Slowly and Surely

September 10, 2007

Putting things in the right perspective.

Sometime back, a few days after I wrote my latest essay on the environment, Living In It, Living On It, a friend asked me where I get my ideas. I was about to answer the newspapers, TV, internet... basically media. Then again, I re-thought my answer and a more appropriate response came into mind. I know I got the answer subconsciously from this source first hand. It is just unfortunate that a few of us will ever realize this without being told.

Around you and me.

That was my answer. Look outside the window and the answer is right smack in your face. Millions of tons of garbage, toxic sludge, and air pollutants are dumped into the environment as if it was a giant toilet. Even the posh business district of Makati is not spared. Bring me to an avenue where there is no litter and I’ll hand my next pay…slip (just the payslip, haha!) This is no laughing matter though. To put it in the gravest manner possible, let me tell you something, though, chances are you know this already. The environment is dying. And with it, we are. And the generations after us are no less spared.

Have you ever wondered why the water-refilling business is a big hit today? There are probably as much water-refilling stations in the Metropolis as there are internet cafes. Those who know capitalize on the current state of the environment. We are running out of clean, potable water… good business prospective huh?

What is more regrettable is that we already know the fact that our waters are unclean. We buy bottled water and have treated water regularly delivered to our homes. Yet, we ourselves are the culprit, the cause why water has become so filthy. I daresay that there is no river that runs through the Metropolis where you can catch a fish you will eat yourself. If you even catch one (that doesn't have two heads, arms or wings with fluffy feathers). Dare! I bet my payslip on this too!

At least some people are agreeing that we have to do something about what’s happening. Recently the APEC leaders came up with the Sydney Declaration on Climate Change. This is a non-binding agreement where the leaders acknowledged, as the Australian PM noted, “the need for a long-term aspirational global emissions reduction” and “the need for all nations, no matter what their stage of development, to contribute according to their own capacities and their own circumstances to reducing greenhouse gases." Tell that to the big bigots that is your government and the US! 172 countries signed the Kyoto Protocol and nowhere in that list is the US and Australia.

Agreeing is one thing. But acting on it is another. Scientists have determined that the amount of greenhouse gases has already reached levels enough to delay the next Ice Age. The Ice Age, FYI, is a cyclic phenomenon that occurs every 100,000 years. At the rate we’re puffing up smoke into the atmosphere, we’ve already delayed it some 500,000 years lang naman. This is good if you don’t want to see Wooly Mammoths rampaging along Ayala Avenue or what’s left of it. Agreeing is good. It’s a step forward. But if we don’t act on it soon, it may be too late.

Other doomsayers suggest that because of global warming, polar ice caps could melt and the sea level could rise a few meters above current levels. If that happens then coastal areas would be completely submerged in seawater. Living in Las Piñas, my bed would be crawling with barnacles and the floating garbage of Manila Bay by then. Ten, twenty years from now, if one asks “how many islands are there in the Philippines?” you could be answering, “Low tide - 7107 islands, high tide – 710.7”.

Whatever doomsday scenario these scientists say will hold true, the fact is we’re headed for one thing. DOOM. That is, if we don’t act. Right now, whether it is global warming, relentless water pollution or unabated solid waste production, WE HAVE A PROBLEM, PEOPLE!! And consider this, with the amount of toxic chemicals in the air, water or earth that could most likely exist in the near future, the probability of an unborn child having cancer prior birth could be commonplace.

We are killing the environment. And with that, we are killing ourselves, slowly and surely. The air we breath, the water we drink and the food we take could already be contaminated with toxins. Unless you want to be a Mutant Ninja Turtle, we should put an end to this. It’s not just your life in the line. It’s the life after this generation, and the next, and the next after that. The farther you go down the line, the gloomier the scenario is.

If I were able to invent anything, it would be a time travel machine. I’ll bring anyone willing to the future, say 100 years from now, and I bet, what you’ll see will scare the hell out of you.