.
• ·       A jack of all trades, a master of none.

 J. The Addict

• ·       He is excessively devoted to or burdened compulsively and habitually at something or someone.

·   Begging for a seat in school  painting unknown   

•      He is obsessed with alcohol, smoking, sex, TV, computer, money, and car - even religion.

  K. What a Professor Researcher should have

• ·       Humility – sincerely accepting “who I am and what I am doing that I can, to become what God wants me to be.”
• ·       Simplicity – focusing one’s attention on what truly matters in life.
• ·       Integrity – (integer is whole) wholeness leads to holiness.

 L. How to Live Life

1.  Practice your religion.  Religion is the most profound revolution.

• ·       Life is a journey.
• ·       Life is beautiful.

(If you don’t see it, you will miss it.)

• ·       Life is precious

(Don’t miss the happy moments.)

• ·       Life is short

(If you don’t look around, you will miss it.)

• ·       Breath, rest, take time out

(Sabbath Day, siesta and holiday)

2. Don’t sacrifice your family on the altar of your career

      3. Be prepared to experience the Crises of Limit

• ·       Crucial periods and vulnerability
• ·       Know the boundaries, borders and confines
• ·       The Unfinished Business
• ·       The crisis of bodily change. The body never lies.
• ·       The crisis of effectiveness
• ·       The crisis of death awareness

  

“Everyday I am doing something beautiful to God.”  - Mother Theresa

  

“Totus tuus.” (Everything I do, I do for God.)   - Pope John Paul II

  

“Don’t judge yourself with what you do, but the meaning of your work,”  - Francis Thompson, The Hound of Heaven.

Reference: Lecture of by Rev Fr. Rolando de la Rosa, former rector, UST in a Seminar-workshop for the Graduate School faculty, 2009. 

 

 Towards self sufficiency

 Super infrastructure

 Environmental conservation 

Global Warming

Lightning is Vital to Life

Lightning is Vital to Life

Dr Abe V Rotor

Lightning fixes atmospheric Nitrogen into Nitrate, so with other elements into their oxide compounds, vital to the plants, fungi and many other organisms.

Thunder and lightning spawn mushrooms.

In the province, it is a tradition to go hunting for mushrooms in bamboo groves, on anthills, under rice hay and banana stalks during the monsoon season, specifically after a period of heavy thunder and lightning. And what do we know? 

Old folks are right as they show you the prize - baskets full of Volvariella (rice hay or banana mushroom), Plerotus (abalone mushroom), Auricularia (tainga ng daga), and a host of other wild mushroom species.

Where did the mushrooms come from? When lightning strikes, nitrogen, which comprise 78 percent of the air combines with oxygen (21 percent of the air) forming nitrate (NO3).

Scientists call this process, nitrogen fixation or nitrification. Nitrate, which is soluble in water, is washed down by rain. Electrical discharge also aids in the fixation of other elements such as sulfur, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium into soluble compounds.

Lightning occurs every second in any place of the earth, maintaining the earth’s supply of these and other life-giving compounds. Not only green plants benefit from these natural fertilizers, but also phytoplankton (microscopic one-celled plants) - and the lowly mushroom whose vegetative stage is but some cottony mass of mycelia enmeshed in decomposing media such as plant residues. 

With nitrate and other nutrients now available, coupled with favorable conditions of the environment, the saprophyte transforms into its reproductive phase. This is the mushroom we are familiar with – umbrella-like and fleshy. In all its luxuriance and plenty, it is not unusual to discover clusters or hills of mushrooms in just a single spot. ~

Swarms of bees, locusts, gnats fill the imagination with awe and fear

Swarms of bees, locusts, gnats fill the imagination with awe and fear
Dr Abe V Rotor


Living with Nature School on Blog [avrotor.blogspot.com]

Paaralng Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Mely C Tenorio, 738 DZRB AM, 8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday (Phase II 2006 to present)

Biologically swarming is essentially a social act enabling members of a colony to share genes with others belonging to the same species but different colonies.

Migratory locust: swarm and close-up. (Acknowledgment: Internet)

 Nature has so timed swarming to occur simultaneously in order to enhance gene sharing which is vital to the survival of the species, otherwise in-breeding within the colony is perpetuated like brothers, sisters, marrying each other.

    

A kind of swarming is also observed among coelenterates (corals).  At a given precise time, eggs and sperms are released into the water in countless numbers, and there fertilization takes place, the resulting zygotes becoming minute hydras that will soon attach themselves to become new corals. In certain islands in the Pacific ghost crabs crowd the shorelines and beaches during a particular period of the year at a certain phase of the moon, and there mating takes place in a kind of orgy.  The gravid females then shake off their eggs in the water where they will soon hatch and initially become zooplanktons.  Very few of these survive to maturity.   

Swarming among winged termites (simut-simut Ilk.) is perhaps the most romantic, in fact it is called nuptial flight because in the sweltering night air  lovers meet, and then they descend and seal their vows.  The couple seeks a suitable place where they will establish a colony.  

Swarms of gamu-gamu (gnats and midges) become nuisance to communities in  sheer number, swarms of locust destroy fields of standing crops overnight, swarms of bees, especially the African bees, may send a whole community to abandon homes and belongings. In the bible King Solomon halted his troop to let an army of ants pass by.  This could be the kind of ants we know that invade homes and schools, and there are killer ants that destroy everything on their path.   

Old folks attribute swarming to several reasons which science has tried to explain scientifically.   

·        Swarming is a seasonal occurrence dictated by a biological clock, and therefore timed with the life cycle of the species. (e.g. termites and ants).  This kind of swarming occurs regularly to a particular species.   

