LET US HEED TO THE CLAMOR OF THE VOICES OF THE WOMEN OF THE EARTH

By Dominador Agbayani

Miss Earth Beauty Pageant has become more relevant after a harrowing and catastrophic event occurred in the Philippines recently. It is very ironic that the Miss Earth Beauty Pageant originated from the Philippines and yet with its eleven years of existence, administration officials seemed to have not been moved by the advocacies of the pageant. It seemed the pageant is just paying lip service to these advocacies and the real thrust of it is tourism. Although, the environmental advocacies run hand in hand with its tourism thrust, it seems the former is being left out in trying to create greater awareness. It would seem that a disaster of cataclysmic proportion would have to occur before anyone would move from their complacency. With the way things are going Miss Earth would still just be a voice – a haunting voice to awaken the slumbering officials to move in the direction of nature’s preservation and protection. As of now, we can see that the Miss Earth Organization is helping in the relief efforts for what had happened in Southern Philippines recently.

The catastrophe that the Philippines went through is a combination of a strong typhoon that dumped so much rain and inundated the lowlands. It came with mud and killed a lot of inhabitants. Two things are so glaring here. First, although typhoons occur during the December months in the Philippines, it is such a rarity. More so, typhoons in Northern Mindanao are very infrequent and sometimes nil. This they say is attributed to climate change. Climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns over periods ranging from decades to millions of years. It may be a change in average weather conditions or the distribution of events around that average (e.g., more or fewer extreme weather events). Second, the sudden rush of water that carried with it the topsoil and mud to the lowlands is attributed to the denudation of forest cover in the area. There are very few trees to absorb the volume of water that the typhoon had dumped into the place. Which brings us to the question, what mitigating measures have been done by the affected places in trying to curve the effects of climate change? Are there measures being done to preserve and protect the environment?

In an article by Mike Banos entitled “Cagayan de Oro should move further developments to higher ground”, recommendations on further development of the city were made. Foremost is to increase the forest cover area, meaning, a massive reforestation is suggested and waste water management so as not to contaminate groundwater which is a source of drinking water. It was noted by researchers from the University of the Philippines National Institute of Geological Sciences that floods have become more frequent and higher, in large part due to the 2000 hectares forest cover from its watershed which were converted to agriculture and other uses and never replaced. As a result, riverside areas suffer from poor water retention and contribute to the high sediment loads of rivers, constricting waterways and shallow river mouths. With these recommendations in the past, had there been efforts with the administration to answer these problems? From the looks of what had happened recently, there was none. Even rescue and relief efforts were wanting and the grim question to this reality is that where is Philippines going in its efforts to save the environment.

The problems confronting mother earth are real. It is not only occurring in the Philippines - it is worldwide. Let us heed to the clamor of the voices of the women of the earth.