Deforestation in the Philippines

1) Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land thereafter is converted to a non-forest use. Examples include conversion of forestland to farmland or urban areas. Deforestation in the Philippines is a major issue. 

2) In the Philippines deforestation is a major issue, from the 20th century to know the forest cover for dropped from 70% to 20% which is a very big decrease. The environmental impact on animals is a huge one as well as for 46 species have become endangered and 4 species have gone extinct. There is only 3.2% of a rainforest has been left. The government regularly granted logging concessions of less than ten years. Since it takes 30–35 years for a second-growth forest to mature, loggers had no intention to replant trees,  40 percent of the harvestable lumber never left the forests because they were damaged in the logging process, rotted or are burned in place. The unsurprising result of these and related policies is that out of 17 million hectares of closed forests that flourished early in the century only 1.2 million remain today.

3) I think that deforestation is a bigger threat in my country then in Canada because although it may not be as big as Canada the Philippines have mostly islands that too tropical rainforests so if trees are being cut down then sooner or later there will be no more left and , and the plants animals and people will be at risk. 

Plate Tectonics

Here is an image of the plate tectonics in the world , my country is in the right side the little green Philippine plate. 

In this picture the diagrams help show what boundaries are near the plate in the country. You mostly see blue which is the subduction zone and there is the divergent, convergent and transform boundaries which altogether make up the same amount of space around , as much as the suduction zone takes up by itself. The movement of the plate is about 80mm a year, and is in motion today increasing the likelihood of earthquakes and tsunamis. The thickness of the plate is about 29-41 km around the Nankai trough. 











                                                             The Philippine Sea plate originated lower than the equator about 55 million years ago and was followed by several tectonic events resulting in its present day location, it was a change in the movement, to a westward motion, of the Pacific plate that has converted the N-S transform fault on the Philippine Sea plate to the subduction zone currently present along the boundary between these two plates. 

Climates and Climate Controls

1) The different climate controls that impact the Philippines are more intense El Nino, this is when the surface of ocean waters in the Pacific become warmer. The energy caused by this is so strong that it can cause an imbalance in the weather in different parts of the world. Another thing is sea temperatures rising by 1 to 4 degrees celsius this can cause more powerful storms as for they are caused by warmer waters. In the Philippines however the temperatures are slowly rising to 4 and 5 degrees celsius at times. When it gets this warm it kills coral reefs which can eventually lead to a decline in fish. Ocean acidification in pH levels can also lead to coral reefs dying. Lastly another thing is more intense hurricanes. This will be caused because rainfall, river flow and flooding will increase enormously overtime as it already is.

2)Here are the average temperatures and precipitation in some of the major cities.

Regional differences in precipitation and temperature Climate figures for cities  in the Philippines
Cities	Average temperatures in °C		Average precipitation in cm
	January	July	January	July	year
Manila, Luzon	26	27	2	40	197
Tacloban, Leyte	26	27	28	16	238
Tagbilaran, Bohol	26	28	12	13	143

3)

AVERAGE MINIMUM AND MAXIMUM TEMPERATURE OVER THE YEAR

The monthly mean minimum and maximum daily temperature. Show in Fahrenheit »

• The months January and December have a nice average temperature.
• -On average, the temperatures are always high.
• -A lot of rain (rainy season) falls in the months: May, June, July, August, September, October and November.
• -Manila has dry periods in January, February, March and April.
• -On average, the warmest month is May.
• -On average, the coolest month is December.
• -August is the wettest month.
• -February is the driest month.

Bohol Earthquake

1) An earthquake that has occurred in the Philippines is the the Bohol earthquake in 2013. Known as one of the deadliest earthquakes to ever have happened in the country of a magnitude of 7.2 killing more than 150 people and destroying century old churches and affecting more then 3 million families in Central Visayas.

2)This was a shallow earthquake, cause by the reverse faulting.

3)This was a dip -slip or reverse fault earthquake. It might have occurred because of a previously undiscovered fault line, transecting Bohol and running parallel to the islands through the north west coast.

4) The Richter scale magnitude of the earthquake was 7.2

5) The impact on the biosphere was a big one because more then 3 million people were affected by the earthquake, and it had damaged many of the heritage churches an estimated $1.1 billion dollars to repair. Affected many peoples houses and the hospitals.

b) The lithosphere was impacted with cracked roads to broken bridges,and massive landslides occurring after. Trees fallen down and people and animals with no where to go.

c) The economic impact was tremendous with lots of things to fix and needing money in order to do so.

d) The impact on the infastructure was major cracks in roads like seen in the picture below, and broken bridges.

