GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 02 April) – No amount of impressive slogans or technically-worded documents can address the extreme weather conditions that the country is now experiencing, a local environmental advocate said.
“We need some serious and dedicated efforts, not mere lip service or band-aid solutions,” Elizabeth Ramos, chairperson of the Maitum Advocates for Sustainable Environment (MASE) in Sarangani province, said on Monday, 01 April.
Some school authorities and local governments have issued directives cancelling or suspending classes in response to the extremely hot temperature felt in their respective localities.
In this city, authorities suspended classes in all levels, including graduates schools, for three days starting Tuesday, April 2, due to an anticipated rise in temperature.
According to Ramos, a retired municipal accountant of Maitum town, the prevailing scorching temperatures must be “enough wake-up call already for authorities and local and national leaders to do what is right” and avoid capitalizing on it for their own benefits.
Ramos has been recognized by the Biodiversity Management Bureau (BMB) as one of its Gender and Development Champions in the Philippines. The award was given in a posh hotel in Quezon City on March 22.
BMB is an agency under the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
In accepting the recognition, Ramos said she was in doubt of herself in getting a recognition for their efforts to help preserve nature and the environment in their place.
She said that at times, the glitter caused by awards and recognition “blinds us from the damning realities before us — the continued destruction of our planet. We pause and bask in the glory of perceived great achievement, but in reality, the destruction goes on unabated.”
Ramos explained she was reluctant in accepting the award, fearing that “it will give me and my group, MASE, and the people a false impression that all is well and we are already doing great, when actually we are not.”
Ramos pointed out that the current situation shows that “we are too far yet from the ideal that many of us do not see or refuses to see.”
The award, however, will serve as a reminder that there is still so much to be done for nature and humanity, she said.
People must be reminded that humans continue non-stop in contributing to the significant destruction of the environment.
“Greed for wealth and power in the guise of progress and development plays a (key) role why all these happen,” she said.
Ramos further said that people must be aware of one unfortunate reality: “What had been destroyed cannot anymore be restored. Never! No slogans can bring back an animal already extinct, neither can it bring back forests or a river that has turned into a barren land.”
But there is hope, she said.
“People can do small but doable things, easy to achieve and measure. Do it with compassion, not for our image but do it for the sake of humanity,” she stressed.
Imagine the impact if everyone – even if only half of this country’s more than a hundred million population – can have that mindset and instinct about caring for nature and environment, she explained.
“Let us all be good humans, grateful to nature and the environment. Caring for the environment is loving God. Linisin natin ang mundo (Let us clean the world),” Ramos said. (Guia A. Rebollido / MindaNews)
