SHADES OF TRUTH: THE DISMAL DRILL

“The land was converted, the river was moved, the village expanded, some say it's improved, but the lingering feature is a grim attitude.”- Greg Graffin
The world itself is dynamic. When industrialization strikes way back in the 18th century, man found himself exploring the unchartered territories, going beyond the bounded realms of their time. Human activities were greatly altered and destructive not just to the earth but also to the ones who were entrusted with it. Now, we are on the edge of the perfect imbalance and we are to pay the price, the price that we owe to the nature.
Signos is one of those films which actually trigger the nerves within us. After Al Gore revealed the inconvenient truth, chains of news reports, further studies, environmental awareness and movements have been conducted. And the chain has arrived in our country. While most people in the world are discerning about this matter, George Bush and his administration ended up their term unfocused on this particular issue and even insisting that global warming is no less than a piece of fiction.
Days in this fragment of time are atypical. From the past few years, it has been remarking to me the great change in our climate. Our country’s conventional climate flow seems to be varying and rearranging itself. September to December are no more cold as they were. Summer floods us with rain while the should-be raining months are dry. Things like these can bring an appalling change on how plants would behave especially to those which are fruiting. My family’s front and backyard trees and plants couldn’t produce as much fruits as they do in the past. This effect is a huge impact especially to those which make planting or farming as their primary business. We also experience intense heat in some time of the year. It was 9am, November 16 of this year, as I was walking along Magsaysay Street here in our campus, I experience a strong heat penetrating deeply in my skin. I wonder why that heat came like an early bird catching its first worm. It is also so unusual for this part of the year for such a heat to take place early in the day. When 12 noon strikes, it was a different atmosphere. The temperature seems to drop. This kind of oddity is mind twisting unless you believe in global warming.
The condition is a too much and a too less case. Vast dryness is being experienced in some areas while some areas dream of desiccation. Rainfalls also became differently deviant. Just this year’s summer, cant remember the exact date, rain poured out so hard for about an hour and it resulted a flash flood. The heavy rain came falling from the sky violently that made a GK site here in Quezon City flooded, leaving the residents of the area standing and sitting in their own rooftops.
Every single step that we make has a consequence or an exchange effect in our environment. Every aspect of our living can do good or bad things to it. According to www.myfootprint.com, we need 0.35 earth to live if we follow my own lifestyle. I felt guilty though. From food stuffs to homing to transportation and everything, they all collectively contribute of how an individual could bring about an effect to the environment. Sets of realizations are made here that everything we do is accompanied by a diminutive amount of consequence.
Environmental awareness is the basic step in saving the earth in a possible dreadful upcoming future. I can still remember how my grade five teacher told us about the greenhouse effect, the global warming and such kinds. Although they were brought into the picture, the concepts are vague to me that I can’t even grasp its reality. Maybe I was just a kid then, unprepared for such topics. Global warming should be continuously opened to the future generation so that at an early time, they would be educated, be aware and beware of the later consequences of how we interact with the environment. We are living in the existence of our environment, so, we must play according to its own rule. But awareness is of no value unless followed by any action. By our own little means, we can bring about a change in our world and prevent this tragedy. It is a collective effort after all in saving our own heritage. It is not just the few that should take an action against this world threat. We, as sovereign people of this earth, are all responsible in taking care of this planet earth before it would just only be a part of a tragic memory of once lived human beings.


Heherson tabag
06-28158