So, With Standing Irrigation Water, PH Rice Farmers Are Also Guilty Of Global Warming!

It's not carbon dioxide, CO2 – it's water, H2O. 

Roger Harrabin of BBC News says, "Paris Agreement: Trump Confirms US Will Leave Climate Accord" (24 October 2019, bbc.com). And of course, people will hate Donald J Trump, US President, all the more. I love him.

Mr Trump does not believe in the carbon dioxide, CO2, Theory of Climate Change, and neither do I any longer.

I now believe that the water vapor is the major culprit. Actually, I have already written about it; read my essay, "Climate Changer – Water Vapor Or Carbon Dioxide, I Go For The Female Logic!" (22 October 2019, iVirtual Guru, ivirtualguru.blogspot.com). The female scientist is Australian Christine Jones, who says:

Water that sits on top of the ground will evaporate. Water vapor, caused by water that evaporates because it hasn't infiltrated, is the greenhouse gas that has increased to the greatest extent since the Industrial Revolution.

Elsewhere, Frank Beales, former Professor of the University of Toronto says (undated, "Providing Insight Into Climate Change," Friends of Science, friendsofscience.org), "The total amount of water vapor… is the most important greenhouse gas in the atmosphere."

Still elsewhere, "Carbon Is Not The Enemy," says William McDonough (14 November 2016, Nature, nature.com):

But carbon – the element – is not the enemy. Climate change is the result of breakdowns in the carbon cycle caused by us: it is a design failure. Anthropogenic greenhouse gases in the atmosphere make airborne carbon a material in the wrong place, at the wrong dose and for the wrong duration. It is we who have made carbon toxic – like lead in our drinking water or nitrates in our rivers. In the right place, carbon is a resource and a tool.

Look at the above image again; NASA confirms that water vapor is the major cause of climate change (nasa.gov, where the above image comes from):

Water vapor is known to be Earth’s most abundant greenhouse gas, but the extent of its contribution to global warming has been debated. Using recent NASA satellite data, researchers have estimated more precisely than ever the heat-trapping effect of water in the air, validating the role of the gas as a critical component of climate change.

We all forgot the heat-trapping effect of water in the atmosphere.

Andrew Dessler and colleagues from Texas A&M University in College Station confirmed that the heat-amplifying effect of water vapor is potent enough to double the climate warming caused by increased levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

Not CO2 but H2O is doubling the warming of the climate!

Which means the Kyoto Protocol, the Paris Accord etcetera are all meaningless and will not bring down global warming even if followed.

For practical purposes, what can we do to help reduce global warming? In agriculture, we must reduce our water use. In the Philippines, we are profligate in irrigation water in growing rice. So, our rice farmers are most guilty of global warming. Easily, we can apply IRRI's alternate wet & dry method, AWD.

So, I'm sorry, Greta Thunberg. Bye, bye!@517

Journationalism Invented – Where You Don't Always See What You're Getting Into Until You Get There!

Our journalists, even the best of them, are still digging dirt, which is what they have been doing since journalism was invented in Rome in the form of the handwritten Acta Diurna, or Journal Act, my translation (en.wikiquote.org).

Instead of digging dirt, which is negative, why not, I say, dig dearth, not the one that is dirty but the one that is lacking, the one that is contributory?

Joshua Hammer writes of Maria Ressa & her media struggles arising from her Rapplerreports ("The Journalist Vs The President, With Life On The Line" (15 October 2019, New York Times, nytimes.com):

Maria Ressa, editor of a popular news site in the Philippines, has incurred President Duterte and his supporters’ wrath by investigating his extrajudicial killing campaign.

Of course! If you dig dirt, the dirt can fall on your body instead.

I would rather dig dearth. Here's to reinventing modern journalism!
Journationalism.

Is not the process from journalism to nationalism natural?! No, not the "nationalism" that Senator Lorenzo Tañada exhibited in his times, of which he said:

Nationalism is the primal virtue of the citizen; that virtue which prompts him to place the common good of his people above private and personal good, above the interest of his party, that virtue that makes him willing nay, glad to sacrifice himself that the nation may live.

When I was younger, I admired Tañada; now that I am 79, that to me is a limited view! Sen Tañada was speaking along party lines; I must speak along national development lines, party lines blurred or non-existent.

To be practical about it, to me:

Development is helping the poor farmers rise from poverty and staying up there! (Check out my other blog, Ani at Kita, https://ianikita.blogspot.com.)

If your political party or your group believes in that, welcome to the common struggle. If not, you are part of the problem!

(Yes, if you keep on digging up dirt, you are part of the problem too!)

