The Greening Of Manila

The sun rises behind the pristine Sierra Madre mountains where newly-planted saplings of Narra and Agoho had replaced the once sprawling subdivisions that were used to be part of Antipolo. In twenty years, a lush rainforest will cover large tracks of this hillside, becoming another watershed area that is beginning to surround the fringes of Metro Manila.

In a matter of minutes, hundreds of solar panels cleaving on millions of rooftops around the city will leave a glint of sunlight reflected back to the sky. By this time, Meralco have lost billions of pesos, trying to consolidate its dwindling power base of households still dependent on the electricity it supplied. Many families have emancipated themselves by turning to solar energy to power their homes.

Garbage, which used to be a problem of our time, will be a thing of the past in this enlightened age. After the last president, who was an out-gay, had made into law the mandatory recycling and segregation bill proposed by the Senate, many poor families have actually benefited from collecting refuse like plastic and glass bottles to sell them to refurbishing plants that turn these garbage into solar panels. As a result, these panels were so affordable, one can install an entire set in their rooftop at less than the price of the current generation of semi-organic laptops.

Going out of the house, one will be greeted not by flies or cockroaches but by genetically altered indigo butterflies that eat larvae and rotting trash in order to live. They glide above algae rich canals that were once reeking with dirt and filth. Clean water from car exhaust vents flow into these canals. The steep oil prices of 2010 had forced many car industries to embrace hydrogen engines overnight. As a result, even motorbikes run on water and electricity thanks to this revolution.

At night, fireflies glow in dark spaces that separate one house from the next. If one would pay close attention, all homes are lit by energy saving lamps that were freely distributed by the candidates during the last elections Plants have invaded even the tiniest of cracks, where crickets have found an ideal nesting ground for their brood. Their chorus of chirps serenade a sleeping city that had turned into an urban jungle in the last thirty years.

Still, Green Politics dictate the direction of World Affairs. No one will ever forget how Prime Minister John Howard of Australia lost to Kevin Rudd after he stubbornly refused to sign the Kyoto Protocol in those early days of the Green Revolution. The state of Florida still remembers how it lost half of its land and population during the Hurricane season of 2020. Even the new Pope, John Paul IV had declared polluting the environment one of the mortal sins for the new century.

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photo borrowed from Dr. Magsasaka's Flickr Collection.