ANOTHER LOOK AT THE PLANET WE LIVE IN

By Alejandro Bustillos

I call the month of April the Earth month because on April 22nd marks the anniversary of the birth of the modern environmental movement in 1970. That was 42 years ago but saving the planet was never the cause for agitation among the young population. Almost all sectors of world life are on rampage on destroying the environment. There was a prelude to this movement. The movie Silent Spring which was shown in 1962 and that the main thesis of the writer was that the total control of nature was conceived in arrogance. There was an increased public awareness of what would happen to the environment and public health with pollution and destruction. In 1973, another film came out and entitled Soylent Green. It is an American science fiction film which depicts the investigation into the murders of a wealthy businessman in a dystopian future suffering from pollution, overpopulation, depleted resources, poverty, dying oceans and a hot climate due to the greenhouse effect. The population survived on processed food rations including “soylent green.” More than 4 decades after, these films seemed to be prophetic as we travelled to the new century. Problems as perceived before are now the problems that are faced by the population in this present times. It is such mind-boggling to ask why man did not listen to himself when he himself prophesied that these things will happen today.

Every year thereafter, people on all walks of life go out on the streets and rally behind the preservation and conservation of mother earth. Countries come together and sign accords to decrease emissions of pollutants in the air. Countries zero-in on projects that would result to a sustainable effect on the preservation of Mother Nature. The alarm has been sounded and countries from different parts of the globe , be it a powerful and big country, be it a poor or third world country, have started to work on strategies to stave off the effect of global warming. Island countries most specially the small ones at risk of getting erased in the map of the world as the water level rise up. No one is safe. Everyone is at risk.

Even pageants have stressed the need to protect the earth. There is a Miss Earth Beauty Pageant that is geared towards creating more consciousness amongst the people in terms of environmental protection and preservation. In the Philippines alone, pageants sprouted with the title “Binibining Kalikasan” (Miss Nature) in their aim to create more awareness about the environment. Even other pageants have activities that are geared to protecting the environment. The Miss Tourism pageants are geared to promoting beautiful sites in the places where it is held especially China but in so doing, they highlight that the beauty of these places cannot be fully appreciated without protecting and preserving the beauty of nature and even the history that goes with the place.


The saga for the protection of our environment continues and it is a phenomenon that needed urgent response as every day we get to experience the effects of the destructive climate change. We would like you to share with us your experiences regarding climate change and how you responded to such. Let us help one another to build a better future for our children.

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.