MAN VERSUS NATURE

Who will be first to surrender?

When man first appeared, nature has been kind and generous, providing man all of his necessities for survival. And through time, man has gone several transformations, enabling him to survive the challenges of the changing world. Transformations, not just in the physical aspect, but also in the way they live and think. This made man the superior one among all other living things. Man is the only creature that has both the desire and initiative to live a better life, a life of ease and comfort. This is the dream that has been passed from generations. And for centuries of hard work, this dream is realized through the discovery of energy. Since then, man’s ambition never seemed to end.

This ambition has created ways of improving life along with negative impacts on the environment and even nature. As the population grows, the demand for resources soars; pollution increases; more forests are cleared for urban and agriculture processes; waste builds-up; and more. These have seemed to anger Mother Nature; and now, we are already experiencing her wrath, the climate change.

The signs of climate change are already felt around the globe; likewise, in the Philippines. Living here in Metro Manila, climate change is evident with the sudden change in weather condition. The weather is very unpredictable, in a span of a day it can change from extremely hot to extremely cold. This brings cough and colds to many individuals.

Climate change brings forth the occurrence or unusual events and even those that are thought to be impossible. For instance, having snow in the Philippines. Is it really possible? Philippines as a tropical country does not experience the changing seasons being experienced by other countries located on the higher and lower latitudes. However, last year, it did snow in the Philippines. It happened on a very bright and hot day. And contrary to what everyone could have expected, rain fell along with beads of ice. Unusual, but on that day, a part of Quezon City had experienced hail.


Also, it has been observed that typhoons seem to be stronger and also occur more frequently compared to previous years. Also, with the deteriorating forest cover, we continue to witness major floods and massive landslides, destroying homes, livelihoods and even erasing several existing communities.

After watching the film Signos, I’ve realized that here in the Philippines, we are also affected by climate change; contradicting to the common thought, that only the polar bears and other creatures living in the poles are affected. In other words, everyone is affected, no matter how big or small their contribution is to the problem. Climate change is neither a concern of a single person nor of a particular assembly; on the other hand, it is everyone’s problem and concern.

Many claim that climate change is just a natural cycle, where the earth’s temperature fluctuates back and forth. However, several also claim that we are going beyond normal conditions and still continue to worsen. Also, it may be Mother Nature’s wrath or just purely man’s shortcomings. On the other hand, I believe that climate change is similar to most of the processes occurring in the universe – irreversible, just like entropy is directed towards greater chaos.

Climate change has already conquered the world, causing all kinds of chaos and destruction along its path. It has affected our environment, society, economy and even our life. On the other hand, we as human being have two choices. One, we can do nothing and just let it take its path. And just wait for evolution to take place and shape us to fit the new world it is forming. Or two, we can try to do our best to change our habits and past mistakes; to modify our life styles; and to care for nature. We can also minimize our consumption of resources, and just have to take what is needed. Also, we can switch to cleaner resources, which are mutually beneficial to man, to his environment, and nature.

As what have science had taught us some irreversible processes can be reversed by incorporating work into the system. This might work similarly to our dilemma. We just have to work together and have the initiative to further improve our lives while taking into consideration the things that might be affected and also the outcomes of our actions.

There is still hope for change, depending on which choice we choose to take.