Young Roots
When nature strikes back
By Kristopher Pariño
WE have not been kind to nature.
Our list of abuses is long. We are now living in an environment that is drastically changing. And it’s changing for the worse, not for the better. We have not been using our natural resources well. Nature is deteriorating.
According to data from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, we now only have 20% left of our country’s forests reserve. That is far less than what we need, which is at least 54% to maintain balance in our ecosystem. We are a nation that is blessed with rich natural resources, but we have not taken good care of it. We cut trees and mostly never replace these. One glaring evidence of this is how it now easily floods. Rainwater flows out freely on land because there are no enough trees to hold the waters. When rain pours down, nature strikes back.
In the last quarter of 2009, two strong typhoons hit the land. Typhoon Ondoy devastated Metro Manila and its neighboring areas with such unexpected fury. Typhoon Pepeng followed a few weeks later. This time, it went through Northern Luzon and unleashed its wrath on Pangasinan, Mountain Province, Benguet, Nueva Ecija and its extended provinces leaving millions of losses in agriculture and infrastructures because of floods that were almost as high as the roofs of houses. In Benguet, landslides killed families sleeping in the middle of the night.
It is now 2010. It’s a new decade, and it’s a new chance for us to make amends with Mother Nature. Let’s love our environment. Conserve our resources.
The government must demonstrate stronger political will in implementing environmental laws. This means curbing illegal activities that hurt our forests and, especially here in Pangasinan, our aquatic resources. The community must work together with our local officials on this big task.
We keep hearing about climate change and sometimes we don’t want to listen because it is, as Al Gore pointed out, an inconvenient truth for us. But we must remember: nature will thrive even without man, but man without nature will be nothing. When nature strikes back, it is partly our own making.
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