ARE we now living an apocalypse?
First, the Ondoy incident. Then came the Haiti disaster followed by the Chile earthquake with a tsunami scare, and the recently Turkey destruction. So what's next?
All these catastrophic occurrences led us to think that maybe the Mayans were up to something.
Could the world really be ending in 2012?
On September 26, 2009, freak Typhoon Ondoy (International name: Ketsana) took many lives and left Metro Manila crumbling to its feet.
A month's worth of rain poured down in six hours leaving Metro Manila flooded chest-deep. Hundreds were rendered homeless and approximately 25 provinces were put under a state of calamity.
January 12, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake flattened Haiti. Hundreds of thousands of bodies were buried in mass graves. Up to now, Port-au-prince is still undergoing relief operations because hundreds are still suffering from the damage wrought by the earthquake.
Chile dealt with the same fate. On February 28, a magnitude 8.8 earthquake hit the Maule Region of Chile leaving hundreds of establishments in rubble. According to Chilean authorities, over 400 people are said to have been killed.
As if the damage was not enough, a tsunami warning was raised.
Among the Pacific nations that faced a threat of a tsunami was the Philippines. Fortunately, our country was spared -- for now.
But this doesn't give us absolute assurance that we are forever spared from tsunami.
Another earthquake shook a part of the earth on March 8 scaring residents in Turkey. Again, many died and many lost their homes.
Are we going to wait for another catastrophe before we start doing something about it? Do we have to be struck by another earthquake before we start taking Global Warming seriously?
Do we have to be hit by another typhoon before we stop improperly disposing our waste materials? Should we be threatened by yet another tsunami before we start taking care of Mother Nature?
We may not take the Global Warming warnings seriously but clearly these things matter. The signage that we oh-so-passionately neglect might be our key to survival.
So before we ignore another warning let us look back and see what our environmental apathy had wrought us; a number of freak typhoons, earthquakes, landslides and tsunami scares.
And so what else do we need to be faced with before we start cleaning up our act?
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Sunday Essays are articles written by 3rd Year Masscom students of the Ateneo de Davao University for their advanced journalism class.