by Katrina May Parañal and Clarence Lopez
Barangays in Bulacan submerged, power was disrupted, and classes were suspended. The surprising strength, winds and rains of Typhoon Pedring, Quiel and Ramon cost much with damages to property and killed thousands of people.
Natural calamities, just like what we have experienced earlier, are acts of God so we all know that there’s no way that we can stop it from occurring. Unusually strong typhoons, unusually heavier rainfall, resulting in unusually destructive floods and greater number of landslides, are believed to be the effects of global warming. Scientists say that a higher heat level provokes more evaporation of earth water, causes more water to be absorbed by the cloud, and brings heavier rain and stronger typhoons as a result. More rain, stronger winds. But, we can at least minimize the damage it leaves to human life and property by taking good care of our surroundings and Mother Earth.
Polluting acts against nature leads to a cycle where there are stronger typhoons, stronger rains which is clear to us to be the cause of global warming. Global warming is measurably causing a deadlier nature pattern here in our country, and in Earth. It modified rainfall patterns, amplified coastal erosion, lengthened growing season in some regions, and altered the ranges of some infectious diseases.
Rivers full of garbage causes heavy floods that destroy property and kills people. People do not know how to segregate their garbage, and so throw them anywhere which traps waterways to the seas or rivers. They fill up the streets and other low-lying areas if water cannot be released. Deforested mountains and hills are also one of the reasons for these calamities to occur. With no trees to holdback the water, we should not be shocked why waters come cascading down, destroying crops and risking lives. Aside from floods, we also experience landslides and mudslides, and even tsunamis.
As humans who were made to take good care of our nature, we can do a lot to minimize the damage caused by calamities through solutions that we are ought to follow.
Flood happens all the time in which caused by the clogging of waterways. Our government or even the LGUs must penalize those who do not throw their garbage in proper places. They must also keep canals and drainage systems clean. Planting trees as a replacement for the trees that were cut down is also important so that there would be something holding back the water if there’s flood. These can also prevent landslides. The trees will absorb the extra water to minimize the damage of floods. Clean and green program which was done before, and even until now but in only few areas of the country, is also effective.
We must also discipline ourselves to segregate our garbage, separate the biodegradable and non-biodegradable, and put them on where it must be put. Also, people should not abuse the environment but rather take good care of it so that we can assure our survival in every calamity that comes.
An average of 20 typhoons comes in our country every year. We can’t just easily predict how many of these will leave a lot of damage, and if how many will just pass by. And in every strong typhoon that comes in the country, we see the same situation in affected areas. Thousand or even million pesos of damage are recorded, and thousands of people were dead. Schools used as evacuation areas, and houses’ roof became the homes of people during high level floods.
Filipinos already take typhoons, floods and landslides as normal events in the country. They haven’t thought that it was due to their wrong doings. These are taken as ordinary problems such that people still ignore them. They don’t give much importance on these things. This neglect has a greater possibility of causing another problem in the future, even bigger and worse than they think. They talk about the end of the world but they don’t keep in mind what kind of surrounding they have right now, abused and destroyed nature. ■
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