TODAY is World Environment Day.
Even for a day, let our consciousness touch base with Gaia (Mother Earth), to be aware of the present state of the ecosystems and that awareness should propel us to action, thus, the adage, “Think Globally, Act Locally.”
In the light of the present ecological disasters we are now experiencing, it behooves upon all of us, the sons and daughters of Gaia to do some reflections. Let us take heed of ecological warning that the current degradation of the environment and the massive loss of species are evidences that we are facing our own extinction.
An environmentalist from Canada whom I had the privilege of meeting has even a more horrible prediction that, “at the rate we are destroying the ozone layer and the world’s resource base and subjecting to extinction some 100 species of flora and fauna every day, what seems unimaginable may become possible, which is, the end of life on Earth.”
It is predicted by environment experts that in the absence of major changes, the world system will collapse in less than a hundred years due to the unsustainability in ecology manifested by global warming, the rising of the oceans, the melting of the iceberg, the massive loss of species and the destruction of the ecosystems.
As we do some reflections, let us examine the present state of the Philippine environment by asking some relevant questions:
Why have we allowed the powerful loggers to decimate our forests, reducing the 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest to less than a million hectares now after just a century of massive logging? Why are we allowing the vast plantations to do unsustainable farming practices that are causing tremendous soil erosion? Have industries not treated the bays as their waste pits? Why are costly agricultural technologies tied-up to the use of heavy toxic chemicals being promoted and practiced when there are more ecologically sustainable ways? Must we eat sweet fruits but first, our land and water-table must be bombarded with toxic chemicals? And isn’t it that all of these are being done in the name of development?
Shall we not now subject such kind of development to an in-depth analysis? For me, that kind of development can be likened to the workings of an auto-immune disease syndrome (AIDS), where no less than the body’s defense mechanisms are attacking vital organs. That is why it behooves upon us now to examine the dominant paradigm - in whose name and for whose cause, advancing the common good has been pursued, yet, has only been successful in inflicting massive destruction to the ecosystems, our very means to life. Yes, in the guise of development, it is actually a “pacman-like” diabolical monster gulping up everything it sees – the forest, mega-diversity, the ozone layer and even all life-forms on Earth.
That kind of development oftentimes follows trickle-down approach described, that as if, we allow sparrows to pick on something that has already passed the digestive tracts of cattle. Such is anchored on GNPs (Gross National Domestic Products) claiming high annual economic growth yet remains trapped at the tip of the social pyramidal order, that goes down to the people after passing “the digestive tracts of cattle.”
As we celebrate the World Environment Day, let us define clearly our criteria of development which must pass a three-way test. First, is it ecologically sustainable? (meaning, it does not harm the environment but instead nurtures it). Second, does it benefit the people in whose name and for whose cause it is there for? And third, does it have people’s participation. We believe that unless people participate in development processes, all the outpourings of development programs will be for naught, at best, just palliatives.
Let the words of Mahatma Gandhi now reverberate: “If man has to be saved from doom, development must be in harmony with nature and not at its own expense.”
A Lumad leader was even more precise when he said, “when you have cut the last tree, when you have caught the last fish, when you have dried the last river, ONLY THEN will you realize that you cannot eat your money.”
Today, let us give high adherence to Gaia by becoming more resolute to democratize wealth and power in this highly skewed societal order. Indeed, “there is enough for everyone’s needs but not for everyone’s greed.”