The Changing Act of the Climate

I was in grade school when I first experienced great floods where the entire municipality was submerged in chest-deep flood water. For us kids, it was just an ordinary phenomenon.

Truth is, we welcome it for we have had a big, crystal clear swimming pool in the neighborhood. We had fun swimming everyday and every minute for we thought floods will soon be gone.

But I was wrong – dead wrong. The floodwater which I thought was just a mere flashfloods was already creating havoc and inconveniences to the community. At the onset of the floods, fish cages and rice fields had already been destroyed and damage to properties were enormous.

Prices of commodities and transport fares had gone up. People got sick. And that was only on the first few days of being underwater. We practically transformed into boatpeople in our own little water world beyond Christmas. Since then, floods got deeper whenever it hits us and remain there for months.

And each time we’ve been underwater, nobody seem to care. People got used to it already as if no lessons were learned from the floods or calamities of greater height. I never heard of news item or someone from the government asked why things happen and what actions to be taken. We didn’t even discuss it in school. All I know then, floods come and go.

Unfortunately, we still disregard that Mother Nature is catching us up. We pay no attention that climate change and global warming is taking its toll. We do nothing to save our planet, yet, we contribute a lot to its destruction.

I know, however that we can do our part to pacify mother earth and suspend the fast changing act of the climate and restore its original and natural course. I know it will require a great deal of self sacrifice but we have to lift our feet to start that one little step to go a thousand miles forward. We have to do our share and act as steward of the earth to arrest and address the global problems confronting us.
If we can be pre-occupied watching the union of a political figure and broadcast personality all day, surely we can do more and find time to update ourselves with global warming and climate change issues.

One good start is to become a pro-active environment advocate. We have heard waste segregation, planting trees and more. We have a number of pro environment individuals like Sen. Loren Legarda to listen to. If we only heed her call to love and care for Mother Nature, we would not have experienced the wrath of twins Ondoy and Pepeng. We have non-government organizations or NGOs like Luntiang Pilipinas that is committed to the promotion of environmental protection and awareness of Filipinos. All we have to do is act now where we can fill in.

Good thing that the Climate Change Act of 2009 or Republic Act No. 9729 authored by Sen. Loren Legarda that would boost the Philippines’ capacity to brave threats posed by climate change has finally been signed.

The law provides the creation of the Climate Change Commission, an independent and autonomous policy-making body which would coordinate, monitor and evaluate programs and action plans to address climate change.

Kudos to Sen. Legarda, her advocacy on environmental protection paid off. It’s not too late to do our share.