Today is Earth Day.
Founded in 1970 as a day of education about environmental issues, Earth Day is now a globally-celebrated holiday that is sometimes extended into Earth Week.
Earth Day, which was started by an American Senator, was originally aimed at creating a mass environmental movement. By raising public awareness of air and water pollution, the organizer hoped to bring environmental causes into the national spotlight.
In Negros, when we talk of environmental protection, the urgency is magnified because several Negrenses have been victims of natural calamities resulting from the destruction of the environment.
Many have been flood victims many times over. And others are living witnesses of how many lives were lost, or of how the floods carried all the trash from the dumpsites in the upland areas down to the sea.
The most urgent matter facing the earth today is climate change. The earth is getting hotter and because of that, the ice in the North and South Poles have been melting at an incredible pace, increasing the sea level, and threatening to wipe out low-lying islands.
Warmer oceans also mean more typhoons for the Philippines. And the weather pattern is getting crazier every year.
Storms are now forming southeast of Mindanao, which were unlikely areas for such phenomenon in the past. When storms form in that part of the Philippines, there is a big chance for it to hit Dumaguete City and Negros, as was the case of tropical storm (not even a typhoon) Sendong last year.
The government has appropriated a sizeable chunk of its resources to combat the effects of climate change, but these are not enough. All of us need to do something individually and collectively to help our planet. Some solutions would be to save on fuel, plant trees, and conserve water and food.
As we celebrate Earth Day today, we should take a second look at our planet and ask ourselves, “What can I do for my planet today?”