On Wednesday, 16 October 2019, I saw Miriam Grace A Go's email, "Challenges Of Local Governance We Don't Always See." She is the News Editor of Rappler. She reports that all the new mayors of Metro Manila: Cainta, Rizal (Kit Nieto), Pasig City (Vico Sotto), Makati City (Abigail Binay), Quezon City (Joy Belmonte), and Valenzuela City (Rex Gatchalian) – have been outgoing with their media releases and "not from the good, old daily story chasing by journalists." Miss Grace says, "All these are good for our local governments, but not good for journalism in my view."

Instead of complaining that the young leaders of Metro Manila have taken over the functions of mass media, Miss Grace, I already invited you to practice:

Journationalism!

Journalists now have to reinvent themselves and look for The Really Good News for the citizens. Like, check out if Secretary of Agriculture William Dar has distributed farm machineries and made loans available to farmers in Metro Manila?!

You don't want to be a nationalist? Then be an internationalist:

Fight climate change!@517

PH Farmer Leaders, Scale Out Your Complaining And Tell Your Followers Go Economies Of Scale!

Instead of incessantly complaining publicly, PH farmer leaders should go out privately and incessantly study with their farmer groups how to work out to become competitive in their own country. 

Like targeting exports – we are laggards when we export but avantgarde when we import!

The new Secretary of Agriculture, William Dar/Manong Willie, has just come out with his Thursday column at the Manila Times (24 October 2019, "The 'New Thinking' To Expand Agri Exports," 1st of 2 parts, manilatimes.net). Here's the thing; because we import so much, in celebrating our holidays such as Christmas, Manong Willie says:

The farmers, fishers and agribusiness enterprises from our Asean neighbors get richer and richer.

For the holidays, the non-Filipino Asean farmers have us Filipinos to be thankful for!

That is because our farmers go about their business without being competitive with our Asean cousins. We in the Philippines have excellent farm produce and products, but they are generally expensive compared to Asean competitors.

Which means: We Filipinos are good farmers but bad businessmen!

Why is farming bad in the Philippines? Because of the bad business side – we have yet to, for instance, practice economies of scale. (image from 123RF, 123rf.com)

The PH agrarian mentality is that our farmers cannot go economies of scale because our farmers do not own the land they are cultivating. Look at the above image again; it does not say anything about ownership of land or building. Don't tell me the Filipinos know better!

Farmer land ownership is the mantra of probably all PH farmer leaders, including some active and retired academics I know. Their logic is that if the farmer does not own the land, he is not motivated enough to make it productive and profitable.

Well, since President Ferdinand "FM" Marcos instituted Land Reform – on 10 September 1971, FM created the Department of Land Reform, now the Department of Agrarian Reform – can you tell me now how many hundreds of thousands of agrarian farmers have become prosperous because of land reform? None. FM wasn't always right!

Why don't those activist farm leaders and farmers learn from the recent aggie lesson from non-farmers Italian Patrick Renucci and his wife Filipina Rachel who are now producing for export Dalisay Rice in the storm-devastated Leyte!? I have written about it; see my essay of 10 September 2019, "New Paradigm In Rice Farming: Patrick & Rachel Renucci Give Us "SciTech Rice" (Ani Kita, ianikita.blogspot.com). Dalisay Rice is produced under conditions of economies of scale but the Renuccis do not own the lands!

Kung gusto, may paraan; kung ayaw, may dahilan!
With will, a way is found; without will, a weasel is forwarded!

In the meantime, as Manong Willie observes:

In the fruits section of supermarkets, more than 50 percent are filled with imported stocks.

Among the five top imports from our Asean neighbors included other food and live animals at $740.23 million, and cereal and cereal preparations at $700.85 million.

We Filipinos are eating imports we could produce. Aren't we ashamed of ourselves?@517

Sometimes, We Miss To Recognize Golden Opportunities Even When They Are Staring Us In The Face!

It was the opportunity of a lifetime – and the University of the Philippines Los Baños blew it!

What If UP Los Baños invited as Guest of Honor new Secretary of Agriculture William Dar, an alumnus, to its Alumni Homecoming this year, on Wednesday 09 October, in conjunction with the 101st Loyalty Day Celebration on Thursday 10 October 2019? Loyalty Day every year is the most significant event that happens at the campus of UPLB because alumni are invited to attend from wherever they are in the world, and many do come. For one, I met Ed Quisumbing, who was working for the World Bank before; he now resides somewhere in the US. I also met him last year on Loyalty Day, as well as William Dar.

The new Secretary of Agriculture is a bonafide UPLB alumnus, having obtained his PhD in Horticulture from this university in 1980. If UP Los Baños had invited him as Guest Speaker during the Alumni Homecoming Day, 09 October, it could have been a very enriching experience, to say the least.

William Dar could have expounded on his thoughts about how to be a good Secretary of Agriculture, and the whole UPLB in attendance at Baker Hall could have interacted with him. It would have been a richly rewarding experience.

