In life, change is the rule. Climate change is one kind of change that adversely affects everyone on the planet. While technological changes have been giving man more benefits than ever before in the history of humanity, however, our being humane to each other and to other living things in our world may not have caught up yet to the level that we should be capable of – particularly more than two millennia after the kenosis of Jesus Christ and sacrifice on the cross. Remember that the crucifixion saved humanity from another wholesale application of divine justice across the board, which had previously obliterated the entire world in the time of Noah.
In science, change is a function of the principle of equilibrium. As science attempts to explain everything in nature, we find that the principle of equilibrium is inherently involved all throughout. The deluge that Sendong (and its Luzon predecessor, Ondoy) wrought is primarily due to the fact that global warming has induced even more water vapor into the atmosphere, which traps even higher heat from the sun’s rays than the other greenhouse gases – carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and even ozone (which protects us from harmful ultraviolet rays). With so much water vapor in the atmosphere now, typhoons and monsoons have become so much more violently strong, as well as more numerous. And as the cycle gets more vicious, faster – more heat in the atmosphere and oceans therefore more water evaporation – we can only expect to get even much more powerful storms and hurricanes. In the meanwhile, global warming is also melting our polar ice caps and glaciers, raising the oceans’ level at an unprecedented rate. Thus, even as more and more water threatens to drown us as rains from above, the seas also continue to rise. But where is equilibrium there?
Cause and effect (i.e. change) on a global scale is constantly at work in nature, which brings water vapor from, say, the Caribbean, and hot air from, for example, the extended Russian drought, combined in moving air masses from the Himalayas and sucked into the tropical depressions of the Pacific Ocean – there to be fueled by even more water vapor, and finally dumped on the nearest land masses, such as the Philippines. As it is often said, nature hates a vacuum – which is to say that everything tends to reach equilibrium or state of stability: water seeking its own level; winds resulting from temperature and humidity differences between areas and regions; and even in psychological terms when we struggle to attain contentment through the satisfaction of our needs and wants.
It is also expressed as the ‘duality’ of nature – light and darkness, positive and negative, etc. It is even “imprinted” upon our psyche (much like a printed circuit board or PCB – the familiar motherboard of a computer), so that as we “process” our lives the individual differences reflect the vast diversity of the “mass-produced” natural commodity that is people. However we sense it, the principle of equilibrium is always at work in the natural world – although it is not always implemented well in humanity (hence, there is inequality, inequity, and all other things basically wrong with people). But because we are able to sense natural balance, we also aspire and strive to attain it. In doing so, some are able to transcend the human limitations and weaknesses to achieve… whatever it is that is really important and meaningful.
What about nature? Does it also strive to attain something? Of course – as said earlier, everything changes in the process of attaining equilibrium. But that is as science sees it. Theologically, everything is as Willed from the beginning of time. Curiously, people are caught in between the ephemeral and the eternal; mired in the former, striving to understand the latter, and all the while trying to make sense of everything (and everyone) around. Whichever way one wants to look at it, there is no “judgmental” dimension to the ‘disaster’ or ‘calamity’ that befell all of us – those hardest hit were the most numerous, the poor (a.k.a. informal settlers), simply because they were located in the high-risk (flood-prone) areas that were the only places accessible to them.
Put another way, we all live under the same skies. We are all subject to the same vicissitudes of nature, but each of us prepare for our own graves. If government assumes a responsibility for the welfare of people, one aspect that should be emphasized more and more in the light of what is happening globally (not just parochially, as is the common arena of politics) is the sense and actual practice of foresight. Or perhaps just plain practical good planning. Because it is not a question of whether or not disasters and calamities are going to happen – it is only a question of when, not if. If we can see beyond our petty politics, we might actually come to a “common ground” (which is neutral) – and that is on the standpoint of nature and the environment. To make it simple enough for everyone to understand: Start listening seriously to the environmental scientists!
In life, there will always be changes. Life will not always result from such changes – as we have seen lately with Sendong. But Life will always find a way… to Be; and through change, to Become. As the Latin saying goes, ad astra per aspera – “a rough road leads to the stars” – we dream, no matter what!
