THE Provincial Environment Management Office (PEMO) celebrated Earth Day on April 22. "Happy Day, Mother Earth." Just like a birthday celebration or a fiesta, PEMO together with the stakeholders came up with activities to remind Negrosanons that we are still on earth. If the earth is our mother, then we have to make her happy not only once a year. Our mother deserves to be happy every day.
Where is the Clean Air Act? Do we have smoke belchers traveling from San Carlos City to Hinobaan? Do we burn sugarcane fields after the harvest? Are our hungry (or greedy?) brothers still cutting trees in Mt. Silay or in Mandalagan Mountain Range? Are illegal charcoal makers and wildlife hunters still enterprising? Have our sugar mills passed the standards for operations prescribed by DENR? Are fishpond operators uprooting mangrove species in the shoreline areas? Do we have a very strong environment advocacy that permeated the hearts and souls of the Negrosanons? These are only some of the questions that we have to answer honestly. Loving Mother Earth means following all her hopes, wishes and aspirations.
When I was in the elementary grades, Panaogao-Imbang River used to be my swimming pool . . . the largest and the longest. I would always go home with fresh water fish, river crabs and shells. The bounty of the river would end up as the key ingredients for the laswa prepared by mother. Now, swimming at Panaogao-Imbang River under Balaring Bridge is an impossible dream. The water is murky and during the milling seasons the water is mixed with black particles. The janitor fish mutated in the area and only the very few persevered to come up with a recipe for scavengers like them. Well, I know that sometimes we have to compromise economy with environment.
To love Mother Earth, there are possible things that we can always do, and we have to do them 365 days a year. Let us avoid the lure of the cities. Let us stay at the countryside. The government should provide opportunities in the provinces. We have to regulate travel. Frequent travel means more cars are polluting the atmosphere and more roads are cutting through natural habitat. Again, this is a question on the preservation of the environment or the expansion of civilization. For our choice, there is a price to pay.
Cutting our trees in the forest is suicide. "Forests do wonderful things. They bind soil to the ground, regulate water supplies, and help govern the climate." Yes, I agree with the stand of United Nations Development Program. Our forest rangers and Bantay Bukid Brigade should be on the double alert. April is still a dry month and May is a warm rainy month. We cannot afford to have a forest fire in our area . . . even grassland fire is still dangerous.
Mother Earth has to tackle with changes in climate. Our planet is warming up very fast. Not only the sun warms our planet, there are also certain gases causing the greenhouse effect-burning oil, coal or gas. We now experience the rising of the sea level, drier air and less rainfall, change in the weather pattern, shifting range in the land and sea temperature, more storms and heavier rains, and increases in floods. Our fish is contaminated with toxins. Pollution weakens animals by poisoning the food supply. An oil spill at sea or the improper disposal plans for all oil and gas rigs bring us closer to our graves.
For Mother Earth, we should plan out a cleaner future. Let us consider clean energy as the best alternative-wind turbines, photovoltaic cells, hydro-electric power, geothermal energy, or even wave power. Man is the author of all inventions. Man can always reinvent himself for Mother Earth.