ON JUNE 5, Friday, will be the World Environment Day (WED) 2015. With the theme: “Seven Billion Dreams. One Planet. Consume with Care,” we are reminded once more not to abuse our one and only Earth as weather anomalies now become worse and worse.
In Davao, the dry spell has relatively been kind to us; kinder than those in Cebu and many areas in Northern Mindanao. Still, farmers have suffered, and have to contend with crop losses again. While farmers suffer, many having to make do with so little while waiting for the dry spell to end, we waste a lot. We let food spoil, we do not plan our grocery lists and consumption capacity, we have no qualms about leaving food on our plates. Then the water that we use to water our gardens is the same water we drink, and we do not have any second thoughts about it.
WED 2015’s theme reminds us to consume with care; to realize that natural resources like water, food, and even healthy soil are not limitless. There are limits to how much we can abuse all these, and we are reaching those limits now.
Thus, we have this dry spell that has sent temperatures to unbelievable heights. Two decades ago, we thought 33 degrees Centigrade was the hottest temperature there can be. We’re wrong. Today, we expect cool clean water to come pouring the moment we turn on our faucet. We are wrong, for as long as we do not consume this with care, as well as ensure that the watersheds protecting our sources are not taken over by plantations and other activities that do not replenish the source.
Thus, as WED 2015, approaches, let us as one community rethink how we are consuming all that nature has gifted us, and realize that we have the capability to ensure that our children and grandchildren will still get the same. Otherwise, we deprive them of these gifts.
This is all about taking only what you need and wasting nothing because in the end, whatever it is we are wasting today, we are depriving the future of. Let it not be that the fresh, clean water coming out of our faucets, and the fresh vegetables that fill up Bankerohan be nothing but tales like those we heard our grandparents and parents tell that all started with, “Nung panahon namin (In our time)…”