Thursday, April 26, 2007 Wenceslao: Unbearable heat By Bong O. Wenceslao Candid Thoughts
I DON’T know whether these days are the hottest in the country or not, but sunlight is indeed biting. My wife and I go to work around 2 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays and ride on passenger utility jeepneys. We therefore have the ability to compare the intensity of the heat we have to endure from day to day. The level of our sacrifice has been up lately.
We may just have been lucky that we live in a suburban area in Minglanilla. Although the bushes near our house are getting sparse and turning brown, the breeze is still a bit cool. The leaves of the mansanitas that provided shade in our yard are still green. Walking under the heat of the sun, however, is a different matter altogether.
The situation is not the same in congested areas like in Sitio Kawayan where I grew up. My mother Juling has complained of the heat, which has aggravated her asthma. Everywhere, we have been hearing complaints of the hot weather. Pag-asa, though, said the high temperature we are experiencing can’t be attributed to global warming---yet.
Global warming, of course, has been the topic of environmentalists the past few decades. Scientists have talked about its advent because of our reckless ways. Burning of coal and oil, deforestation, etc. have sparked the greenhouse effect, or global warming. That in turn has effected climatic changes and brought calamities to many areas.
Pag-asa has noted that last Tuesday’s temperature was the highest so far this year, reaching to 36.6 degrees Celsius. The highest temperature in history for the country, though, was recorded in Tuguegarao, Cagayan in 1969 at 42.2 degrees Celsius. That, though, is no consolation because even at 36.6 degrees Celsius, sunlight is biting.
This is what makes the situation worrisome. If the heat is almost unbearable even at present levels, how much more when the temperature breaches the 1969 Cagayan level? That is the problem with us, we act only when nature finally exacts revenge. May the discomfort, then, spark in us an awareness of environmental degradation.
TEXTREAX. I have been turning over to Text View lately the text message reactions and other issues raised by the readers of this column. I have decided, however, to use these text messages, plus my reactions, in my Friday columns soon. That is, if I have enough of them to complete a full-length article.
(khanwens@yahoo.com / 0915-9228651 / my blog: cebuano.wordpress.com)
