Nowadays, whenever I hear the words “global warming” or “climate change” being used indiscriminately in conversations, I cringe with horror and dismay. Why? Because it seems like a lot of people know about it and yet, you get a “come what may” or a “so what about it” attitude.
I get it. People are too busy with their own private lives and cannot be bothered with anything as mundane as environmental issues. But alas!
The world is slowly deteriorating, literally dying, right before our eyes and, woefully, we have chosen to ignore all the warnings that it has manifested time and again.
Why should that concern us? Why can’t the government and other environmental agencies deal with it and fix the problem? Because, my lovelies, we are as much to blame for the havoc and destruction that will surely plague not just this generation (in fact, it has already started and had been particularly active for the last two generations) and is not expected to ease up even after the 2100s. You and I may not be alive by then, but our children’s children would be.
Do we even know what we are talking about? Global warming, as defined by Oxford Languages, is a gradual buildup of the earth’s temperature. This is caused by the excessive emission of carbons and pollutants into the earth atmosphere producing a greenhouse effect. Once the earth temperature becomes hot it can affect the weather and bring with it disaster upon natural disasters. This phenomenon is called climate change.
Believe me, even people breathing and cows belching are contributors to these toxic gases. Your car and all the jeepneys altogether burn fossil fuels which emit a large amount of carbon dioxide into the air. The excessive use of air conditioners and refrigerators adds to the depletion of the ozone layer. The ash and smoke from erupting volcanoes as well as smoke from forest fires all add up to global warming.
Another example: the Arctic caps will surely eventually melt, sending gazillions of ice water into the ocean and causing the water level to dramatically rise up. Water then comes gushing into mountains, rivers, waterways, dams, even the littlest streams back to the ocean. If just one of these exits (like our esteros) gets plugged up, guess what? You’ve got yourself a super flood! If you live in an area which is below sea level, you’ve got a hell of a problem. The hot atmosphere also breeds super typhoons, violent thunderstorms in the midst of summer, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, droughts, wildfires, and temperatures over 100F. Do you understand now what climate change is?
Then what should we do as 21st century humans? Okay, take that down to the bottom of the food chain (as in the littlest city in an under-developed and economically-disadvantaged country like ours).
Here are some suggestions:
• Stop mining our mountains and denuding our forests. Plant trees.
• Throwing any kind of garbage or debris into open waterways should be considered a punishable offense. A fine or jail time for violators must be mandatory.
• Small waterways, like esteros or canals, must be constantly dredged of garbage and debris by cleanup brigades (dedicated volunteers from barangays can help).
• Mandatory segregation of residential and commercial wastes into recyclables or non-recyclables.
• Encourage the use of paper or textile products instead of plastics. Plastic bags and containers should be reused and recycled, if possible.
• Regular pickup of garbage. The local government should provide each household with two trash containers – one for recyclables and the other for non-recyclables. No pickup for mixed garbage carelessly strewn about in front of houses.
• No informal settler will be allowed to live in, or near waterways.
• Strict implementation of emissions tests for all vehicles and factories.
• No real estate construction over reclaimed areas, like agricultural lands, will be permitted.
As I said, these are just suggestions. Much easier said than done. For a country largely composed of people wondering where they would get their next meal, advocating about the environment would definitely fall on deaf ears.
But if you are already practicing the above ideas, good for you! Don’t worry, you are not alone. We may not be the majority but our small steps can make the difference. And if we advocate enough, who knows how far we’ll reach? You can think of more noteworthy ones but it is important that we also police ourselves. It’s not too late to clean up our environment. If we can’t save our planet from dying, we can at least say with conviction that we tried. – NWI
