Sustainability and Human Values

A. Human Use of the Earth

Intended Learning Outcome:
1. Describe sustainability in the context of progress in human well-being

Introduction:
One of the biggest questions of every human being is where do they come
from or where does human come from. Despite the knowledge of reproduction,
human often wonder how did it all started. Humans are unique creatures on earth
because of its characteristics that it can think, feel and decide on its own free will.
But even gifted with these characteristics, humans are never exempted from some
basic characteristics of all living creatures. They eat, reproduce and excrete waste.
But in all living organisms, humans are the fastest evolving creature. Evolution is
a process of changing from one characteristic to another trough adaptation or
breeding. For humans, evolution is day to day basis because humans have the
capacity to learn almost instantly.
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Preliminary Questions:
But come to think of this, what is the use of humans on earth?

I. PREPARATION

Get your smartphones, open the camera and pose to take a selfie. Edit text
on the picture that says “What on Earth am I here for?” Save this for the end
activity of this lesson.
II. PRESENTATION

Many believe that the existence of human being starts with a singular cell that
evolves to a multicellular organism and with time, homo sapiens evolve to the now
form. This theory was called “Theory of Evolution”. In the theory of evolution, two
phenomena can be observed.
1. ) Natural Selection. Every organism would naturally select its habitat.
2. ) Survival & Adaptation. In order to survive, the organisms have to adapt
to its environment.

But a lot of scientist begin to have doubts with the evolution process of human
beings. It is always a wonder where did that unicellular organisms came from. This
is considered as the ‘missing link’. Because of this, a lot have turned to the concept
of Creation as described in the Bible – having a Supreme Being as the beginning
of everything.

But the truth in the concepts of evolution remains. Evolution refers to the
process of changing from one characteristics or trait to another through adaptation
and breeding.

Factors that affects Evolution:

1.) Environment – this refers to the habitat where that organism thrives, the
animals that co-inhabit and the ecosystem of the biodiversity.
2.) Reproduction – that traits that every organism get from their parents’
changes over time. As it continues to change, it exhibits new
characteristics. Say for instance, both the grandparents of your dad are
tall but your dad is short. This happens because the traits inherited
changed through time.

Evolution is a process. A process always involves a sequence of events. This

sequence events leads us back to the phenomena behind the theory of evolution.

1. Natural Selection. As organisms we naturally select our habitat with our

given traits. In this natural instinct to select, we are assured to live and
reproduce. But anything in the environment can change.
 2. Survival. If change happens on the environment, the instinct for us is to
survive. Sometimes survival requires for us to develop a habit, a trait, or a
skill. That is the reason why civilization was birth on humans.
3. Adaptation. When we are used to our survival ways, we adapt it as if it is
inherent to us. The best example will be this pandemic crisis that we
experienced. Now we have to get use to make our home, our school as if
we have done it before. Adaptation only happens when the organism is not
trying anymore to do but is actually doing it in comfort.

Human Civilization Through Time

Civilization refers to the total progress made by man throughout spheres of

life.
1.Cave Man – humans live in cave and lived through hunting.
2.Stone Age – humans hunt through spheres made of sharpened stones
3.Fire Age – humans learned to create fire and cook their food through fire
4.Nomads – due to changing climates and food shortage, humans learned to
travel by families in look out for foods
5. Tribe – humans learned to dwell in villages, have a home and become a
member of a tribe
6. Government – humans learned to defend their tribes and conquer other
tribes to widen their territories
7. Trade – humans learned to barter their goods of same value
8. Customs and traditions – humans developed different customs and
traditions that symbolizes their own kingdom
9. Education – humans realized the importance of learning and learning from
a mentor
10. Sense of Ownership – humans learned to acquire more for himself and to
protect his right on what he owned
11. Science & Technology – humans learned to invent and publish ideas for
the benefit of the whole humankind
B. Human Values and Environmental Problems
Intended Learning Outcome:
1. Describe sustainability in the context of progress in human well-being

Introduction:

The biggest responsibility the human has received from the beginning of its
existence is to take care of the environment – that includes every living organisms
and non-living things. But the biggest responsibility is often challenged with more
with the instinct of humans to find ways of a more comfortable setting of life. The
desire to live is free to all living things but the desire to live comfortably is in every
human to the point that we forget our first responsibility to take care of our
environment. Let us take a closer look to what we did with our planet – Earth.
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Preliminary Questions:
What have humans been doing to the Earth?

I. PREPARATION
If you have to describe in one word your scariest experience of a natural
calamity, what would that be? Write that word in a white bond paper with a font
that describes the feeling that you have when you experienced that calamity.