·        Certain organisms such as locusts (Locusta migratoria manilensis) are driven by necessity to gather into a swarm.  Small groups first congregate where food is available and then coalesce into huge numbers, mating and reproducing along the way, before turning into migratory swarms. This kind of swarming though unpredictable has historical records in a place.  It often jibes with the occurrence of widespread drought or with the El Niño phenomenon.

·        Ecological imbalance may lead to swarming such as the case of gamu-gamu swarming on Laguna Bay in the sixties.  Overfishing in the lake triggered a population explosion of gnats which constitute the main food of fish. Thus swarming is an indicator of the conditions happening in an ecosystem.   

Much of what we know about the subject can’t sufficiently explain pathological conditions where bacteria suddenly burst in numbers, or how fungi all of a sudden grow over an entire forest floor. Why do people move to cities?  Is urbanization a kind of swarming? Why did the Israelites turn to the golden calf, a symbol of fertility, after their deliverance from Egypt? Do we harbor the genes for swarming called orgy?

 A flock of swifts (Penablanca, Pampanga); brown finch or maya (Virac, Catanduanes). Members often cross flocks to share genes, and prevent in-breeding.  This phenomenon is applied in herds, pride (of lions), schools (of fish), and other social units.   

Colony of higad, tussock moth caterpillars (Lagro, QC); an army of hantik ants attacking a caterpillar (UP Diliman, QC).  Members of a colony are pre-destined into castes, but come swarming time and they are liberated to perform reproductive function. Hence ants and termites are liberated from their castes, leave their colonies and join the once in-a-year super swarm participated in by countless of winged members of different colonies. After the nuptial flight, pairs begin to form new colonies.  .

   Coy in frenzy at feeding time. Safari World (Bangkok,Thailand)  

Test on Global Warming (True or False)

Dr Abe V Rotor

Living with Nature School on Blog

738 DZRB AM Paaralang Bayan sa Himpapawid with Ms Melly C Tenorio

8 to 9 Evening Class, Monday to Friday

 1.      Biofuels are healthy to the environment and economy especially in underdeveloped countries.  

 Global warming sign

2.      It is wise to store carbon waste such as from CO2 emission and coal waste deep into the earth; anyway fossil fuels have been kept the bowels of the earth for millions of years,  

3.      Methane has higher impact in global warming than CO2 emission, which means that animal husbandry is a major generator of global heat. 

4.      Greenwashing is the practice pf making environmental promises favoring hype over substance, a disparaging term usually applied to corporations such as automakers that tout new hybrids but still peddle gas-guzzling SUBS and lobby against increased-mileage requirement.

5.      The ozone hole is getting bigger above the equator because of increasing heat while the ozone above the poles remains intact. 

6.      The hottest in household energy savings is the replacement of conventional incandescent light bulb with Compact Fluorescent Light bulb (CFL) 

7.      Compact Fluorescent  Lightbulb may cost 2 or 3 times more than conventional light bulbs but consumes only one-fourth of electricity; besides they last very much longer.  

8.      Planting trees, scientists tell us, is not a wise measure to curb global warming, because trees absorb the heat of the sun. 

9.      It is the light of the sun – not its heat – that is used to covert water and CO2 during photosynthesis to produce sugar and O2..

10.  The US alone contributes 50 percent of the total annual CO2 output which is 32 billion tons.   

11.  Lead (Pb) poisoning can be obtained unknowingly from paints, prints, dyes, because lead is an excellent fixer.  T

12.  China’s economy has been growing steadily at an average rate of 10 percent in the last decade, thanks to its fast growing industrialization.  T

13.  Today’s CO2 in the atmosphere which is 379 ppm in 2005 is higher than anytime in the past 650,000 years. T

14.  Of the 12 warmest years on record, 11 occurred in the last 20 years, mainly from 1995 to 2004.  T

15.  There is a new law in Japan that at least 40 percent of rooftops of building are green in the like of a high rise garden – similar to what we can aeroponics. 

16.  Total water on earth as ice and glacier is around 2 percent.  

17.  Chlorine, methane, ammonia, hydrogen sulfide contribute to acid rain.  Acid rain and global warming have no connection to each other. 

18.  Asia is the last region to clean up its cities – Orientals are not as meticulously clean as Americans and Europeans.  F

19.  It is now accepted unanimously that industrialization is the culprit of global warming.

20.  Global warming has something to do with the disturbance of the tectonic plates leading to more frequent and stronger earthquakes, tsunamis and volcanic eruption.  

21.  The effects of global warming are the concern of governments and big corporations because they have the power and resources to curb its effect.  We, ordinary citizens, are but by-standers, but we should be willing to abide by the rules they set.

22.  Penguins and white bears are drowning in the Arctic region because of the melting of ice. 

23.  Converting corn into ethanol requires more energy in the process than the net energy output/ produce. 

24.  The name Rachel Carson rings every time we talk about pollution, a subject in her book, “Silent Spring”,  

25.  Inconvenient Truth is based on Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit is an international bestseller  written by Al Gore, former vice president of the US. 

Answers: 1F (competition with food and nutrition.), 2F, 3T, 4T. 5F, 6T, 7T, 8F, 9T, 10F (one-fourth), 11T, 12T,  13T 14T  15T, 16T (1.90. Of the total freshwater (2 %),  glacier and ice make up 78.19 %, 20.58 % groundwater, and 0.82% rivers and lakes, soil 0.41%.),17F, 18F, 19 F (There are doubting Thomases.)  20T, 21F, 22F (Penguins are at the Antarctic), 23 T (We have yet to perfect the technology; ethanol from sugarcane is more efficient.), 24T, 25T

Orchid doesn't normally grow on pine tree - an indicator that the earth atmosphere is getting warmer.

RATING:

24 – 25  outstanding

20 – 23  very good

16 – 19 good

12 – 15 pass

Below 11 listen more and to research