Restore the Mother Earth:
Act on Climate Change

Written By: Amelia Steel
UTROS in Philippines Inc.

I consider myself a child of a forest and a farm. I grew up in the green, healthy and fresh mountains in the province where mountains meet the sea. At a young age, I experience a bountiful life of greenery and a rich field surrounding me. At my young age, I’ve learned to appreciate the beauty of nature, and start to dream to see the earth as a paradise to live for all of us. Years passed, the days change as the weather does. Every time I take a vacation to my hometown, I always miss doing the things I used to do when I was a child. To feel like a child again, where I can run freely in the fields barefooted, swims in the river and falls, climb and hunt in the mountains. All this is now just a part of a wonderful memory that I wish I could go back into. But whenever I came home for vacation, I started to notice some differences and thought that indeed the climate had and is continuously changing. My grandfather was a great farmer. When we were young he used to harvest 100 sacks of rice for 4 paddies but in the year 2000, the 100 sacks decreased to 50 to 40 sacks. The mountains we used to explore from green turned to grey. The river we used to swim in became a desert. What do you think is the cause of this teary change in my hometown? “Climate Change”

What is Climate Change? Climate change popularly known as global warming is said to be an abnormal change in our climate occurring over a long period causing a negative impact on our environment. This had been the number one global issue now. But what’s causing this change? What seems to be the problem and how can we solve it?

Several studies, theories, and platforms were made to discover its roots and lay possible ways on how to resolve it and prevent it from reoccurring. Noticeably, there are many factors as to why the climate is changing rapidly. Human action is for me the main factor of it. While we embrace modernizations and reforms to improve our lives, we forgot to note its negative effects. This is a reason why we experience the backlash of our actions wherein our environment is suffering. Our human activities such as industrialization greatly contribute to this rapid change. The gases emitted from factories, cars, air-conditioning, and from our daily activities which require fossil fuels, harm and destroy our atmosphere preventing the harmful gases to leave our atmosphere causing Earth to heat up. These causes make us wonder that climate change seems inevitable now since we are already used to live the life we have, but why do we still need to face the confrontation issues of climate change?

This is an important issue that we need to address seriously since we are all responsible for this. Our little decisions and actions are the main causes of climate change. Just look around you, you see how we, people become irresponsible and illogical consumers of our natural resources, how we continuously abused, misused, and mismanaged our environment. Climate change impacts our necessities like the fresh air we breathe, the clean water we drink, the food we eat, etc.

This issue is very timely and everyone should be concerned. This is one important challenge that humanity and our society are facing now. I like to agree with what ClimateChangeConnection.org wrote in their article entitled “What Causes Climate Change”, where they quote “Knowledge, however, is our greatest defense in light of these change.” which is true. If everyone is aware of this issue, then maybe we can slow down and reflect on the things that we do that harm our environment and think of possible ways to somewhat lessen the effect. Knowledge is truly the key.

Despite this, I am still confident that one day, I’ll be able to see what I saw during my childhood; the beautiful sight of green fields, the crystal-clear water from the rivers, the green healthy trees dancing with the wind, and the birds singing. And the children of today will have an abundant and sustainable environment in the future. Our daily choices and actions will indeed determine the survival of life on earth. Let’s work together to restore, preserve, and sustain our environment. To support sustainable development goals in simple ways, like for example home gardens, being the responsible producer and consumer of goods, proper waste disposal, and think and act responsibly, for what is good for our environment.

Reference:

What Causes Climate Change? (Web log post) Retrieved from http://climatechangeconnection.org/science/climate_causes/
Revkin, Andrew.

Climate Change First Became News… (Web Magazine) Retrieved from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/07/embark-essay-climate-change-pollution-revkin/

The Effects of Climate Change (Web log post) Retrieved from https://climate.nasa.gov/effects/