Reviving Mother Nature

ORATORICAL PIECE
Reviving Mother Nature
I can feel the cool breeze touching my skin as I sit on the big rock, mesmerized by the greenest mountains, my heart is somersaulting by the beauty of the calm water stretching through the river. The chirping of the birds, the soft hush of the grass as it sways with the wind. This beautiful scenery makes me feel happy, finding peace in nature as the sun sets in the horizon. But these are just my illusions, and my senses are persistent in drifting me back into reality. And what reality is that? It’s the reality that our Mother Earth is dying.

We were born in this world completely provided with everything – food, air, water, natural resources and a beautiful nature that serves as our home. Our mother nature is like a cosy womb which provides us security, protection and nourishment. However, we never saw the real extent of how precious this planet is to us. We went out the world as a successful species but completely a failure as sons and daughters of Mother Earth. We people tend to destroy everything we have in nature. We are all after for our own comfort, not realizing the damage we cause to our Mother Nature. We always want to live an easy life, even if this means exploiting our resources.

Global warming is the major concern that we are facing right now. The continued rise in the global temperature will lead us again to another resulting factor, the climate change. There have been a lot of question if what really causing the climate change. Skeptics are voicing out their opinions, saying that it’s just due to natural variability, that Mother Earth has its own agenda in warming the earth. But I would certainly disagree to that. There is stronger evidence that most of the warming over the last 50 years is due to human activities. Ice cores taken from deep in ancient ice of Antarctica show that carbon dioxide levels are higher now than at any time in the past thousand years. This carbon dioxide plays the major role in warming the earth, thus creating climate change.

We humans are the main contributing factor in the destruction of our environment. It has been reported that it is more than 90 percent likely that the accelerated warming is due to human contributions. Such contributions include increased levels of greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide in the air. One of the biggest ways we contribute greenhouse gasses is by burning fossil fuels. We use coal, oil, and natural gas to generate electricity, heat our homes, power our factories, and run our cars.

Trees and other plants use carbon dioxide and give off oxygen, planting more of them can save us from our damnation. But nobody seemed to care. We are all aiming for globalization and modernization, turning lush green forests into industrial sites, building factories that destroy the environment and killing many animals. We brilliantly invented new materials but took so long to realize that they would in the future become non-biodegradable trash that would accumulate in the environment, we throw our trash everywhere and most of all, we do not value wildlife. Along with our success as a species came the extinction of many animals thus wreaking havoc on ecological system. What we are unaware of is that all of our abuses to the environment would affect us largely in the long run. Now friends, can you still say that it’s just a natural variability or a devastated Mother Earth taking its revenge? Just recently, we experienced a heavy downfall. Metro Manila and other parts of Luzon had been flooded heavily, destroying properties and killing number of individuals. We can hear our fellowmen crying for help and save them from adversities. It has been forecasted that we will be experiencing another El Nino as the summer approaches. We will expect more of this ladies and gentlemen, with the climate change, floods and drought would be more severe and frequent.

Change. This is the one we need to reverse all the consequences of our actions. Change in our attitude, personality, outlook and actions. This change should start within each of us. Be vigilant in what’s happening in our environment, take a stand and start caring and nursing our Mother Nature. It is the best time for us to plant more trees, stop illegal logging and other human activities that destroys our environment. Learn to sacrifice to lessen the use of fossil fuels and other chemicals that harm nature.

I am aware that there is no way for us to totally eradicate activities that affect the environment to some extent because that would mean that the human civilization would have to move backwards and embrace its primitive ways. I understand that modernization comes side by side with human advancement and progress. What I just want is for everybody to realize that along with this progress also comes our responsibility to protect our environment. Start now, act now, it’s not too late for my illusions and of the next generation’s dream turn into reality.

ELLAN GRACE NICER ABETONG