I, Planet Earth

A friend once wrote on his G4M profile a revelation told to him by a psychic.

What he had was a regression reading. The psychic told him that in one of his earlier lives, he was a tree residing in a large track of impassable forest. My friend said that after the reading, he finally understood why he felt so close to anything that is green and organic. I am not sure if, after the reading, he found a greater sense of respect to the environment. All I know is that he's now a respected literature professor in Dela Salle University.

Sometimes, I envy what the psychic told him. I, for one, tries to believe in reincarnation. I could simply not accept that my existence is bound only to this present lifetime. I could feel that something deep runs through my veins; I could feel it every time I'm left having an intimate communion with nature.

But this entry is not about reincarnation, or about some wishful thinking that I should also be an old tree in my past life. It's about some more pressing concern, that I should have blogged yesterday. It's about the state of environment and the more I become aware of it, I'm beginning to see the connection between our present social problems and how it's bound to become graver if we ignore the signs that is now showing in front of us.

There is a global food crisis. No matter how my sister or some dimwit tambay I know insist that it's a government propaganda, the truth is that it exists. Let's leave it to the governments to address the problem. But I believe that the root cause of this crisis is not China or India getting more prosperous, or oil prices sharply rising in the world market, but because of the strain we're putting on the environment.

The carbon emissions we release into the atmosphere results to a hotter climate. The relentless slash and burn of our remaining forests aggravates the situation by denying the planet a natural carbon scrubber. Greed and shameless materialism takes over and as a result, we consume more than we should be taking from nature. Nature strikes back, and what we get are more violent storms, deadlier and costlier floods and landslides. And now, what we have is a food crisis.

Let's say hello to the end of humanity.

Time and again, I told myself to sign up with any organization that would let its members plant tree saplings around the city. So far, I haven't secured any contact information yet. A few weeks ago, I promised to blog the cutting of old trees along Katipunan Road to make way for the expansion of the highway. Every time I see those trees amidst the backdrop of construction work makes me feel that we had just put a death sentence not to a log, but to an old, and presumably wise creature that has been standing there long before any of us were ever born.

I feel so ashamed that we've gotten so low all in the name of progress.

Last night on Bandila, it was revealed that Manila is one of the most polluted cities in the world. Our carbon emission is twice the maximum allowed by world standards. It was also revealed on the news program that 90% of our forests has been cut down and that, the greatest polluter today are not the jeepneys but the tricycles that ply our city's secondary routes.

With the government busy addressing the rice problem, I don't see any progress happening soon. GMA may have sweet words to tell the foreign press, but a direct response would still have to take a backseat.

If only the next president would be more sensitive to the real concerns of the planet.

I'm looking for ways to reduce my carbon footprint, so that I could personally contribute to the global effort to stop global warming. So far, I've made very little progress. After the PETA rally last week in Quiapo, where I infamously told someone that I would love to nibble the lettuce covering one of the model's private parts, my diet began to shift from exclusively meat-based dishes to vegetable-based dishes. I know it's great for my body, but also better for the environment.

Still, it takes some real honest effort to make things work.

But everytime I remember how a friend was told that he was once a tree in a sea of forests, I think that in my past life, perhaps I was a tree as well.

Looking at how living things are interconnected, maybe I could even proudly proclaim that I am planet Earth.

Its suffering also spells my own suffering.