After watching the film, I remembered a popular Filipino quote: “Kung hindi ngayon, kalian? Kung hindi tayo, sino?” This is something worth pondering by the scientists of today in responding to the challenges that require scientific prowess, which anyone else could hardly possess.
I find the film moving partly because I am an activist fighting for social transformation and partly because I am a chemistry student and a DOST scholar who has the responsibility to give the worth of the people’s taxes for my education. But what compelled me more to wake up to those truths that came from the experts’ mouths, is that, first and foremost, I am a homo sapiens sapiens, an inhabitant of this feverish planet.
There were a lot of environmental problems discussed in the film. To name a few, these include global warming, massive deforestation, and extinction of species.
It is never new to us to talk about global warming. It has been taught in schools that the major contributors to global warming are the greenhouse gases, which are emissions of human’s burning of fossil fuels. The scientists who explained truths about the global warming said in the film that, in just a span of three decades, our planet’s temperature has rose to 7/10 of a centigrade. What’s more alarming is the projected 5oC rise in temperature for the next couple of years if the contributors to global warming continue unabated. In the film, scientists from first world and first class universities have spoken about the dangers of fossil fuel-burning. But relating that to the reality in our country, particularly in Davao City, some of our scientists, and our equally-intelligent politicians claim that it is okay to burn fossil fuels in the coal-fired plants because, they claim, “we have the state-of-the-art technology”. I hope they made the right claim.
This phenomenon would lead to the melting of the ice caps in the polar regions, which would eventually lead to the rise of sea levels causing a number of land formations to be wiped out of the map. Rumors have it that the coastal parts of Davao City could be among those soon-to-be-sunken-lands. Further, this global warming is manifested in the irregularities in the amount of rainfall and in the pattern of precipitation. In the recent months, our country has experienced natural disasters (that seemed to be unnatural) that were more catastrophic than ever. There have been series of flash floods in Luzon, and even here in the Davao.
This could have been prevented if trees and old growth forests were abundant. Trees in the forests are capable of consuming carbon dioxide that, when trapped in the atmosphere, is a major cause of global warming. A tree, according to the film, can also hold about 57,000 gallons of water, enough to prevent flashfloods. But this is the case: massive deforestation. The more we know about global warming, the more laxed we have become in issuing logging permits and environmental compliance certificates to corporations, and not being strict in monitoring their activities, not even penalizing violators of laws. Our authorities have become vehement in looking after illegal loggers who cut trees piece by piece, while loosely allowing legal loggers to load logs truck by truck. Add to this the massive conversion of forests and fertile lands into agro-industrial zones believed to produce high-value crops for export, while the local residents suffer from starvation.
But humans are not the only ones starving. We also have neighbours in this planet, most of them face extinction. The film showed how humans have dominated the world and destroyed the biodiversity of the ecosystem. Extinction follows after the natural habitats of organisms are destroyed, and their survival threatened. It was shown in the film how, for instance, large fishing boats catch millions of fishes more frequently than these fishes are able to reproduce in the oceans. The danger of this extinction of organisms is the disruption of the food chain, to which we, humans, are part of. This also disrupts ecological chemistry.
Who then should make the first move for the reconciliation with nature? I remembered our lesson in Theology about ecological sins. We were taught that environmental problems, especially to us, science majors, have to be dealt with by curing their root causes. Tree planting, while it helps, is not enough when the number of coal-fired plants continue to rise each year. Waste segregation, while it helps, is not enough when more consumer goods are packed in plastic containers everyday. So, what to do? “We have to completely and essentially change the system,” answers one of the scientists interviewed. “The problem is a cultural problem,“ supports another.
I agree that we could start a bold move with ourselves, especially to us, men and women of science. It is about time that we end the cycle of being confined within our laboratories. Our fellowmen, as said in the film, “need heightened awareness” in order to respond. We have that duty to inform them of the truths of our researches and studies. Let us end the cycle of just being quoted in major reports. We have to speak ourselves about the scientific facts that others have to know because we are more credible.
But generally, this grand problem of environmental degradation is best answered by our leaders. More budget must be channelled to education, research, science and technology than to debt servicing and militarization. These have long been our calls in the streets, our calls in the legislative venues. Perhaps, government leaders would listen to scientists than to poor farmers and workers rallying. So we, especially those called experts, should actively do our part because time is running fast.
Most of all, as Dr. David Suzuki said in the film, “it may be hippie dippie”, but the most essential solution, “is love.” Yes, we should help end, this economic system governed by corporate greed and consumerism. While it is not bad to consume, we should not consume more than what we need. We have to respect nature, because, said one speaker in the film, “nature has rights, too. They are not mere properties.” We still have a minute to create a sustainable future!