And of course the guest could have asked in return where UPLB people thought they could contribute much to solving the problems of PH Agriculture that has been neglected in the last 25 years. What a wonderful exchange that would have been!

Yes, but before Loyalty Day this year, I myself was not thinking such thoughts. On Loyalty Day itself, I was sitting on an honored chair (not mine) in front of the Dioscoro L Umali Audi at the campus of UP Los Baños watching the parade as each float stopped and did their prepared performances, simply or elaborately.

On one hand, I was thinking the presentation of the College of Development Communication, CDC, was unimpressive when it should have been attention-getting or at least eye-catching.

On the other hand, I was thinking the espaleklek banner was quite impressive – quite readable at a distance of 20 meters where the others were almost invisible. The message spoken was unimportant to me; the unspoken impressed me that they were proud to be part of the celebration.

And then I thought what if UP Los Baños had invited the new Secretary of Agriculture and given him a doctoral degree honoris causa in management because he has been the very first Director of the Bureau of Agricultural Research; Director General of the Philippine Council for Agriculture & Resources Research & Development; and the longest – 3-term or 15-year – Director General of the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, ICRISAT. Not to mention that he was the Secretary of Agriculture under Erap when the Philippines registered the highest aggie growth rate of 9.6%!

Wake up, UP Los Baños! Wake up and become relevant to PH Agriculture outside of the academe!@517

Thinking Farming, Farmers, Partners - A Hidden Lesson From Noel Cabangon

I woke up this morning, Wednesday, 23 October 2019, at about 6 AM, with a pleasant thought about PH Agriculture – and I was thinking of music maestro Noel Cabangon. Because yesterday, as I translated the hymn he has written for the Department of Agriculture, DA, I saw a sign that PH Agriculture will be fine, just you wait!

No, Noel Cabangon is neither a prophet nor a seer, but he is an artist many times over, and his DA hymn reminds me of what beloved American poet Ezra Pound said, "Artists are the antennae of the race."

The image above is from the website of PhilRice, on which I have superimposed the headshot of Noel Cabangon, music maker from Rosario, La Union. I identify because my grandfather Graciano Hilario came from that town, and I am an FBI, full-blooded Ilocano. Also, I have become the relentless writer for the new agriculture of my country.

The new Secretary of Agriculture, William Dar/Manong Willie, is from Santa Maria, Ilocos Sur, next door to La Union. If the Ilocanos are ascendant, as the Spanish colonizers found and brought them to Isabela, PH Agriculture will get better and better – until it is the best!

But how? I will give you just one glimpse that the genius of Noel Cabangon as artist has seen from "The New Thinking for Agriculture" that Manong Willie has brought out to guide him in his secretaryship. I saw it when I was translating the original Filipino (Tagalog) "DA Hymn" of 30 lines:

The lesson for today is beyond supporting our rice farmers!

And that is how I found out that truly, as in the case of Noel Cabangon, the artists are the antennae of the race. Marshall McLuhan said:

I think of art, at its most significant, as a DEW line, a Distant Early Warning system that can always be relied on to tell the old culture what is beginning to happen to it.

And here are the very first 5 lines of the DA Hymn that foretell the future of PH Agriculture:

Dito sa Kagawaran ng Pagsasaka
Dito magmumula ang tunay na paglilingkod sa bansa
Katuwang ng mga magsasaka
Katuwang ng mga mangingisda
Kasama tungo sa pag-unlad ng bansa.

My free translation is this:

Here at the Department of Agriculture
Here will begin true service to the country
Partnering with farmers
Partnering with fishers
Together towards the progress of the nation.

The Philippines is agricultural; if you want to truly serve your country, your service must be agricultural.

In the 3rd and 6th (and last) stanza of the DA Hymn, the last 3 lines above are repeated. The artist is emphasizing 1 word:

Partnership.

The DA is not going to do it alone; the farmers and fishers are not going to do it alone – they will do it as partners. "Partnering with the farmers. Partnering with the fishers. Together towards the progress of the nation." Progress is a partnership.

So, in this case, the Ilocano artists are the delightful antennae of the Filipino race!@517

Celebrating A Different Species Of Asian Swine Fever – You Be Too!

From ANN, this news: "Chinese Study Unlocks Clues In The Relatively Unknown African Swine Fever Virus" (Author Not Named, 21 October 2019, Global Times, globaltimes.cn):

The research shows the virus has a unique structure of five layers: the outer membrane, the capsid, a double-layer inner membrane, a core-shell and genome. It contains more than 30,000 protein subunits, forming a spherical particle with a diameter of about 260 nanometers.

Now, do we wait for further developments?

Rao Zihe, a CAS academician and one of the leading scientists of the research, said unveiling the structure of African swine fever is the first important step in the "long march" to tackle the disease. Researchers will continue to analyze the structure of the virus's core-shell, and how the virus interacts with receptors.

