WHAT this country needs are young men with new ideas. The problem lies on the fact that they have to fight for it otherwise the idea dies with the enthusiasm.
Author William Barkley observed that the idea that “something always has been done this way” (in our words, mao may naandan) stifles all attempts to improve.
Barkley contested: “Just because something has never been done this way may very well be the best reason for trying it.”
The author cited two occasions to prove his point. “The Church branded Galileo a heretic when he taught that the earth moved around the sun. Lister had to fight the old-line doctors to prove his antiseptic technique, which is standard today in all operations.”
There were several suggestions from different sectors on how to address global warming. Some were heeded, some were ignored. Those who ignored are the same group of people who just continue to do their thing… walang pakialam.
Laudato Si (Praise Be the Lord), the Papal encyclical on Climate Change, should test people’s concern for nature and justice toward the poor. As Pope Francis puts it, these two issues are interrelated. I got his point as the poor are the ones greatly affected by floods, drought, storm surge and other calamities.
In citing ecological concerns the pontiff mentioned the interrelation of all things created… the sense of existence of men and nature.
Bert Balling must be an environmentalist in his own right when he cited an American Indian chief who said: “The fragrant flowers are our sisters, the deer, the horse, the eagle—are our brothers. The mountain and cliffs, the fields and meadows, the warmth of a person’s or a pony’s body—all these things belong to the same family.”
I surely agree with the Indian chieftain since the air the trees and the animals breathe is the same air that I live on. Imagine a world without the other living things.
We destroy nature because of all these things that we want… things that we leave behind when we leave this world. The best legacy is to give the next generation a clean environment not things that break, rot or melt.