CARE is born 

Luz at prayer

On May 6, 2004 twenty eight people from different sectors met and discussed what a Coal-Fired Power Plant is, and its impact on the environment, on human and animal health. The said plant generates electricity after burning coal. Coal is a black rock material buried under the ground for so many years. It is mined/extracted then crushed and transported to a power plant. KEPCO, a Korean Electric Power Corporation is planning to put up a coal-fired power plant in Cebu City, Philippines. However, its Circulating Fluidized Bed Combustion technology emits gases that contain carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen oxide, and fly ash with

heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, chromium, lead and mercury. Constant exposure to pollution caused by these gases can bring about diseases and even death among wildlife species. The power plant’s waste disposal system has caused irreversible ecological damage just as it did in Korea

The group discussion led to a plan of activities that will spread the information about the coal-fired power plant in Cebu and a schedule of meetings have been set with government agencies regarding

At the CARE forum

this concern. The newly organized group of concerned citizens in Cebu City aims to convince government authorities and communities to put up alternative power plants that will use energy sources that are renewable and environmentally friendly. Towards the end of the day, we have named the birth of an environmental organization in Cebu. The participants voted on a name that will identify its purpose. Thus CARE was born. The Cebu Alliance for Renewable Energy is now spreading its wings into the different schools and Colleges and communities in Cebu City to find ways to conserve the environment.

Luz Dolalas rscj
District of the Philippines

 Luz is the Advocacy-Science Staff of ELAC ( Environmental Legal Assistance Center), an environmental non-government organization in Cebu City serving communities displaced by society’s violence to environment through legal assistance).