A FEW weeks ago, I thought that I was dreaming when I woke up to the smell of brine, a cool breeze, and the soft splish-splashing of water. When I stepped out of my room half-asleep, I was dumbfounded. How in the world did the sea get into our house?
Experts came out with an explanation days later. The onslaught of typhoon “Pedring” was a taste of climate change.
According to the Department of Science and Technology (DOST), the stress that the human race has been shoving down the earth’s core, so to speak, has made inevitable and disadvantageous changes in its natural cycles. Now, the earth wants to retch.
Our world has grown tired and weary of its indifferent inhabitants and is finally putting its foot down. What we get for biting the hand that feeds us is nothing less than extreme.
DOST Undersecretary Graciano Yumul said in an article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the Filipino people must brace themselves for dry seasons that are drier and wet seasons that are wetter. He also said that what we considered abnormal, we must now consider normal.
Admit it or not, Al Gore was right. The inconvenient truth is that the earth is dying and one way or another, we have all helped pull the trigger. The amount of waste society accumulates in a day is enough proof—every candy wrapper thrown on the street, every cigarette lit, every drop of water that carelessly slips down the drain and every molecule of whatever vile substance that punctures the ozone layer and coats the atmosphere.
Due to our waste, temperatures are rising along with the earth’s water levels. Climates are out of whack, which makes disaster not so far away. Sometimes, the damage is not quantified by money, but by lives.
We have been warned about our careless carbon feet bringing in non-biodegradable footprints, but have we ever listened?
Others think that even if we act on it now, it is still too late. But this is what marks being human—the ability to hope, to respect life, and to act accordingly. We all have the innate drive to survive, but we cannot do this homeless.
The floods along España, the horrendous landslides, the periods of drought, and the overflow in coastal areas are but inklings of what is in store for us if the earth purges us. Every living thing acts out in defense if its existence is threatened.
We must keep in mind that although climate change is the reason behind these catastrophes, we are still the true culprits.
The funny thing is that we have been told this countless times before and it just goes in one ear and out the other. I, too, have been guilty of this and I have experienced the consequences first-hand.
I am accustomed to floods. After all, what Thomasian isn’t? But when ocean water creeps into your home and you live in the metro, you should know that something is terribly wrong…and believe me, we are no match for our great mother’s wrath now that her patience is nearing the brim.