Waste Management

In the Philippines the way they dispose of wastes are by:

• Municipal solid waste (MSW)
• Industrial waste
• Hazardous waste
• Healthcare waste
• E-waste
• Waste plastics
• Organic waste
• Waste agricultural biomass (WAB)

The Philippines do not use landfills but instead they use the trash and try to generate that into energy windfall. Some villages in the Philippines have laws where they must  construct a recycling center, separate garbage, create a village composting system, and collect different types of waste separately. Open burning and uncontrolled dump sites are not allowed and are illegal.

I think that the Philippines have a very good idea and technique of transforming garbage and wastes into energy however, I think that in order to improve they should find a more tidier way to make this transformation as for we see in the picture above it looks like a landfill almost and very messy.

Climate Change in the Philippines

The Philippines will always be one of the most vulnerable countries to impact climate change because of it’s limited resources. Because there are many floods and droughts throughout there are serious negative impacts on the country that will affect more and more as the years go by, and there will be many people having very minimal amounts of water(hydrosphere) to use. The hydrosphere is the most impacted but the biosphere is impacted along with it because without water there will be no crops to grow or water for the people to drink. With over 98 million people and an archipelago of over 7, 100 islands the Philippines is known as the country that will be impacted  the most from climate change.                                              

Climate Change Impacts on the Philippines .

-There is an increase on annual maximum and minimum temperatures by 0.14°C

- There is an increase on landslides and floods

-On average 20 cyclones cross through the Philippines

-Decrease of rice yield

-Sea surfaces temperatures will rise

-the pH levels in the oceans will increase and lead to coral reef death

- Because of the imbalance, shrimps are not able to develop skins, oysters cannot develop shells. Fish larvae may not be able to develop bones.

-Sea levels will rise 4 to 6 meters

-Tropical cyclones to intensify

-Rainfall, river flow and flooding will also increase

Here

is a picture of the different parts of the Philippines that will be impacted with climate change like landslides, erosion's, and floods

Typhoon Hagupit

1)The typhoon Hagupit occurred in the Philippines in late 2014 it was the most intense tropical storm of that year, it killed nearly 18 people and caused $114 million dollars in damages.
2) The storm took twelve days to make its way to the Philippines, the highest winds were 215 km/hr to 285 km/hr, and the lowest pressure was 905mbar. This storm affected the Philippines, Caroline Islands, Palau, and Vietnam.
3)This storm affected people because there was $114 million dollars worth of damage throughout the country, lots of people lost there homes, broken electrical posts, mowed down trees, people had to evacuate there homes in advance and had to leave many things behind.

Air Masses, Global Winds, and Types of Rain

1) In the Philippines the most dominant air mass that impacts the country is typhoons.
2) In the Philippines there is always many wind warnings resulting in typhoons nearly eight to ten each year.
3)In the summer monsoon months there is heavy rain to most of the archipelago, monsoon rains are heavy but do not result in high winds and waves.

5 Themes of the Environment Part B

5 Themes for the Philippines 

Location-

Absolute: The capital of the Philippines is Manila, and it is located 14.5833 degrees longitude and 121.0000 degrees latitude 

Relative: The Philippines is located in South-East Asia which is west of the Pacific Ocean and is surrounded by Vietnam, Indonesia and Taiwan.

Human-Envioronment Interaction-

One of the greatest resources the Philippines has is water. There is a lot of marine life and materials that are useful to the people. They also have about 21.5 billion metric tons of metal that they can use on there land. 

Movement-

Philippines is involved with movement in a lot of way one being a big exporter for other countries, this included exporting goods like, electronic products, textile fabrics, iron and steel, grains, plastic, chemicals and more. Along with that they import many goods in return like, copper products, coconut oil and fruits, garments, petroleum products and electronic products. 

Region-

The Philippines is located in South-East Asia the countries in this region are located near the equator which keeps them warm and humid all year long. 

Place-

The Philippines has mostly mountains with narrow coastal land. The climate is always very hot and humid. 

4 Spheres of the Enviornment

1) On December 1st 2014 the typhoon Hagupit also known as typhoon Ruby became the most intense tropical storm, with high winds of 287 km/hr and lasting 12 days. The storm affected the Caroline Islands, Palau, Vietnam and the Philippines. There was a total damage of $114 million(USD) with 18 dead and 916 injured. 
2)The hydrosphere is involved because it was a hurricane and most of the damage was caused by the water. The biosphere is involved because of the people, buildings, houses, plants on land all impacted by the storm. The lithosphere is affected because of the erosion caused by the storm. Lastly the atmosphere is involved because it is the main cause of the hurricane. 
3) The different spheres are interacting with one another by the atmosphere is affecting the lithosphere after it occurs which form with the hydrosphere and then impacts the biosphere and environment after it hits the land. 

Phillipines

2)The Phillipines is located in Asia
3) The capital city is Manila
4) The size of the Phillipines is 300,000 square kilometers
5) The population is 100,617,630
6) The type of government in the Phillipines is Unitary Presidential Constitutional Republic