TURNING POINT: Securing Eternity

NAAWAN, Misamis Oriental (MindaNews / 23 April) — Our planet is appropriately called Mother Earth because it provides and nourishes our survival.

Sadly, the planet suffers from human relentless drubbing expressed in the over-extraction of natural resources and their conversion to economic goods that results in massive pollution of the atmosphere, in the emission of carbon dioxide, methane, and water vapors which create a veil around the earth. The veil of pollution deflects the solar energy back to the surface of the Earth resulting in global warming and corresponding climate change.

Global warming melts the polar ice, raising sea levels and drowning small island nations. Global warming, likewise, spawns perilous weather disturbances. Wildfires explode and consume forests and human communities in different corners of the globe, destroying habitats, the ecosystem, and biodiversity. While fire rages somewhere, freezing winter paralyzes human activities simultaneously elsewhere. And hurricanes and cyclones have become intense whose ferocity devastates everything in their paths.

Meanwhile, pollution poisons also farmlands, waterways, lakes, seas, and oceans, endangering food security and the health of mankind. Toxic chemical wastes and nano-sized solid wastes kill fish, mammals, and birds. On the other hand, smog envelopes in darkness highly industrialized cities and suffocates the populace.

The catastrophic disarray of the natural forces is a result of the rising population and corresponding material consumption. Their aggravating devastation is equal if not worse than world wars. Thus, all—from individual, family, national, and global levels—ought to join hands for their urgent comprehensive management.

To survive, from one generation to the next, demands the protection of our planet from any further beating. Generational survival is the eternity of man.

(MindaViews is the opinion section of MindaNews. William R. Adan, Ph.D., is retired professor and former chancellor of Mindanao State University at Naawan, Misamis Oriental.)