By Rex Catubig

 

WE are witnessing how, in record time and biblical proportion, dikes and rivers overflowed, copious rains fell within a short period, and lo and behold, the country drowned in flood water and unending hearings. Yet these occurrences could not have been generated by ignominious corruption alone nor precluded by even the most advanced DPWH and PAGASA intervention.

If we have to find fault, we have to take to task primarily the schizophrenic DENR which disallows cutting a tree in your yard yet turns a blind eye on the massacre of trees with impunity. It behooves us to take a long, hard look at the unrelenting desecration of our forests and mountain covers, of illegal logging, land development that ignores and defies the natural order, of the arrogance of uncontrolled mining and quarrying, the man-caused silting of rivers and blockage of waterways.

On the most basic level, we also must look at how we deal with our own ecological habits, in the way we dispose of our trash and waste, how we treat our immediate environment—our yards, our streets, the places we frequent.

One iconic and unflattering image we have of ourselves is that of clearing our throat or our mouth and spitting out the gross secretions; of urinating anywhere where the dog’s urge takes us.

Just take that one action, small and rather insignificant, but that action soon escalates and piles up and becomes a full-blown nuisance and ecological nemesis—that subsequently, without our noticing it, damages the ecosystem and triggers all these environmental calamities.

Yes, these seemingly innocuous habits do not cause typhoons, storm surges, flash flooding, and inundation. Still, we cannot pin the blame squarely on engineering ineptitude and incompetence. For we, too, are to blame.

I am not science savvy, but admittedly, the warming of the ocean—as part of the greenhouse effect where the earth is getting warmer—is what causes the atmosphere to go crazy, whips those horrendous and destructive typhoons and seeds the cloud to release tons of water, while on the other end of the spectrum,  drought becomes the order of the day.

We cannot deny our contribution to this scenario. While largely a natural cycle, the greenhouse phenomenon that adds fuel to the fire is the result of man’s actions. “Human activities like burning fossil fuels for energy and transportation, deforestation, industrial processes, and agriculture release these gases, trapping heat and causing the planet to warm”.

And we can see now that as our mother earth warms, it unleashes the prototypical mayhem from the dreadful Pandora’s box. Which our brilliantly shrewd and wily politicians, engineers, and contractors have made more menacing to the tune of billions.

Sadly, we have to acquire hard-earned lessons by the cruel route of devastation and at the expense of lives offered unscrupulously in the ungodly altar of greed.

We must always bear in mind that, as environmental activist Xiao Chua pointed out: “Nature has a memory. Hills remember what we clear. Rivers remember what we block. And water will always find its way home…”

And woe, if, because of insubordination to the natural order born of our stubbornness, our homes, our communities, get in the way. Nature will force its way and hurl its wrath, galloping ruthlessly like a thousand horsemen of apocalypse and lay to waste everything in its wake.

(Photos taken from DCIO)