Note: "Long march" – With that Asian swine fever, we have a long, long way to go for a vaccine.

In the meantime, I suggest that we Filipinos show the rest of the world that we can cultivate a different kind of Asian swine fever:
Go grow native pigs!

The above image is titled "Bagnet: Love Made In Ilocos" from binivinni.wordpress.com. It is a differently cooked pork belly. I native Ilocano just love bagnet – which I prefer to the lechon kawali of the Tagalogs.

Native? That reminds me of the 200-page book I edited & desktop published, and authored by Rene Santiago, Angel Lambio and Karen Dimaranan published in March 2016 by the National Swine & Poultry Research & Development Center of the Bureau of Animal Industry, BAI, which is under the Department of Agriculture, DA – Philippine Native Animals.

Considering the pesky Asian swine fever, the growing of Philippine native pigs is not only patriotic but intelligent! Why? From pages 94-95 of the book:

The Philippine native pigs… have the ability to survive and reproduce under natural environment with minimal inputs and the meager resources of small-scale farmers in terms of animal inputs like land, feeds, and housing fits the requirements of native pigs.

In view of the Asian swine fever raging all over Asia, I would like to encourage a Pinoy swine fever with any of the native pigs the BAI has in its collection: Abra, Kalinga, Marinduque, Mt Province, Tiaong, andQuezon.

From the book's back cover:

To encourage backyard raising and commercial undertakings in the country, this book… was conceived to present the business & livelihood realities and potentials of 7 native species, which are: carabao, cattle, chickens, ducks, goats, horses, and pigs – the plurals indicate 2 or more species or strains. Local residents and now tourists from other lands know that the slow growth of native animals gives us meats & eggs of poultry and meats & milks of livestock that are far more flavorful and mouth-watering, as well as more healthful than those of imported breeds that are given growth hormones to hasten their growth. And more and more local animal raisers now realize that the native species are easier to raise and far more economical than their exotic counterparts.

So? Go native, pigs!@517

Climate Changer – Water Vapor Or Carbon Dioxide, I Go For The Female Logic!

"Culprit in climate change is carbon dioxide" – Male science genius. 

"No. It's the water vapor!" – Female science genius.

It's American male genius vs Australian female genius, and this Filipino male genius believes the female is right and the male wrong!

Since at least 2007, I have been led to believe that it is carbon dioxide, CO2, that is the greenhouse gas warming the Earth all over – and that is why we have to stop using fossil fuel and coal as sources of energy because their uses emit CO2.

Now comes a more compelling argument for yet another greenhouse gas – the water vapor. (main image from junkscience.com)

Candace Krebs says, "Soil Ecologist Challenges Mainstream Thinking On Climate Change" (18 February 2019, La Junta Tribune-Democrat, lajuntatribunedemocrat.com). The ecologist is Christine Jones, Australian; she is speaking at the No Till on the Plains Conference in Wichita in late January:

Water that sits on top of the ground will evaporate. Water vapor, caused by water that evaporates because it hasn't infiltrated, is the greenhouse gas that has increased to the greatest extent since the Industrial Revolution.

Since man has yet to conserve water, the water vapor escapes to the skies above.

Miss Christine says:

It's a scientific fact that water vapor accounts for 95 percent of the greenhouse effect… carbon dioxide only makes up .04 percent of the atmosphere anyway. So how can a trace gas be changing the global climate?

Martin Shepherd counters by citing the American Chemical Society's ACS Climate Science Toolkit ("Water Vapor Vs Carbon Dioxide: Which 'Wins' In Climate Warming?" 20 June 2016, Forbes, forbes.com):

Water vapor is the largest contributor to the Earth’s greenhouse effect... However, water vapor does not control the Earth’s temperature, but is instead controlled by the temperature... If there had been no increase in the amounts of non-condensable greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide), the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere would not have changed with all other variables remaining the same.

What?! The very first sentence quoted above agrees with Miss Christine! The next sentence has faulty logic: "Water vapor does not control the Earth’s temperature, but is instead controlled by the temperature." No, Mr Shepherd, we are not talking about the Earth's temperature – we are talking about the greenhouse effect that adds to the temperature of the Earth! Big difference.

Mr Shepherd insists:

If there had been no increase in the amounts of non-condensable greenhouse gases (like carbon dioxide), the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere would not have changed with all other variables remaining the same.

In fact, Mr Shepherd, with all those other variables remaining the same, the amount of water vapor in the atmosphere keeps changing (adding) because of man's profligate use of water!

Ah, Mr Shepherd insists that nitrogen and oxygen are "the most abundant gases" and that they "exhibit virtually no warming effect." So what! They do not absorb the heat of the sun like water vapor does.

So?
It's agriculture that is the culprit in climate change, not the industries!@517