There is only one earth, let us all do our share to save it.
This is the essence of Bayan Muna’s statement marking the celebration of the Earth Day yesterday. The Earth Day is an event celebrated worldwide to bring into focus the environmental problems besetting the planet.
Bayan Muna Representative Neri Colmenares said the earth is in a very precarious state of health and great work must be done to rehabilitate it.
“The excessive abuse of the earth, especially by big companies like mining and logging companies, has produced probably the most frightening threat to human existence—climate change,” the Congressman said.
He explained that scientists had proven that the continuing destruction of our environment is the main culprit behind the climatic aberrations around the globe. “It is now flooding in Kenya which used to receive hardly enough rain, Mindanao used to be spared from typhoons but had been hit by deadly typhoons in the past two years,” he observed.
“Even the garbage we dispose improperly, due to the government’s failure to ensure effective garbage collection and disposal, can block the drainages and cause deadly floods like the Ondoy tragedy. The growing mountains of trash such as that in Payatas, Quezon City has killed people and that in Rodriguez, Rizal has just buried four landfill workers. On a larger scale, the world economy‘s short-sighted dependence on fossil fuels, instead of renewable energy, flooded the atmosphere with greenhouse gases heating up the earth. The irresponsible dumping of waste into our waters, the decimation of earth’s natural air-conditioners–the forests, the destruction of our lands by the mining spree around the world—these irresponsible policies contribute to the destructive weather phenomena that have become the norm around the world the past few decades,” elaborated Colmenares.
“The climatic events of our times are indicative of an ailing planet. The higher temperature brought about by pollutants put on the environment produces destructive climate changes spawning droughts, floods, super-typhoons and other weather abnormalities resulting to deaths, destruction, famine and hunger in many parts of the world,” the Congressman summarized.
“It is therefore necessary for all of us to give a hand in saving our only habitat by campaigning against transnational corporations and irresponsible government policies which are the main culprits in the massive destruction of the planet,“ he said. He challenged the Aquino government to take the lead by doing the following: prosecute the main culprits, including corrupt public officials who allow large companies and transnational corporation, to destroy our environment, improve the disaster-preparedness of the country, develop clean sources of energy, stop the plunder of our mineral resources, protect and rehabilitate our forests, secure marine resources like the Tubbataha Reefs, allocate bigger funds for environmental researches and protection, provide safety nets for affected sectors and summon the political will to punish those mostly in power who profited in the destruction of our environment.”
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