My Climate Story
Since I was a child, I always noticed that I have this intrinsic connection with nature, thus, I have always wanted to go to eco- and ocean parks so as to glimpse the beauty and to appreciate the life of the Animal Kingdom, ranging from a wide array of species. In the same vein, I was always ecstatic every time our family returned home to my grandparents’ hometown for the reason that they have this mini-permaculture at the back; and I am fortunate that I have got to experience the basics of gardening and farming through the expertise of my grandparents, especially my grandpa.
As time flies, this connection that I have with nature never went away: I joined science fairs and camps — which involved talks about the environment; organized an outreach program by gaining our funds through garage sales, which is also in alignment with my mission to gradually shift our linear economy to a circular one; and finally, when I became a climate activist during the Global Climate Strike Movement.
I am grateful for all of these happenings in the past, which greatly influenced my views towards the relationship between Man and Nature, as well as bolstered my core values as an advocate for the environment.
For 2020, I was planning to start implementing visions into projects, which all have the mission to change the beliefs of other people who are still in denial with our climate crises and reluctant to change into sustainable lifestyles; and incorporate their minds on how to be part of the solution, rather than the problem. Then, COVID-19 came into the picture. On a positive note, I turned this into an opportunity to hone my skills and to fill the gaps in the insufficient parts of myself. On the flip side, though, my plans for the community were on hold until a catalyst came.
Last March 16, 2020, the National Government of the Philippines announced that the country will be placed under an Enhanced Community Quarantine (ECQ) in response to this chaotic change, wherein public transportation will be restricted, limited businesses will only be allowed to operate, and only people with an age above 21 will be permitted to go to the supermarkets to buy their families’ needs. But this imposition was only the calm before the storm for the country faces more problems as the days pass by, like an ember augmented by adding more and more fuel, which results in a flame that prepares itself to cause social, political, and economic chaos to our country.
As a result, our President threatens his citizens to strictly abide by the law because if not, bullets will be meeting our flesh once we decide to break free from the chains that his administration created. When this happened, questions flooded into my mind such as, “Is this the kind of leader that they expected when the Filipinos voted for him last 2016?” “Is this the kind of leader who treats his people as prisoners, rather than people with volition?” Can he still be called our nation’s leader or our nation’s dictator (e.g. Mao, Hitler, and Stalin)?”
As this crisis continues to flood a multitude of questions to my mind as to how and when this will end, at the same time, provides a challenge in maintaining the flow while controlling the ebb of my mind towards the fact that our President threatens his citizens to strictly abide by the “new normal,” I have decided to reflect these predicaments to this chaotic change during my self-retreat or what the world called, “meditation.”
I said to myself, “I’ll never know the answers with certainty, but I know that I’ll be the antithesis of how he treated his people, how he assessed risks and early warnings of COVID-19, how he provided an illusion of security to our country.”
Then a breakthrough came — close to a ‘Eureka.’ I now know that if we are to avoid a cascade of future crises, we must think beyond a return to business as usual and must take one step at a time to rebuild the social trust and solidarity that the world needs. At the same time, we must address the complacency of people who continue to downplay the ongoing environmental catastrophes that are happening, not only in the Philippines but throughout the whole world.
Now, I am continuing to turn my mission into a reality by serving as a paragon of change to advance the well-being of my community and country, and shifting people’s gravity of thinking to summate the change that our world needs.
If this won’t be fulfilled, our society would continue to live in an illusion of security — a security that there is still a better future. Contemplate this question: Is a society living in a bubble of illusion better than a society living adaptively to the dynamic change of environment? You and I know what’s better, then why are you still recalcitrant of change?
We cannot still have a culture that encapsulates a mentality of Que sera, sera, or “What will be, will be,” because such mentality neglects our moral responsibility to acquire the essential skills needed to function under the conditions of a modern sustainable country. Don’t get me wrong, we are still far from embedding this sense of ecological security into our collective mindset, but it does not mean that you should not actively and more critically engaged in how you can individually identify possible environmental actions in your community, similarly to how an engineer examine a machine that is operating suboptimally so that it could be fixed to perform optimally; and in how you can turn yourself as a catalyst to redesign the future to be an inclusive and a sustainable one.
To end, remember this: As the Indian-American author Deepak Chopra views the essence and interconnection of Man to Earth:
“The trees are our lungs, the rivers our circulation, the air our breath, and the earth our body.”
Earth does not need us in order for it to live; we need Earth in order for us to live.