II. PRESENTATION
With the fast advancement of technologies and science, humans have made
a world defined by their existence on the planet earth. Does improving our life
costs us our environment?
Common Problems that our Environment Suffers:
1. Pollution – this refers to excretion of waste to a point that the environment
could not recuperate back to its original setting and slowly by slowly, the
environment is reset to unproductive state.

Kinds of Pollution:
A. Air Pollution – this is caused mainly by too much excretion of waste to
the atmosphere that destabilize the temperature and acidity of the air.
Air pollutants can be carbon-containing compounds and chlorofluoro-
containing compounds. On minimal amount this can be oxidized and
converted to a more neutral gas, but too much production of it with the
slow process of oxidizing it in the atmosphere will cause the
temperature to rise and when it combines with water molecules, this
will turn to acid rain.
B. Water Pollution – this is due to too much damping of liquid waste of
water resources that disturbs the ecosystem in the water. Since water
is considered as the universal solvent, liquid waste could easily be
dissolved in the water, and due to its liquid state, the waste materials
can contaminate fastly on other water resources.
C. Land pollution – pollutants in land forms comes in two kinds: 1) solid
waste – garbage left by domestic households and non-domestic
buildings; and 2) chemical waste – this can be an added synthetic
chemical for solutions or waste product from industrial companies that
alters soil acidity and soil nutrients.
D. Noise Pollution – this is caused by loud noises that disrupts the stability
of life in an area. Animals are sound sensitive and so as, plants. Some
studies suggest that too much exposure to loud noises can trigger a
downward reaction of some cells causing it to lose fluids more and too
much exposure could cause dehydration. Aside from that, the ear
system can only accommodate a certain amount of decibels, other than
that can affect our behaviors and can eventually damage our eardrums.

2. Urbanization – refers to turning of lands into residential area or urban area.

Through urbanization, buildings are constructed and highways and roads
leaving the whole ecosystem imbalanced. Either the land area is an
 agricultural land or in lowlands, urbanization has always posed a threat to
the environment.

3. Industrialization – this is the process of converting lands for industrial

purposes such as companies and production centers.

Effects of the Problems:

1. Global Warming – this is a worldwide phenomenon where in the whole
earth suffers to warmer temperature resulting to melting of ice regions and
rising of seawater level. The abrupt melting of the ice regions causes a
great temperature change in the ocean and also the atmosphere. When
there is changes of atmospheric temperatures, one can expect typhoons,
hurricanes, snows and heavy rainfall in months where they are least
expected. The warmth that envelopes the whole earth destabilize the flow
of air currents in the whole world causing an abrupt weather changes.

2. Climate Change – is an alteration of the distribution of weather patterns.

For tropical regions, instead of experiencing both wet and dry seasons,
some parts have experienced long wet season due to climate change. Long
alteration of the weather patterns affects greatly the patterns of the plant
and animals in terms of vegetative and productive stages. When disruption
happens in greater scale, extinction could not be prevented.

3. Ozone Depletion – the ozone is the protective cover of the troposphere

region of the earth from the UV rays coming from the sun. Due to warm
temperature and large amount of gases needed to be oxidized in the
atmosphere, ozone, which is composed primarily of oxygen, reacts with the
carbon and chlorofluoro compounds in the atmosphere. When this happens
in faster rates of reaction, it will leave the ozone layer a big hole allowing
more UV rays to enter in the troposphere region which eventually causes
disease triggered with too much absorption of UV rays.

4. Destruction/ Disturbance of Ecosystem and Biodiversity – change will

always disrupt the ecosystem but long changes will not facilitate the natural
adaptation process of some organisms and this will imbalance the
availability of food and population of the organism living in a specific area.
When this happens, destruction is inevitable at all costs. Animals will have
food they never had before, plants will have to form certain characteristic
 not exhibited before. Imbalances would always lead to a survival of the
fittest battle among organisms.

5. Mutation of Pests and Diseases – since plants and animals have been
introduced to different eating patterns and vegetation procedures to ensure
survival, pests and diseases mutate over time. Pests will develop tolerance
to certain pesticides, making the humans create more pesticide with higher
concentration of synthetic toxins. Since all food sources are exposed to
management of food products that will ensure long shelf-life, diseases from
toxins of these materials will soon developed.

6. Depletion of Minerals and Soil Nutrients – exposure of different synthetic

chemicals can cause our soil to react. This will result to high decomposition
of minerals or rocks and high acidity among agricultural soils. Acidic soils
could never produce crops, and brittleness of minerals and rocks might lead
to natural disasters such as soil erosion, rock fall-outs and abnormal
behavior of trenches causing earthquakes and sudden volcanic eruption.
B.1 Environmental Laws of the Philippines

I. PREPARATION
Watch the movie from Disney entitled “The Lorax.” Enumerate the wonders
that Thneedville has. Describe the place outside the city of Thneedville.

