When change is not for the better
As it is always known, change is the most permanent thing in this world. There are changes that lead to betterment, yet there are also those that turn out to be for the worse. In our lives, we make a lot of choices, intertwined and consequential to everything that will happen to us and all the people surrounding us. This is why we are always reminded that we must always make the right choices, big or small.
While walking under the scorching heat of the sun, I suddenly wondered and asked myself if it was that hot when I was still younger. I realized that back then, everyone would go out and enjoy the outdoors without having to worry about the harmful sunrays, and sunblock lotions were foreign to most of us. But now, the umbrella is not only against rain but it is also used as protection for the very hot sunlight.
It should cause us all to be totally alarmed with what’s going on in our environment. We may have stumbled upon the term “climate change” a million times already, but we should ask ourselves this question, “What have I actually done to prevent or at least reduce climate change?”
I think most of us are not concerned with this issue as result of our misinformation, or further, the lack of it. We do not even care enough to stop and get to the core of this alarming problem that is now affecting the whole world.
Our level of awareness towards climate change is inversely proportional to the intensity of its adverse affects to our lives now here in our planet.
There is a reason why climate change advocate Greta Thunberg, the young Swedish environmental activist is named Time Magazine’s Person of Year for 2020. From starting her cause in a school strike now known as Fridays for Future with more than 100,000 schoolchildren involved to delivering a plenary speech in the UN COP24 in Poland last December 2018, her plea to save the world from climate change has indeed made a global impact.
Maybe each one of us ought to know how severe are the effects of climate change that are happening now although it would only be in 2050 when more than 5 billion people would see and feel the impacts of climate change especially those coming from areas that are “least capable of responding.” World Bank reported in June 2013 that Philippines ranks 16th among the most vulnerable areas in Southeast Asia, and is actually seeing the effects of climate change.
The basics of climate change tell us that the term is synonymous to global warming. It is a change in the weather patterns caused by the massive heating up of the Earth’s atmosphere because of gases produced from vehicles, power plants, and deforestation, just to name a few. Some awareness groups and organizations noted that over the 20th century, the average global temperatures increased by about 1 degree Fahrenheit.
Other effects of climate change based from studies show that climate change is linked to stronger hurricanes and more drought, or what is known to be the El Nino and La Nina phenomena. It is also linked to an increase in diseasecarrying pests that lead to the increased spread of diseases such as dengue fever, malaria, and other viral diseases.
So, is it too late for all of us to start doing something about it? Not yet. It may be a big problem to solve but each of us can definitely contribute our own little part. How? Find out in next week’s column.