Be a Countervailing Force Against Threats to Our Survival
There are no borders against the crises facing humanity when the homo sapiens will perish out of a nuclear war or through environmental catastrophe, as everyone will be negatively affected, perhaps even those living in Mars. These occupants in nearby planets, if there are any, may be so bothered now on what’s happening in our planet facing these existential problems. In the sixties, concerned scientists had described the earth as “six minutes before midnight,” then moved to “two minutes before midnight” in the nineties as war was intensifying. Today, thousands of concerned scientists worldwide have now moved the doomsday clock to only “one minute before midnight,” because of the worsening crisis brought about by climate change. Indeed, humanity is now in the precipice of its 6th extinction. Despite such painful truism, it is paradoxical that the earthlings, especially the Filipinos seem not to care. Perhaps, we Filipinos are blind on the gravity of the problems – thus, this article. First on the threats of a nuclear war.
As narrated by the number one intellectual in the world, human right defender and social activist, Dr. Noam Chomsky, “nuclear war has come unpleasantly close many times since 1945. There are literally dozens of occasions in which there was a significant threat of nuclear war. There was a time in 1962 when it was very close, and furthermore, it’s not just the United States, India and Pakistan have come close to nuclear war several times and the issues remain. Both India and Pakistan are expanding their nuclear arsenals with US support. These are serious possibilities involved with Iran – not Iranian nuclear weapons, but just attacking Iran – and other thing can just go wrong. It’s a very tense system, always has been. There are plenty of times when automated systems in the United States – and in Russia, it’s probably worse – have warned of a nuclear attack which would set off an automatic response except that human intervention happened to take place and sometimes in a matter of minutes.” Well, thanks God no nuclear war happened, otherwise, the Philippines being a neo-colony of modern-day American Imperialism equipped with nuclear armaments, could have been the focus of nuclear missiles attack, our country being the first line of US defense in Asia then until now. How about environmental catastrophe?
This is apparently the major one crisis now, the anthropogenic climate change – the human contribution to global warming, greenhouse gases, the melting of the iceberg, the rising of the oceans, the extinction of billions of species, but that is just a part of it. There are other sources of what is called pollution, the destruction of the environment – that are quite serious: erosion, the elimination of agricultural lands especially here in Mindanao where some 200,000 hectares of the choicest of lands have been transformed into massive plantations with the massive use of toxic chemicals that have already contaminated our watersheds causing cancer and deformities of new born babies. Thus, it is not just environmental problems but human problems as well which have severe effects on hunger and malnutrition. In fact, based on the Study of the Food & Nutrition Institute, 85% of the Filipino children are malnourished.
In the Philippines, we have already lost the 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest, putting to extinction millions of species of flora and fauna that have been living in the forest ecosystems for millions, if not billions, of years. Of the 13 major bays in the country, 10 are already biologically dead, to the detriment of our coastal communities with thousands of fishing families now living in hunger and extreme poverty. Mindanao has also become the focus of massive illegal mining as it is in this second biggest island in the country where some 72 kinds of top-quality minerals are found. But we have not just lost our ecological security through the massive destruction of our ecosystems. Worst is the presence of 6 coal-fired power plants in Mindanao done by the oligarchs in cohort with neo-liberal capitalists which took advantage of the passive and apathetic attitude of the Filipinos. We must know now that “burning coal is the leading cause of smog, acid rain and global warming,” the Union of Concerned Scientists said. That “in an average year, a typical coal plant generates 3,700,000 tons of carbon dioxide, the primary human cause of global warming, as much carbon dioxides as cutting down 161 million of trees, 10,000 tons of sulfur oxide which causes acid rain that damages forest, lakes and buildings, and forms small airborne particles that can penetrate deep into lungs; and 500 tons of small airborne particles, which can cause chronic bronchitis , aggravated asthma and premature death, and so many toxic chemicals such as 225 pounds arsenic which will cause cancer.”
Well, that is what a typical coal plant can do, typical meaning just 100 megawatts. The six coal fired power plants that have been established all over Mindanao have a total megawatt of 2,167. These are not acceptable to the people of Mindanao but were established without even due consultation or information given to those who will suffer the consequences. While our country is already suffering severely ecologically, inflicted with so much “wounds” out of massive illegal logging and mining, the hideous establishment of the six coal-fired power plants can be likened to pouring out poisonous acid to the wounds – so painful, devastating and extreme savagery. But no problem. The Filipinos don’t care, buried in the fallacies of life and so apathetic as the means of information in our country is narrowly and rigidly controlled. The mainstream media has become the instrument of the oligarchs to hide the truth as the people are barred from managing our own affairs and the means of information is strongly controlled. If the truth will be disseminated by the journalists, they would be killed as the Philippines has the highest number of journalists killed in the world. Those standing to protect the environment and the human rights of the Indigenous Peoples are also wantonly killed without let-up as some 101 have already been murdered since 2016 like our intrepid environmentalist allies and human right defenders Datu Sandigan, Datu Wenefredo Sumael and Datu Alim Saway.
Indeed, the Filipinos and the environment have been sacrificed to the altar of greed and profit. Don’t you know that according to the Study of the UN-Environmental Risk Reduction Index, “the Philippines is the 4th hardest hit country in the world by climate change?” Such is Res Ipsa Loquitor as hundreds of thousands have already been killed and rendered homeless by ecological disasters, not to mention the thousands who have suffered and died due to hunger and famine. There are even those advertising the sale of their organs just to survive. The time has come for us Filipinos to countervail against these threats to our survival. Let us now debunk our apathetic attitude, stand for our human rights and social justice. We are a sovereign country and must not be used by the modern-day American Imperialism to be its first line of defense when nuclear war erupts. The environmental disasters we are now facing is rooted in our powerlessness to craft our own destiny, having been a colony of imperial powers for hundreds of years, the subject of extractive economy as our country has supplied raw materials to highly advanced countries and the dumping ground of finished products. Although no nuclear war happens, but ecological catastrophe and the loss of our ecological integrity has already wrought so much havoc and savagery to our poor but struggling people.
Indeed, ecological problems are human problems that are causing so much hunger and extreme poverty to our people. Soon, famine will hit our country and only then that the Filipino people will be awakened to the fallacies of life. As declared by known spiritual leaders, “It is not a question of believing religious doctrines. It is about interpreting into our lives insights and practices that will not only help us to meet today’s challenges but change our hearts and minds.” Be enlightened that ENVIRONMENTAL CATASTROPHE IS ANTHROPOGENIC (man-made}, perpetuated by the ego (devil) through corporate globalization, sacrificing nature to the altar of greed and profit. We must now become a countervailing force against environmental catastrophe and against nuclear war. That is our mission. As CONSCIOUSNESS, we are one with life, feel that oneness, the serenity and sacredness of nature and the vast spaciousness to be liberated from the fallacies of life and the capriciousness of the mundane. Only then that it will dawn upon all of us who truly we are and be connected with the Unseen, Formless Being, the Creator as protecting God’s vanishing creation is the highest form of worship as creation is the reflection of the Creator!
