It is in OUR hands!

We are often thought that if we want a change, it must start within ourselves. At some point of life, I tried to hold on to this saying that in changing the world, it really takes my conviction, and in a movement of a magic wand, the change I want will become the world. However, that’s not how things in reality work. It is always beyond us; progress will always be more than just the ‘self’.
I shared that opening because in dealing with many problems, it is a must to assess first the things in our arsenals to know if we can or we cannot address something. I think everyone will agree that no matter what race you belong, no matter what we believe in, no matter what our biases is, as a human we have a common dilemma – the dying status of our environment.
The Earth is continually heating, this planet is slowly turning into a giant oven which render us all dead if no one will act upon it. There are various reasons as to why this is happening. Let’s divide the problem into the areas of land, water, and air.

In land, massive changes are happening. Mining companies are digging the Earth to the extent of extracting its resources as if there is no tomorrow. This is coated to the reason of ‘progress’ because as mining advocate says, there is no technology today without mining. However, what concerns every people who’s into the safety of the environment is that there is thin line between getting the right amount of minerals to messing up mountain ranges and flattening natural landscapes. Aside from them, companies constructing residential subdivisions and commercial establishments has also their own way of ripping away this planet’s life. Trees which are natural barriers against natural calamities are being cut down to the point of making trees a non-existent matter.

 
In water, wastes material from residential and commercial areas is being dumped to some parts of bodies of water. Some factories are irresponsibly releasing toxic through streams thus harming not just humans but also other life forms in the waters as well. This shows how selfish these institutions are for intoxicating an ecosystem they greatly depend on.

In the air, industrial plants are releasing enormous amount of carbon dioxide that covers the atmosphere of the Earth making this planet trap heat waves and results to a rapid increase in global warming. The same reason why ice reserves of the planets are chunk by chunks melting thus increasing the average sea level causing extreme flashfloods, coupled with clogged esteros that, that destroys millions of properties and worst – millions of lives.

More than the importance of practicing self-discipline, it is important to comprehend those individual actions slightly do nothing if it is not centralized. Collective actions and efforts coupled with demanding accountability from the huge companies and corporations will take a huge leap towards making the Earth much more a habitable planet.

In the end, it is really on our hands. Emphasis on ours since we can’t make anything doing it alone.


Originally written by Ralph Joseph Tuazon