Protecting God’s Vanishing Creation: The Highest Form of Worship
Her name is GAIA (Mother Earth) and today Gaia is in deep pain and hemorrhaging without let-up. Let us now all reflect on what have the Homo sapiens done in killing Gaia as the doomsday clock is now set to just “one minute before midnight”. As pronounced by thousands of concerned environmentalists worldwide, the earth will become a desert in the next eighty years as the earth’s water supply is fast diminishing everywhere else. The use of coal and fossil fuel should now be replaced by renewable energy but no way will the Regime of One Percent of Multi-National Corporations do that as these so-called “Masters of Mankind” are earning some 19 trillion dollars annually or 10 million dollars every minute through the usage of fossil fuel. As concluded by environmentalists worldwide, “life in the 2030s will look and feel different than life does now under the Regime of One Percent when egregious inequality, social injustices, racism and poverty have made it transparently obvious that the system is designed to work for a specific few. We are against the richest and powerful industries/corporations of the world for killing the earth. Let us now join hands to save Gaia.”
Will we allow Gaia to be killed by the super rich who can never moderate their greed? We should not simply allow Gaia to be killed because life will be gone in this very wonderful blue planet, one of its kind in the Universe. Such painful truism is very glaring in our country which had long lost its ecological integrity and security because we Filipinos are so apathetic, buried in unbridled materialism and consumerism. Let us examine what the Filipinos have done to Gaia.
Her “lungs” (the forests) are almost gone. We have allowed a few powerful loggers who were voted as Senators, Congressmen, Governors and Mayors to ravage the 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forests causing the massacre of all flora and fauna that have lived in the forest ecosystem for millions, if not billions, or years. Don’t you know that in one shipment of logs, a logger would earn then 360 million pesos, money that they shared with law enforcers? Indeed, our country did supply the timber needs of the world in the last century, following extractive economy, sacrificing nature and the people to the altar of greed and profit. In the uplands of Cagayan de Oro, the two hundred thousand hectares of dipterocarp forest had been totally logged without let-up for five decades by six loggings companies that had violated all the environmental laws, prohibiting them to log in areas with altitude of more than one thousand meters above sea level or in slope with more than 50% gradient. All areas logged by the powerful six logging companies were within these prohibited zones. They did not even do their obligation to do replanting as embodied in the issuance of a Timber License Agreement. The DENR should be made accountable why that office did not enforce environmental laws in the past.
In the Nineties when we in Task Force Macajalar, a coalition of some 300 people’s organizations took direct actions to stop logging trucks through human barricades, we saw how powerful these loggers are as every 50 10-wheeler logging truck passing Cagayan de Oro from 12midnight till dawn every day was escorted by armed men carrying AK-47 or Armalite and paying Checkpoint P5,000. These loggers’ gargantuan rakings have formed a strong cabal of vested interest with imprimatur from powers-thar-be who were in power then despite their crimes committed against Gaia. From out of their tremendous rakings, they bought votes and shameless portrayed themselves as pro-nature. Oh, when will we ever learn?
Her “veins” (the rivers) are either polluted or drained as 15 or the 25 major rivers in our country are now biologically dead. We have already lost 75% of our mangroves (the spawning grounds of fish) and only 5% is in excellent condition. Our coral reefs, the delicate gift from Providence have been heavily destroyed through dynamite fishing and “muro-ami.” How stupid were we when during the time of the dictatorship, the Philippines entered into an agreement with Japan (the RP-Japan Treaty of Amity, Commerce and Navigation) which allowed the Japanese computerized trawlers and fishing vessels to literally rake our sea, the Philippine archipelago then was described as “the center of the center of marine life on earth,” now gone forever. In fact, 10 of the 13 major bays in the country are now described as biologically dead, to the detriment of our coastal communities who are now living in hunger and extreme poverty.
Her “fever” (global warming) lingers, causing Her so much discomfort, i.e, colds (storms), sneezing (typhoons), shakings (earthquakes) and deliriums (tsunamis). Her “stomach” (the oceans) is now so upset as the seas rise and the glaciers melt. Her “skin” (the 6-inch top layer of the earth – the soil that gives life) has been scalped through mindless hydraulic mining operations and Her “blood” (the water table) has been injected with toxic chemicals through conventional agriculture. In Mindanao alone, some 200,000 hectares which were before the blessed land developed sustainably through nature and sustenance economy by the Indigenous Peoples, treating nature as like a home where their basic needs are provided for, have been transformed into massive plantations by powerful corporations which are intensively applying chemical fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides that as if some 2,000 dumptrucks of poisonous chemicals are being uploaded into our water table every day. In fact, we had known since the 90s that of the 14 chemicals these plantations are using, 8 are already banned abroad. Such is the reason why we have been appealing that our water-table be urgently examined by appropriate agencies but until now, our request has not been heard. That is the reason why so many Filipinos are dying of cancer. Indeed, we are now facing an alarming ecological crisis that unless soon averted will lead to an impending ecologically-based, political, economic and social collapse, As sons and daughters of Gaia, let us feel Her pain and grieve with Her and must have the compassion to suffer with Her. Most importantly, we must act as one collective countervailing force to serve notice to one and all that we have awakened and that, as responsible citizens of the Earth, we will not allow anymore the killing of Gaia to continue which is only ours to protect for the coming generations. Yes, we did not inherit the earth from our parents but we owe this to our children. But at the rate that the resources have been extracted and exploited, the future generations will suffer. Let us now heal the wounds of Gaia. Let us forge our oneness, firmly committing to stop Her bleeding as we declare in one voice, WE LOVE YOU GAIA. WE WILL NOT ALLOW YOU TO BE KILLED BY THE ONE PERCENT REGIME BECAUSE PROTECTING GOD’S VANISHING CREATION IS FOR US, THE HIGHEST FORCE OF WORSHIPING GOD, THE CREATOR!