II. PRESENTATION
As much as we have the right, we have also responsibilities that came with
our rights. Both rights and responsibilities are crafted to laws in order to create a
system within our communities. If we have the right to live, then we have the
responsibility to sustain what made our life possible.

Environmental Laws of the Philippines

1. P.D. 1151 – Philippine Environmental policy

• General policies on the pursuit of a better quality of life for the
present and future generations.
• Orders the undertaking of the environmental impact assessment for
all projects.
2. P.D. 1152 – Philippine Environment Code
• Promotes a comprehensive national program of environmental
protection and management
• Promotes policies and strategies for environmental management
3. P.D. 1219 – Providing the Protection of Coral Ecosystems
• Promote and regulation of the exploration, exploitation, utilization
and conservation of coral resources within territorial waters
4. RA 8749 – Clean Air Act of 1999
• Comprehensive air quality management policy and program whose
purpose is to achieve and maintain healthy air for all Filipinos
• Design of different air sheds all throughout the region
• Conduct of information drives regarding air pollution management
5. RA 9275 – Clean Water Act
• Comprehensive quality water management hat aims to protect the
country’s water bodies from pollution caused by land-based sources
• Comprehensive and integrated strategy to avoid and reduce
pollution through multi-sectoral and participatory approach
• Prohibits the discharging or depositing any water pollutant to the
water body
6. RA 6969 – Toxic Substances and Hazardous and Nuclear Wastes Control
Act of 1990
• Establish a program to regulate, restrict or prohibit the importation,
manufacture, processing, sale, destruction, use and disposal of
chemical substances, and mixture that present unreasonable risk
and/or injury to health or the environment
7. RA 9003 – the Ecological Solid Waste Management Act of 2000
• Segregation of waste, ecological solid waste management
program
• Utilize environmentally-sound methods that maximize the
utilization of valuable resources and encourage resource
conservation and recovery
8. RA 9729 – The Climate Change Act of 2009
• Mainstreaming climate change into government policy formulations,
establishing he framework strategy and program on climate change
• Aims to systematically incorporate the concept of climate change in
the policy formulation and development plans of all government
agencies and units
9. RA 8550 – The Fisheries Code of the Philippines
• Policies of the state in the protection, conservation and effective
management of fisheries stock as well as identifying permissible
fishing methods in Philippine coastal waters
C. An Overall Plan for Sustainable Living
Intended Learning Outcome:
1. Describe sustainability in the context of progress in human well-being

Introduction:
In every depreciating event, there are two things to do: repair what’s been
damage and sustain what’s left. Change is possible when we can sustain what’s
left and slowly repair what had been damaged. Since the repair would take long,
plans to make everything sustainable must be the priority. Let us together discover
how we can sustain our residence here on earth?
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Preliminary Questions:
What does it take have a sustainable home?

I. PREPARATION
Submit your artistic definition of SUSTAINABLE.

II. PRESENTATION
Sustainable development is the new thing in the fight for environmental
battles. Why? Because sustainable development is the only way that would
permit ecosystem and biodiversity to be sustained. It is an attempt to resolve or
establish a balance among economic, social and economic issue in the
framework of consultation and participation platforms.

Components of Sustainable Development

1. Economic Approach – maximizing the income while maintaining constant
or increasing stocks of capital
2. Ecological Approach – maintaining the resilience and robustness of
biological and physical systems
3. Socio-cultural Approach – preserving the stability of social and cultural
systems
Priority Areas in the Philippines towards Sustainable Development
1. Eradicating Poverty
Poor people felt more heavily the effects of environmental degradation,
thereby motivating them into environmentally destructive activities in the
upland and coastal areas.
2. Managing Globalization
Involves both education and governance as implementing bodies to ensure
global standard of economy and competitive workers in the world markets
3. Achieving Social Equity
Can be attained only when social and human capitals are equally
considered. Attaining social harmony happens when individual needs are
satisfied.
4. Securing Peace and Solidarity
Solidarity is achievable when there is peace and solidarity alongside a just
economic-political structure and culture of tolerance.
5. Maintaining Ecological Integrity
Ecological integrity is maintained when proper enforcement and sustained
implementation of policies and pertinent laws and programs.
6. Empowerment and Good Governance
People empowerment means collaboration and cooperation in the
community’s programs and pursuit of sustainable development. It is the
basis of good governance.