As Consciousness,

Feel the Oneness & Sacredness of All Life

Liberating humanity from collective insanity is the urgent call of the times otherwise the earth’s 6th extinction will come of age after the 5th extinction which happened some 63 million years ago when asteroids hit the earth that had erased Dinosaurs from the face of the earth. The species known as the homo sapiens has been described as the most flawed of all of

God’s creation, having killed not only fellow human beings at the tune of some 150 million in the 20th century alone out of two world wars but the homo sapiens has put to extinction billions of megadiversity and now causing the extinction of the earth itself. The awakening time has come. Let us now know who truly we are, not just form (body) but consciousness (spirit).

Climate Change

Orlan R. Ravanera

After losing the 17 million hectares of dipterocarp forest in just a century, there is no way in stopping the rampaging water that wreaks havoc whatever it finds in its path, be life, limb or properties. Even here in Cagayan de Oro, we have witnessed the destruction of our ecosystems with utter disregard for nature and the welfare of the future generations which has rendered the city very much vulnerable to ecological disasters. Remember what happened when Typhoon Sendong hit Cagayan de Oro on Dec 17, 2011.

As consciousness, we must pay homage to Gaia (Mother Earth) that sustains life yet, has been abused no end, its forests raped, its biodiversity massacred, its agricultural lands poisoned by toxic chemicals, its rivers drying-up, its sea polluted and its ozone layer depleted. We are now in the 23nd year of the 21st century but we are not so certain anymore if we can reach the 22nd as the earth warms, sea level rising and climate change has set the doomsday clock to just “one minute before midnight.” We must now contend with impending ecological disasters – earthquakes, tsunamis, super typhoons, drought and floods – which are becoming horrible and fatal. Indeed, there is no free meal in nature. After sacrificing Mother Earth to the altar of greed and profit because of the development paradigm called Neo-Liberal Capitalism also known as Corporate Globalization which is anchored on the growth-at-all-cost development strategy, nature is now taking its vengeance.

The Philippines, according to the United Nations’ Risk Disaster Index is the 4th country in the world worst hit by Climate Change. Our accelerating drive towards ecological disasters is further aggravated by the destruction of ecological base that must feed, cloth and house the exponentially growing population. The 10,000 or so earth’s inhabitants had grown to 3.3 billion in 1900 after one hundred thousand years but that 3.3 billion has more than doubled to 7 billion today, after only 120 years. By 2050, there will be some 9.3 billion people on earth, according to UN demographers, which is only 28 years from now.

The tremendous increase in world’s population cannot be matched by food production. On the contrary, food production is decreasing because, according to well-known scientists, for every one-degree Celsius increase in the earth’s temperature, there will be a corresponding 10% decrease in yield of wheat, corn and rice.

MEGA-BIODIVERSITY

One billion people on earth are hungry, mostly Asians. The impending occurrence of famine is now predicted as the Himalayan glaciers are melting in addition to the daily melting of one thousand hectares of the 386-meter-high glaciers in the Arctic and the Antarctic. As an adverse consequence, it is feared that the Mekong Delta that irrigates millions of hectares of rice lands in India, China, Vietnam, Lao and Cambodia will dry-up and will instead be inundated by the rising salty water.

When this happens, some 30 million Filipinos will go hungry as we are importing 2.5 million metric tons of rice annually from these countries. The 106 million Filipinos need some 15 million metric tons of rice every year. We can only provide some 10 million metric tons, the balance of which we import. I believe it is time to make our country self-reliant on food. It is paradoxical that while we are feeding the world with all kinds of fruits and cash crops, we must import basic staples for our hungry people such as rice and milk. This is because it is the giant agri-business corporations that own our agriculture, not the farming communities.

While we must be conscious of the state of the environment globally, it is imperative for us to be aware, more so, locally.

The Philippines has long lost its ecological integrity. In fact, we are now facing ecological crisis that unless soon averted will lead to societal collapse.

It was early dawn of December 17, 2011, when the devastating flood induced by Typhoon Sendong (Washi) extinguished more 3,000 lives and many more missing in Cagayan de Oro and Iligan City.

In just one night of flooding, some 3,000 died in cities of Cagayan de Oro and Iligan and some 11,000 families were rendered homeless. Those who died were the poor families living in the vulnerable areas while the rich and powerful loggers who were the culprits were well ensconced in their mansions. Yes, pobre lang po sila pero mga anak din po sila ng Diyos! Many of the pitiful victims were children. Satellite map had shown that from 37,000 hectares of forest cover 50 years ago in the uplands of Cagayan de Oro, we barely have a thousand hectares of remaining forest. From the sixties to the nineties, logging has continued without let-up, perpetuated by those whose insatiable greed had created a strong cabal of vested interest with connivance from the very people who are tasked to protect the environment. Mas-